What Did Jack Do?
| What Did Jack do? | |
|---|---|
 The film's Netflix poster | |
| Directed by | David Lynch |
| Written by | David Lynch |
| Produced by | Sabrina S. Sutherland |
| Starring | David Lynch |
| Cinematography | Scott Ressler |
| Edited by | David Lynch |
| Distributed by | Netflix |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 17 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
What Did Jack Do? is a 2017 American black-and-white short film written and directed by David Lynch. It premiered on November 8, 2017, at the Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain in Paris.[1][2][3] It was later released to Netflix on January 20, 2020. In the film, a detective (played by Lynch) interrogates a capuchin monkey who possibly committed a murder.[4]
Premise
[edit]The film's synopsis reads "In a locked down train station, a homicide detective conducts an interview with a tormented monkey."[5]
Cast
[edit]- "Jack Cruz" as the monkey (credited as "Himself")[6] Lynch performed the audio dialogue for the monkey character (addressed as "Jack"), with some light audio production effects added.
- David Lynch as Detective
- "Toototabon" the chicken as herself
- Emily Stofle as Waitress
Production
[edit]Lynch first mentioned the project in December 2014, in an interview about his upcoming work recorded during his "Naming" exhibition at the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art:[7] "Right now I'm mostly writing [Twin Peaks], I've got a painting going and I'm building a chair. I love to build things and this is for a monkey film. I'm working with a monkey named Jack and that'll come out sometime. It is not a chimpanzee, the monkey came from South America."[8]
The film was eventually shot in 2016,[2] and premiered on November 8, 2017, at the Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain in Paris,[1][2] as part of the launch of Lynch's Nudes photo book published by the Fondation.[9] Lynch had talked about the premiere during an interview with the Cahiers du cinéma recorded on October 30, 2017, and published in December: "I will be in Paris for the release of this book. I will sign copies at the Paris Photo fair. And then I will show my "monkey film" at the Fondation Cartier. It's a strange film of 17 minutes".[10] On May 20, 2018, the short had its U.S. premiere during Lynch's "Festival of Disruption" in New York.[11][12] On January 20, 2020, the date of Lynch's 74th birthday, the short was made available for streaming to Netflix.[13]
Reception
[edit]In his write-up of the film, Bloody Disgusting's John Squires called What Did Jack Do? an "oddball gem".[14] Writing for IndieWire Tambay Obensen referred to the film as "bizarre and unsettling" while at the same time calling it "very funny" whether that was the director's intention or not.[13] On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 93% based on 14 reviews, with an average score of 7.8/10.[15]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "David Lynch a présenté son court-métrage bien barré "What Did Jack Do ?" à la Fondation Cartier". Trois Couleurs. 9 November 2017. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
- ^ a b c "'What Did Jack Do ?', A New 17' David Lynch Short Movie". Lynchland page on Facebook. 10 November 2017. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
- ^ "'What Did Jack Do ?', A New 17' David Lynch Short Movie". Lynchland page on Facebook. 31 May 2018. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
- ^ Anderton, Ethan (2020-01-20). "David Lynch Short Hits Netflix, Features the Director Interrogating a Monkey". SlashFilm. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
- ^ Watch David Lynch Interrogate a Monkey in His New Netflix Short Film, IndieWire, 2020
- ^ Warner, Sam (2020-01-20). "David Lynch drops surprise Netflix short film 'What Did Jack Do?'". NME.com. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
- ^ "David Lynch Naming". MIMA. Archived from the original on 2 February 2021. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
- ^ "David Lynch's Monkey Business". Lynchland page on Facebook. 18 December 2014. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
- ^ "David Lynch, Nudes". Fondation Cartier. 2017-10-18. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
- ^ Delorme, Stéphane; Tessé, Jean-Philippe (December 2017). "Mystery Man. Entretien avec David Lynch". Cahiers du cinéma (in French). No. 739. Paris.
- ^ Miller, Stephen (23 May 2018). "Trip Report – Festival of Disruption May 2018 – Day 3". Lynchland page on Facebook. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
- ^ Grow, Kory (23 May 2018). "David Lynch Talks 'Blue Velvet,' Heavy Metal and Why He Loves 'Dream Logic'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
- ^ a b Obenson, Tambay (20 January 2020). "Watch David Lynch Interrogate a Monkey in His New Netflix Short Film". Indie Wire. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
- ^ Squires, John (2020-01-20). "'What Did Jack Do?': Netflix Just Released a New Short Film from David Lynch, Starring Lynch Himself". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
- ^ What Did Jack Do? (2020), retrieved 2020-01-30