Power to the Lynch! Why Jen Lynch is Fucking Awesome!

I just wanted to throw this out there...

...JEN LYNCH IS FUCKING AMAZING!!!

Now I've always had an incredibly overactive imagination.  A shit ton more than most kids, and unlike most kids who usually get boring as they get older, I've just gotten even more bonkers with my thoughts and ideas.

Jen Lynch is the exact fucking same!  Her imagination is so creative.  And what makes her so fucking amazing, isn't just the fact that she's a kick ass chick that's worked in a male dominated Hollywood since the early 90's.   Random fact - her debut film Boxing Helena came out in 1993, the year The X Files started.  And what had a certain Fox Mulder been doing prior to The X Files?  Apart from the Red Shoe Diaries, haha!!  He was playing Dennis/Denise in Twin Peaks, the show of Daddy Lynch, and one of my all time favourite shows.

Mulder geeking aside, her awesomeness is also neither the fact that she was in Eraserhead as a young girl (bad move to watch that movie on shrooms, hahaha!!), or the fact that she wrote Laura Palmers diary. I mean, guh...Twin Peaks awesomeness!! But that is STILL not why she's truly awesome.  The reason why my fellow Jen is so awesome, is because she embraces her unique imagination.  She looks at things and sees more than just an object, she sees a story.  Now what inspired this post was that she's been posting pictures whilst she's out at night under the #nightwalk, usually with little light, or the flash of a camera lighting up random sections of trees, and then coming up with little stories to go along with them.  She's also started doing a series of #daywalk ones too, and I absolutely love them.

Oooh, and random Jen pic from my Instagram pictured below - whilst flicking through old Empire magazines I had found an interview with Jen which totally put a smile on my face.  This chick's a fucking bad ass, I love her!! :)

Now unfortunately, Hollywood being the cunt that it is, Jen was annihilated for Boxing Helena.  Something I never understood as that film utterly fascinated me when I was a teenager, and loved that it was a fellow Jennifer that had made it.  You don't need to stalk far to realise that I have a total Jeffrey Dahmer/serial killer fascination.  I guess there's something about unconventional love, and the things we'll do to keep someone close to us.

The thing is, her Dad is David fucking Lynch, as a kid she grew up on film sets, and she was in Eraserhead for fucks sake.  How the hell was she NOT gonna be inspired by that!?!  Now with Boxing Helena, there was this whole big lawsuit after Kim Basinger dropped out, and unfortunately people didn't see this quirky and original film, and the media all but crucified her.  Now I'm glad that this came out in 1993, back before the internet, and living in Scotland, and being 14 years old, I didn't have to hear about all the bullshit that surrounded the film.  And I'm fucking thankful for it.  It meant I was able to judge the film as a film.  Not as a lawsuit, or who the director's Dad was!!  A film.  And a god damned enjoyable twisted piece of awesome film at that!!

Now whilst looking for links, I came across this wicked interview that Jen did for Vice.com.  You can read a snippet of it below, but I totally recommend going and reading the full interview, it's fucking awesome.  It's such a perfect look into just how hard it can be to get funding for independent features, and runs along with a conversation I was having with my friend Stuart earlier.  We were discussing his new web series The Young Ones, and just how did Jen and Sylvia Soska raise funding for American Mary, which he was watching at the time....to which I said, their parents mortgaged their freakin' house!!  Oh the joys of parents, as Ms Lynch discovered too.  :) 

After so many years of being away from filmmaking, how did you get the opportunity to make Surveillance?Such a long story. The quick version is that I had been producing short films and doing a lot of writing and had a great writer’s group with a bunch of friends and I was looking to get back to doing stuff. One of the guys in my group asked me to read this script he’d written, so I asked him, “Do you want me to read this as a friend or as a writer?” He said “Both.” It was a script about witches and it had some interesting ideas in it, but I had some notes, which pissed him off a little bit. I got the response, “So what would you fucking do with it?” So I said, “Well, I’d do this” and so I wrote Surveillance. People really liked the script but I wasn’t getting anywhere with it. Then one night my father called me and said “You’re the sickest bitch I know! You can’t end it this way.” And I said “Sure I can.” But it was at his beseeching that I wrote an alternate ending, which I shot but knew I would never keep in the film. He called a few months later and asked me “So what the hell is going on with your movie?” I said, “Zilch. I don’t know if it’s because it’s been 15 years or the subject matter or what, but people are scared.” And he said, “Alright, well, you’ll probably say ‘No’ to this, but what do you think would happen if I put my name on as executive producer?” And I said, “No fucking way. You don’t think I get enough shit for being your daughter in the first place?” But he said, “I really like this movie and I want to see it get made. We’ll do an experiment. We’ll put my name on the cover as an executive producer and we’ll just see what happens.” Within 24 hours, I had offers. It was the most disgusting but amazing thing ever. It’s ridiculous how suddenly legitimizing a name like that can be. So I went and made the film, went back and showed it to him, asked if I could use a song, he said “Yes,” and thus was born Surveillance.

This really is proof that if you want to get something done, it's not how amazingly good you are at your craft, it's WHO you know, and how to get them to pimp stuff out for you. Which is why you'll often see so and so presents on certain films.  It the way for people to find out about certain films, and a way for these films to get funding...you know, without their parents mortgaging their house first!

Jen is lucky to have such an awesome Dad, but it's shit that she had to use his name to get her second feature Surveillance made in the first place, especially when she's clearly one talented biatch!!  :)  I guess it has worked out in the end, that one of the things people destroyed her for in the first place (which is totally retarded in my eyes!!) was who her Dad was, but then that's what gave the money people the incentive to fund the film in the end.  If we're lucky we'll have a Dad that is into awesome stuff, and take inspiration from that.  Why do you think I'm into hillwalking and conservation so much!?!  Because I grew up with my parents doing this stuff with me.  We all learn and then take from our parents what we love personally, and then make it our own.  It's the circle of fucking life, something the media and Hollywood both need to learn!!

I'm glad Jen made her comeback after a long absence.  She is one of the strongest and most talented women out there working today, and she truly is an inspiration.  Luckily karma's a cunt, and I hope the people that were shitty about her suffer from the bloodiest of tampons and worst PMS ever!!

Anyhoo, as it's coming up for Christmas, I thought I'd share this amazing picture from Jen's Instagram of how the Lynch family like to decorate, oh yeaaaah!!!  Way to score major points in my geeky eyes! :)  

All of this shit is awesome, so when I add to that, that she's collaborating with Jen and Sylvia Soska, Jovanka Vuckovic, Mary Harron  and Karyn Kusama on bad ass chicks rocking the anthology film with XX, it's just too fucking rad for words.  Girls, let's show the guys...and all the doucheholes out there that say there are no decent female horror directors, that bitches indeed be fucking crazy!!  In the best way possible of course.  You guys are gonna nail this shit!  Thank you Dark Sky/XYZ films for putting this out there and to Jovanka Vuckovic for her part in getting this historic project up and going!  You can actually read an exclusive interview with Jovanka on FearNet....totally advise!!  MWAH!

Good luck ladies, I'm sure it's gonna be fucking rad!!  :) 

In the meantime, if you've not had a chance to check out any of Jennifer Lynch's stuff, I advise you start with checking out some trailers.....

ENJOY! :) 

Here's the trailer for Surveillance, and an interview with the lovely lady herself. :)

And Hisss, bwahahaha :) 

Last but by not least, I think we all need to high five Jen's Dad David for doing THIS to David Duchovny!!  BAAAAAH!!!!  High five Mr Lynch!  And god damn you making us women realise that Mulder has better legs than most women!!!  Moooahahahaha.  Ooh, and Peaks fans, you totally need to hunt down Laura Palmer's diary, written by Jen.  You know you want too. :)  In fact, why not click on THIS LINK, moooahahahaha!?!?!! ;) 

If you are so taken by this lovely talented lady, I totally recommend following  @thinkajen on Instagram and @thatjenlynch on Twitter. :)

Keep on being awesome Jen, and I shall keep on beng inspired to not give a fuck when people think I'm being strange for my overactive imagination.  :)

Edited to add - Jen also just directed the most bad ass, and downright fucking awesome episode of The Walking Dead, easily one of the best episodes yet.  As an amazing character episode, and one that featured some of the best gore we've ever seen in both film, and TV.  Jennifer's direction was flawless, and every single bit of praise sent her way is totally worth it!  :)