Netflix' "What Did Jack Do?" is an American black-and-white film from 2017 that runs for 17 minutes and the main reason people have watched it and are still watching it is that the writer and director here is David Lynch. He is also one of the actors. Actually, almost the only (human) actor. Nothing too extraordinary though as he has acted a lot, also in recent years, and is definitely nobody who really always stays behind the camera in his movies. Anyway, this one here is as bizarre as it gets. Lynch interviews a crime suspect from beginning to end almost and the only interruptions arise from the presence of a waitress and a chicken. This definitely had a great film noir touch to it and I agree with the other reviewer(s) who said this is very Lynch. It certainly is. Also how the questions and the answers (or the questions and the counter-questions) rarely fit together and make sense. The Christmas and Easter references are the best example. But just too of many. Do not expect a coherent, spot-on interrogation here. This is bigger than the both of us, mate. The contents are also in a way where you maybe do not watch this with your young ones because here and there it gets a bitg explicit. Not in terms of the crime and murder this is about, but in terms of the little monkey telling us about his sexual activities with the woman who he struggled with, but also with his true love that by the way is the chicken we see at the end. I will spare you the name, but you can read that one in the cast list, just like the monkey's that is definitely easier to pronounce. Early on, the monkey does not say something and it was pretty hilarious of a reaction to Lynch's (character's) questions, but of course they could not keep going like this for over a quarter of an hour, so the monkey starts talking like a human eventually. Actually, this film totally would have worked with human characters too instead of the animals. They are very much humanized in here. Towards the end, it gets a bit more clear as the talk makes some sense and the monkey answers (even if in a strange way nonetheless) his interrogator's questions before it escalates a little bit and the action continues outside where we don't see the characters. But we don't have to in order for this film to stay a success. Also nice animation here with the monkey's mouth. If there is anything to criticize, it is not that, but just that you can see that the rest of his face/body moves in slow motion. Definitely not a negative deal-breaker though. The only time you can see that the mouth you see does not actually belong to the ape is towards the very end and also just on one occasion. It's alright. It's not a great film, but the absurdity of it all offers enough entertainment value for under 20 minutes and it is also a pretty essential film in terms of the amount of characters (mostly two) and locations (i.e. only one). I have seen many short films from the last years by Lynch and I am not sure if there was only one I enjoyed as much as this one here. Positively surprised for sure. So it is even a good watch for those like myself who are not the greatest David Lynch films. He shows us that he definitely still has it. Go watch!
Review of What Did Jack Do?
