What Did Jack Do?

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]

What Did Jack do?
Directed byDavid Lynch
Produced bySabrina S. Sutherland
Written byDavid Lynch
StarringDavid Lynch
CinematographyScott Ressler
Edited byDavid Lynch
Distributed byNetflix
Release date
  • November 8, 2017 (2017-11-08) (France)
  • January 20, 2020 (2020-01-20)
Running time
17 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

The film's synopsis reads "In a locked down train station, a homicide detective conducts an interview with a tormented monkey."[5]

Cast
  • "Jack Cruz" as the monkey (credited as "Himself")[6]
  • David Lynch as Detective
  • Toototabon as herself
  • Emily Stofle as Waitress

Production

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

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 92% based on 13 reviews, with an average score of 7.35/10.[15] DVDfever's Dom Robinson said "it has left me feeling like I’ve just swallowed 100 LSD tablets!"[16]

References
  1. "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.
  2. "'What Did Jack Do ?', A New 17' David Lynch Short Movie". Lynchland page on Facebook. 10 November 2017. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  3. "'What Did Jack Do ?', A New 17' David Lynch Short Movie". Lynchland page on Facebook. 31 May 2018. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  4. Anderton, Ethan (2020-01-20). "David Lynch Short Hits Netflix, Features the Director Interrogating a Monkey". SlashFilm. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  5. Watch David Lynch Interrogate a Monkey in His New Netflix Short Film, IndieWire, 2020
  6. Warner, Sam (2020-01-20). "David Lynch drops surprise Netflix short film 'What Did Jack Do?'". NME.com. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  7. "David Lynch Naming". MIMA. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  8. "David Lynch's Monkey Business". Lynchland page on Facebook. 18 December 2014. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  9. "David Lynch, Nudes". Fondation Cartier. 2017-10-18. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  10. Delorme, Stéphane; Tessé, Jean-Philippe (December 2017). "Mystery Man. Entretien avec David Lynch". Cahiers du cinéma (in French). No. 739. Paris.
  11. Stephen Miller (23 May 2018). "Trip Report – Festival of Disruption May 2018 – Day 3". Lynchland page on Facebook. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  12. Kory Grow (23 May 2018). "David Lynch Talks 'Blue Velvet,' Heavy Metal and Why He Loves 'Dream Logic'". Rolling Stones. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  13. Tambay Obenson (20 January 2020). "Watch David Lynch Interrogate a Monkey in His New Netflix Short Film". Indie Wire. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  14. 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.
  15. What Did Jack Do? (2020), retrieved 2020-01-30
  16. What Did Jack Do? (2020), retrieved 2020-08-23
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