Cert: 18 | ★★★★✩

Director Alexandre O. Philippe has spent the last decade deconstructing and analysing a number of cult films, including Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, William Friedkin’s The Exorcist and Ridley Scott’s original Alien film. His new documentary Lynch/Oz takes on the relationship between the work of acclaimed director David Lynch and his obsession with Victor Fleming’s 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.

Divided into several chapters in which a number of film scholars, filmmakers and critics talk about their own theories relating to Lynch and the yellow brick road, Lynch/Oz features an extensive deep dive into what many see as the definitive influence on Hollywood as a whole.

Among those who have accepted the challenge to talk about these influences are director John Waters — known for the kitsch Pink Flamingos and the camp hit Hairspray — who not only makes the comparisons between Lynch’s body of work in relation to The Wizard of Oz, but also goes into great detail about the similarities between his own work and Lynch’s.

Meanwhile, Jewish filmmaker Rodney Ascher isn’t completely convinced that all of Lynch’s output can be related to Oz.

Ascher also talks candidly about how affected he was by a certain episode in the latest Twin Peaks series — which came out in 2017 — and how it left a bitter taste in the mouth.

With Lynch’s Blue Velvet, Mullholand Drive, Wild At Heart and Twin Peaks featuring heavily in each chapter, an image of what makes the director tick quickly starts to form.

And while not everyone agrees on how much of Oz is exactly in each of those films or TV projects, there is a definite sense that most of his contemporaries’ fears and anxieties have one thing in common — exposure to something like Oz at a very early age.

This is undeniably Philippe’s most grown-up film yet. While his earlier films often relied heavily on the cult status of their subjects without adding anything of great substance to the mix, Lynch/Oz truly feels as if a huge amount of research has been done and a lot has been learned.

An absolute must-see for film buffs.