Possibly the only film in his career that fit with the all-American boy-next-door public persona David Lynch projected, The Straight Story saw the great explorer of the dark unconscious unexpectedly working for Disney. Beginning with an ominous thud (surely a joke on the director’s part), this becomes the genuinely lovely story of elderly Alvin Straight (a remarkable, Oscar-nominated performance from Richard Farnsworth), determined to visit his ailing brother one last time, but who can only get to him by travelling across states on a riding mower.

Notes by Kevin Coyne