The epitome of love-it-or-hate-it cinema, Mark and Michael Polish's surreal account of a mid-'50s Montana town about to be submerged by dam waters has absolutely no hook for the viewer other than sheer admiration for the beauty of the landscape, a gutsy disregard for narrative pacing and the detached Lynchian performances. Proudly unique, nonetheless.
Even before Belle & Sebastian and Franz Ferdinand cited jangling, DiY indie as a touchstone, it had influenced Kurt Cobain (who covered The Vaselines' "Molly's Lips", featured here), the Manics and Saint Etienne. Essentially, indie-pop continued where Postcard records (Orange Juice, Josef K et al) left off a few years earlier (though minus the soul influences).
