David Lynch: The Art Life

David Lynch: The Art Life is a documentary portrait of the filmmaker David Lynch, told largely in his own words. It follows him from a childhood in small-town America through his student years and his time in Philadelphia, tracing how those experiences fed into his work as a painter, musician and director. Speaking from his studio, surrounded by canvases and the tools of his painting practice, Lynch recounts the people and places that shaped him, while family members and those close to him appear in archival material. The film stays with his formative decades and the beginnings of his artistic life rather than surveying his filmography.

The documentary was directed by Jon Nguyen, Rick Barnes and Olivia Neergaard-Holm, with Nguyen also producing alongside Jason S. and Sabrina S. Sutherland. It was made through a group of production companies spanning Denmark and the United States, and runs 89 minutes.

Released in 2017, the film drew a modest but appreciative audience. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.2 from roughly 7,700 votes, and on TMDB a rating of 7 from about 224 votes. A critics' rating of 7.4 from 81 reviews puts it slightly above the audience scores, indicating that reviewers responded at least as warmly as general viewers to this close study of Lynch's early creative life.