Rabbits

Three humanoid rabbits share an apartment, and little happens to them. Suzie irons clothing, Jane sits on a couch, and Jack comes and goes. Their daily routine is drained of purpose, and the silences between their few words stretch on. At some point the rabbits make contact with a figure referred to as their leader.

Written and directed by David Lynch, the film is a collection of short episodes set largely in a single room, and it borrows the apparatus of a sitcom: laughter and applause are heard on the soundtrack with no clear link to what is happening on screen. The piece is not played for laughs, and its tone stays oppressive. Scott Coffey, Laura Harring and Naomi Watts appear as the rabbits, with Rebekah Del Rio also credited.

Rabbits followed Mulholland Drive in 2001 and stands as the thirteenth of the seventeen features Lynch has directed, with Inland Empire arriving in 2006. It has drawn a sizable audience for such an experimental work: on IMDb it holds a 6.9 rating from more than nine thousand votes, and on TMDB a 6.7 from a few hundred. The two scores sit close together, indicating broadly similar responses from the larger and smaller groups of viewers.