The Straight Story is a heartwarmer of the sort that Lynch arguably hadn’t attempted since his version of The Elephant Man in 1980, and this was without that element of the grotesque.

Sometimes a director’s best film and maybe even their most characteristic, if you really think about it, is the one you might least expect, as can be the surprising nature of auteurism.

When the movie’s end arrives, it’s a scene of cosmic beauty, accompanied by Angelo Badalamenti’s ethereal score—pure cinematic liftoff, a triumph of writing, direction, acting, casting, all the things that make a movie take flight.

Rather than nightmarish dreamscapes or avant-garde nightclubs, the dreams of The Straight Story are as simple as the open road. And through the open road, Lynch reveals a sweetness seldom seen in his canon.