Abel Ferrara is my favourite living director so I definitely couldn't agree more. New Rose is possibly his best film, certainly second-best at worst, and Blackout and Dangerous Game are superb as well. All of his films are worth seeing, but of the remaining ones, I'd also recommend The Addiction and Body Snatchers -- they're not particularly Lynchian, but they're the closest to that of his other films, as they're (unconventional and intelligent) horror flicks that conjure a nice atmosphere of dread.John Justice Wheeler wrote:Anything by Abel Ferrara is usually also well worth watching and his 90's classics New Rose Hotel, The Blackout and Dangerous Game all resonate with Lynchian tropes, themes and aesthetic flourishes.
Nina Menkes, yet another experimental artist, has made a career of off beat feminist leaning cinema. Her Phantom Love is a great example of that as is The Bloody Child which draws together both fables and contemporary social reality.
Nicolas Refn's early film (and first English language feature) Fear X remains among hs best and certainly most Lynchian. Strange and stilted and suspended in an airless environment as usual with Refn's artful treatment. What unsettles here again goes deep.
Ryan Gosling's obviously Lynch (and Refn) influenced Lost River was condemned and dismissed upon its initial release but this was unfair as the film is actually an exceptional , very heady and atmospheric trip, well worth seeking out and taking seriously.
Beyond the Black Rainbow is an 80's throwback picture in the best possible way. Incredibly vibrant and inspired, it's another film that displays influences on its sleeve (Cronenberg again along with Lynch) but draws upon them to deliver its own exceptional vision.
I think someone here mentioned Atom Egoyan's work and I'm a bigger defender of it than many these days but specifically, in terms of its Lynch like weirdness shot through with unique profundity and loss, I must mention his early film, The Adjuster. Actually his earliest films are among his best and I couldn't recommend them more highly.
Nice mention of Fear X -- to me, by far Refn's best work. The talent involved alone is immense -- score by Brian Eno, script by Hubert Selby, cinematography by Larry Smith (Kubrick's lighting cameraman on Eyes Wide Shut), and actors like John Turturro, James Remar, and Deborah Kara Unger in front of the camera. Very Lynchian and Kubrickian -- it's like Lost Highway, The Shining, Blow Up/Blow Out/The Conversation, Manhunter and The Sweet Hereafter in a blender. But although its influences are clear, it still carves out enough of its own path to be completely riveting and strange.