Controversial Cinema-Related Opinions

[Corvus T. Cosmonaut]

...how do you know whether or not Lynch is "being himself?" Do you know him personally? How do you know when it's genuine and when it's contrived?

Not to get into an epistemological debate about it, but that he's been pretty consistently himself back through Eraserhead and his earlier short works, that (as Hulk above mentioned) he maintains a sort of consistent through-line that shows even in the more 'conventional' projects, and that the people who've worked with him in any capacity corroborate his essential weirdness, provides a pretty good basis.

However, when you start getting into a Director's actual mind and actual intent, you begin to go off the reservation.

That you're couching it in terms of "it seems" doesn't change that this is exactly what you've been doing.