- what is the significance of "if it was 9:45 id think it was after midnight"

- the guy throws a little red cup to the ground where it lands perfectly.

- the interest in 'who's playing smithy' by (i believe) the woman in green from the beginning.

i just have so many questions, someone care to provide a theory?

well, there's a vast network, right? an ocean of possibilities..

 i like dogs. i used to raise rabbits. i've always loved animals. their nature. how they think. i have seen dogs reason their way out of problems, watch them think through the trickiest situations. do you have a couple of bucks i could borrow, i got this damned landlord.

hilarious

I've always taken that to mean Grace Zabriskie's character is clairvoyant (a la the Log Lady) and/or isn't restricted to linear time (Mrs Tremond). All the worlds in the film seem to be happening at once, which allows Laura Dern to pass from one reality/character to another. Time is important because it helps to navigate the labyrinth of worlds. 

Grace Zabriskie summarises everything that's going to happen in the film (boy, girl, evil, shadow, murder). Her appearances set events in motion and bring them to a close, kind of like the man in the planet. 

Gotta say I would LOVE to discuss Inland Empire .. I'm sure there were dozens of pages and I could search them back, and I would... but this film still leaves me puzzled, I've watched it three times, every time I like it some more, and actually I just do like it. But I don't understand it at all.

So I'm kind of afraid to read as many opinions as I expect have been posted after the film was released. I'm afraid I'll get even more lost than I already am. Like you said: labirynth of worlds. Moreover, I can't say I remember details, even though I saw it three times, so I might not understand what exactly is being discussed.

Easy example right away:  I don't remember any 9.45 or red cup, I seem to remember a name Smithy but what it was I do not know

Bobi 1 Kenobi

B. Beware
O. Of
B. BOB 

I think the times don't have particular significance on their own -- well, they may to Lynch -- but their significance comes through their repetition.  Neighbor Grace says them at the start, and then other people say them later in unconnected circumstances, and lo, connections are made where there were previously none.  Just one of the little details of how he cinematically ties the worlds together.

Too dry?

same with the repetition of the 'always liked animals'.. just.. so many questions.  i think there's something discoverable by examining the polish people and the things they say, since they were around (i guess) when they tried making the film the first time.

also, the 'father' rabbit, is the guy listening in the concrete room? 'helluva walk up here' or something.

there is a guy cutting a log with a handsaw in the end creds.

like a needle skipping on a record.. nikki grace/sue blue's life skips between potential places she would have been at that time, perhaps

"

I think Grace's character met Nikki/Sue in a Sue's dream. Basically, she's another one of DL's  'local crazy ladies, who aren't so crazy after all', like Louise Bonner in MD. And, like Louise, she was popping into someone's dream world, and giving them a hint as to who they really were. I think what Grace said about 9:45 was her way of mocking Nikki for acting as if she had time. Because in reality, her career was in a slump at that moment, and her time show business was up. She was "late on an unpaid bill". Notice the laugh track in Rabbits is played every time the women discuss the time. 

Oh, and I think of these 3...

1.Nikki Grace

2.the character in the film, Sue

3.poverty-stricken street whore, Sue

... that "street whore Sue" is the most "real" character. (Not unlike I see "Betty" being a dream character that Diane desperately escaped into, or Fred escaping into Pete's teenage fantasy world.) That's the real connection she has to Lost Girl. They're both victims of an age-old relationship, where "the Phantom" is always the oppressor.