Mulholland Dr.

[Vanilla]

Review/Discuss

[IndustriousAngel]

This one is maybe too ambitious. Compared with Lynch's earlier "Blue Velvet", the one thing "Mulholland Drive" lacks most is a plot. Don't get me wrong, you don't need a plot to keep me tied to the screen if other elements of the film are captivating enough, and "MD" has several of these qualities, not the least among them the two female leads, especially Naomi Watts. Add to that the haunting soundtrack by Lynch's longtime partner-in-crime Angelo Badalamenti, Lynch's trademark strange characters and some nice photography and you get an interesting film I can recommend. However, the plot. I feel rather shortchanged trying to follow nearly 2 hours of plot which then get explained away as some sort of fevery wish-fulfillment dream/nightmare. I understand what Lynch was aiming at, but he went about it the wrong way (for my taste, at least). E.g., The sex scene between Naomi Watts and Laura Harring is one of the tenderest ever filmed and really beautiful, but afterwards revealed to be nothing but a dream? Come on ... deconstructing Hollywood can't be so hard you have to resort to such trickery.

Edited March 2, 2012 by IndustriousAngel

[Hatebox]

'Trickery' is the wrong word to use for Lynch - you know going into his films that many scenes are likely to invoke dream logic. In MD one of the first shots you see is the camera descending into a pillow so he's telling you from the get-go what kind of film it is. There is actually a very concrete plot if you examine the relationship between the last 20 minutes or so of the film (the reality) and what went before.

[IndustriousAngel]

Yep, I got that and it makes for an interesting 2nd and 3rd viewing deciphering the clues and story. Nontheless, there are nearly 2 hours of "plot" which can't be trusted at all. And they're not even "dream logic" until the silencio-scenes; they develop like any real (if forced) thriller. A more interesting approach might have been to film multiple shorter dream sequences in which the characters relations and feelings could be examined and re-examined. Something like "Sucker Punch" but with real characters and meaning.

[rockNrollaDIM]

This movie creeped me out big time.

[Hatebox]

Yep, I got that and it makes for an interesting 2nd and 3rd viewing deciphering the clues and story. Nontheless, there are nearly 2 hours of "plot" which can't be trusted at all. And they're not even "dream logic" until the silencio-scenes; they develop like any real (if forced) thriller.

Not sure what you mean here - the first three fifths of the movie is all dream logic insofar as the characters we see represent the emotions and aspirations of the Naomi Watts character we see in the final two fifths.It'd be too much for all of the dream scenes to be filmed in the surreal manner of the Silencio sequence because we wouldn't get as involved in the narrative. We'd feel like nothing matters. And, Twin Peaks aside, it's never been Lynch's style to make it obvious what's real and what isn't.

[Ariadne]

AI really think Naomi Watts should have at least got an Oscar nomination for her performance. I just love this film, it's just so beautiful to watch, and gets better on subsequent viewings.

[A Marvel Fanboy]

A

[The Creator]

This is just the perfect film. It's very bizarre, and even after three viewings there are things that you pick up that you didn't the first times watching it. It seems every time I watch it, more pieces of the puzzle come together, yet it's still its own mystery. Indeed, I have come to accept that it must be a dream; there's no way around that. But even then, the dream itself is bizarre, and even post-dream, the ending is a bit incoherent, which just adds to the mystery of the movie. I imagine that the film serves as a dream from Diane's point-of-view, imagining herself as newcomer Betty who has potential to make it big in Hollywood. In complete contrast with Diane's real life, Betty's is one of promise and of adventure, and there's a rekindled romance with amnesiac Rita, who in actuality is Diane's estranged lover Camilla Rhodes. In Diane's dream, she becomes what Camilla was in reality: the superstar of sorts, the one with the promise and potential to be something. But the dream turns into a nightmare at times, and I think that's what the side scenes like the Winkie's diner scene where the creepy hobo man appears represents: glitches, or nightmares, in the dream sequence. And the dark side is revealed to be a Hollywood mafia, bent on casting unknown actress Camilla Rhodes in a hotshot director's latest film (and this storyline is quite intriguing, displaying a mysterious underworld beneath the glitz and glamour of Hollywood life). In particular from this storyline, the scene that stands out most in my mind is the director's contact with "The Cowboy". The Cowboy presents philosophical views on life that seem subtle but actually bear quite tremendous meaning to the film, and it's the final words he speaks that are so brilliantly haunting: "You will see me one more time if you've done good. You will see me two more times if you've done bad." And that just so brilliantly symbolizes the mystery of the film.

But the heart of the film is Betty's story. Betty, played brilliantly by a beautiful Naomi Watts in a stellar performance, has come to occupy her Aunt Ruth's apartment while she is away filming in Canada. There, Betty encounters a black-haired enchantress: the dream form of Camilla Rhodes, here assuming the identity of Rita. Rita has just fled from a car scene and suffers from amnesia, and Betty takes quickly to her; the two become quite close friends in the space of two days, and in that time Betty makes it her goal to help Rita discover her identity. The mystery builds up as they learn about a woman named Diane, and when they find her dead body in Apartment 17, the tension becomes paramount. There is truly something off-putting about this scene; again, the film brilliantly shows us the portrayal of nightmare by building great suspense, something few horror movies (and I'm not calling Mulholland Dr. a horror movie, but it is a great suspense) can really match (again, reflecting upon the Winkie's scene in the beginning, the tension and suspense is unbelievable as the man relates his nightmare, and then accompanies his friend to the back of the diner). A lot of foreshadowing takes place; we come to suspect that there is something dark about Rita's past, that someone wants her completely out of the picture. The Hollywood mafia? Or someone else? We see soon what is really going on, but even that is convoluted.

The sex scene that follows is incredible. Not just because of its steaminess, the hot attraction between Betty and Rita, but because of its humanistic appearance. It's so realistic, it's haunting. But the best scene in the movie is what comes next: Betty and Rita go to a nightclub where a tape recording plays in an illusion. A beautifully sad "Llorando" plays, with the singer passing out on stage. This song is just so painfully beautiful, and it just really brings the film to life, makes it feel so vibrant, so amazing.

And then we get to the final act of the film, and finally some things come together but also it just complicates things. We come to believe everything that happened before must be a dream, but even then there is mystery to what happens here. We see that Betty was really Diane, the woman whose body lay dead in Apartment 17. Rita was really Camilla, and the two were lovers. But their relationship had come to an end as Camilla's fame got to her head and Diane was pushed aside. So Diane orders a hit on Camilla. The final scene of the movie is one that really makes the idea of everything being a dream seem somewhat muddled. Here Diane is chased to her bed by two old people laughing at her, and she shoots herself in the head, explaining the appearance of her body when Betty and Rita find her earlier in the movie. But if Diane has shot herself here, how does this fit into the timeline of things? Indeed we can say that perhaps it wasn't a dream at all, but an alternate reality of sorts, like Diane's final thoughts as she dies. Or maybe Diane has dreamed her death also. Indeed this really makes things complicated. And I like that.

I like that I will probably never fully understand the complexity of the film. it's David Lynch's finest film. The acting is superb, and the score is haunting but really sticks with me. I like the mystery of it, and I like picking things up. For instance, this time I picked something up that I hadn't in either of my past two viewings:

-When Rita and Betty duck down in the bushes on their way to Diane's apartment, they see a guard. When next they look, the guard is escorting a woman out to a car. Now I had seen this before, but this time it struck me that the woman they see is the dream Camilla Rhodes, the actress the mafia forced the director to place into his movie. We only see the back of her head, but the hair is unmistakably hers.

-Also, at the night club where Rita and Betty hear the tape recordings and find the blue box, a man walks onto the stage to adjust the microphone right after the illustionist disappears in a cloud of smoke and just before the singer steps on stage. The man is the hotel owner we saw earlier in the movie, the guy who told the director that some guys from the bank said he was out of money.

A+ (one of my three favorite movies of all time)

[Kvikk Lunsj]

AI really think Naomi Watts should have at least got an Oscar nomination for her performance. I just love this film, it's just so beautiful to watch, and gets better on subsequent viewings.

AI really think Naomi Watts should have at least got an Oscar nomination for her performance. I just love this film, it's just so beautiful to watch, and gets better on subsequent viewings.

One of the best movies of the 21st century!

[vc2002]

Totally mind fvck. Yet everything in it makes sense. A+

Edited June 26, 2012 by vc2002

[baumer]

I have no idea what the fuck happened in this film, but it has Watts in a lesbian sex scene, naked.9/10

[Dementeleus]

I have no idea what the fuck happened in this film, but it has Watts in a lesbian sex scene, naked.

9/10

It's a great, great movie -- haunting, disturbing, weird, fucked-up, and yes, sexy.

A

[riczhang]

I saw it again last night on DVD, and it's been my 3rd viewing of the film. I still have absolutely no idea what to make of anything in the film; it's frankly more confusing than ToL. Does someone want to explain? 

[Gopher]

This might be my favorite movie. I've seen it god knows how many times and I always find something new and rewarding in it. 

 

Riczhang, I'll give you a hint- the last 30 minutes of the film are real, and the other two hours are the dream. The story of the film is about the tragedy of Naomi Watts' character and the futility of the Hollywood dream. In Lynch's view, movies are dreams, whether they're good ones or not. 

[riczhang]

I'll put it back on top of my rewatch pile and keep that in mind when I watch the film. Thanks. 

[Gopher]

On one viewing I read this article as I was watching the film. I found it very rewarding. 

 

http://badassdigest.com/2012/03/04/film-crit-hulk-smash-hulk-vs-the-genius-of-mulholland-drive/

[CoolioD1]

3rd best Lynch thing. Creepy and beautiful. Just what I expect from this guy.

[Michael Gary Scott]

Amazing movie

[Gopher]

3rd best Lynch thing.

 

2nd best Lynch thing. First was his run on Louie last season.