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Mulholland Drive

Mulholland Drive

List Price: $14.98
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: PUTS YOU IN A STATE OF MIND YOU NEVER HAD!
Review: This film simply pushes you off the edge and let's you dangle in terror as you try to wonder what the heck is going on? No one and I mean no one will find the true meaning of the film until they do some deep research! Outstanding Mr. Lynch!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Please, dont roll the credits.................
Review: As with the ending of any David Lynch film, one is left hoping they give you time to absorb the underlying theme of the movie, before they start running the credits. Alas, at the end of Mulholland Drive I was trying to digest the nuances of the film which was not unlike taking the New York Bar Exam. If one has prepared for the bar, then it is simply a question of applying cognitive skills (round peg, round hole) etc. and assembling the pieces to create an interpretation of the plot and pass the exam. With Lynch, it's unfair to try and stay in his lane when dissecting the subtleties of his methods. It's a given that when you plunk down your money to view his films, there is no guarantee of viewer comprehension or understanding of where the film has taken you, once the lights go up in the theatre. Tying up loose ends with a neat pretty bow isn't in the cards where Lynch is involved. Mulholland Drive is no different. The casting is the best since "Silence of the Lambs". Watts is more than solid in her role, and certainly is an equal to her Aussie buddy Nicole Kidman. Ultimately the film will be dissected at every Tier 3 College Fine Arts Department for years to come, as it should. Just be thankful for the PAUSE button on your DVD player. Mulholland is clearly Lynch's best effort since "Blue Velvet."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Brilliant Psychological Thriller
Review: I will try to write in this review everything you need to know to gain interest in the movie and to prepare yourself for a very new and original experience. I own and have watched Mulholland Drive seven times. Please, take my summary of the movie over other reviews because I am actually a film major in college and have a strong interest in psychology.
This movie is a new kind of mystery. While Betty tries to overcome her amnesia, other characters and events will seem unrelated, plotless, and confusing. The mystery is primarilly the viewer trying to figure out what is going on. There is a dream sequence in this movie. You will not recognize it until possibly when Diane wakes up. Wakes up which time, I'm not saying. I won't say when or for how long it\\the dream occurs, other than it is long. There will never be an explanation given at the end like in a traditional mystery. You must know all the pieces and put it together for yourself. Things, faces and relationships will at one point make a change. Compare the set up before the change to the ending shot that shows Diane with the lights on her, her hopes and dreams. You will understand how "desire for things to have been this way(my own quote)," makes sense out of the whole movie (with a few exceptions). Many don't understand the first Winkey's diner scene. Put together the first and second time you view it, along with the blue key and it's possible location when the job is done, and you will understand. This is a very complicated movie. Also, relate silencio or silence with the little people and the psychological state of (I won't say) at the end, and you will find the significance of wanting silence. As a last note, events of real life (which you only get a hint at) will show up in the dream. I have tried to give an understanding of the movie, without ruining the plot and taking away the suprises the movie has to offer. One last note, At the party, keep track of all the faces. I hope you enjoy a truly amazing, ground breaking, and nominated for multiple oscars (including picture and screenplay) movie. ENJOY!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I won't tell what it's about because...
Review: This may sound strange to someone who hasn't watched this movie, but I've seen this movie only once, and have pretty much no idea what it's about, but I absolutely loved it. In my group of friends, I'm the guy who likes the "weird" movies, and I have to say this was the weirdest movie I have ever seen. People ask, "Well, you loved it so much. What is it about?" I have no way of answering that question at this point. I can't even say what genre I think it is, it's in it's own genre. If you are into good movies that confuse you and make you think, this is THE movie to watch. It sits above all the rest of it's kind.

And I've never seen a director use the camera the way David Lynch does. I can compare David Lynch's filming to Radiohead's music: innovative and just thier own. Don't try and figure it out the first time, just sit back and enjoy the ride, it's the ultimate mind-bending movie ride.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: White washing and blindingly bright city lights.
Review: If you are a fan of the director David Lynch's work then you will know exactly what you are in for when renting this DVD. Remember the surreal television drama Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me? How about the movie Blue Velvet? Both were the work of the master of cinematic dreams, aka David Lynch. With Lynch, ambiance is everything. He loves to take stories and rip them to shreds with obscurity and mockery. Sweet and innocent "Betty" (Naomi Watts) moves to the big city of Los Angeles with dreams of stardom and in one particular scene blows you away with her dramatic talent. Once there she is perchanced by fate when she comes upon an amnesiac "Rita" (Laura Harring) and thus ensues a thrilling mystery packed with Hollywoodish imagery and campy overtones permeated by a thick story line that will have you wondering whether it was the blatant Big City Critic reviews advertised on the box which made you rent the movie--or were you really a Lynch fan? You should choose the 2nd reason because many will not understand the dream like state of most scenes without knowing where the director comes from--just know you will get confused. The cowboy, the aging silver screen star, the hit-man who can't seem to do the job right--just more details in Lynch's idea of the blindingly (hint, hint) bright lights of Hollywood. The crux of the movie surrounds the idealistic attitude we have concerning the mediatic white wash of suburbian innocence that in truth is a blatant lie (just a recording) and is in fact a twisted demoralized reality. Perhaps it is white washed suburbia which gets twisted beyond recognition when Hollywood takes hold. Or is it? ;-) The climax of the film occurs in a very sheik red velvet theatre in which Rita and Betty experience the truth. A Spanish version of Roy Orbison's "Crying" is not to be missed. Is everything as it seems? Not with David Lynch at the helm.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A thinker's movie
Review: One of those movies that will keep you guessing. Without giving away the movie and bothering with telling you the whole plot (just read everyone else's) .. you will finish the movie, knowing that you have just witnessed something brilliant but you're not sure what. Your head will spin in confusion and amazement.. and then you'll watch it again. Certainly, those that do not understand the movie will condemn this to be garbage. You be the one to decide.

Brilliant acting and if this is your type of movie, it'll definitely be a keeper in your collection.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hypnotic from beginning to end
Review: This movie is unlike any other movie I've ever seen in my life.

After watching it, I knew I had to review it, however, I was not entirely certain how I could do it, or what I would write. I could reveal every scene in the movie for this review and would still not tell you anything about the movie. I watched every single moment of the movie with a level of attentiveness I don't ever give films, and in spite of this, I could not tell you what the movie is about--I would be hard pressed to even tell what I think it's about.

The movie mostly revolves around two characters in Los Angeles--Rita (Laura Elena Harring) and Betty (Naomi Watts). Rita, we learn, has suffered amnesia from a car accident; she can recollect nothing about herself, not even her real name--she merely lifted the name 'Rita' from a Rita Hayworth movie poster in Betty's apartment. Her only belongings are a purse which contains a large sum of money, and a curious-looking blue key. Betty, an aspiring actress, has flown in from Ontario to audition for a part in a new movie directed by a man named Adam Kesher (Justin Theroux). Adam is involved the the movie's B-plot, where he must cast a particular actress for the movie's lead or be killed.

Once again, the movie is not really about that, or about anything. The movie can only be described as what it most closely resembles; it has been billed as a mystery, and that is true inasmuch as that there are things that are not known when the movie begins, but the movie is in a state of constant revelation. Resolution is never reached, but the mystery that requires it may never have existed to begin with.

I mentioned how much I was paying attention in this movie. I've never watched a movie before and been so completely drawn in by what was happening. I had no idea what to expect, ever, and I believe it will be a long time before I see a movie again that has that kind of power.

The movie does an out-of-nowhere turn in which everything that came before is rendered completely worthless in terms of plot development, spurned by Rita and Betty's discovery of what the little blue key goes to. Watts and Harring are in the movie after this point, but seemingly are now different characters. Or is the quartet of characters played by the two actresses all the same character? Nothing is for certain.

I watched the movie with two of my friends, Justin, who owned the DVD, and Josh, who was watching it for the first time like I was. Justin and I had come up with explanations for what was actually going on in the movie. Justin said that the last half-hour was the reality of Naomi Watts' character; everything before was her dream. I said that the entire movie was a death fantasy of a character who commits suicide at the very end of the movie. (I will not reveal who, though even if I did, nothing would be spoiled.) Both theories seem to hold water, but that is because everything in the movie to support plot is so scant that it is up to heavy interpretation. In the end I had to say that making sense of the movie was foolish, this movie only makes sense a scene at a time, and to tie them together will leave you with more loose ends than knots.

This is not a movie to see if you are concerned with making sense, this is a movie that is more concerned with feelings and emotions, requiring the audience to admit that they can't know what's going on.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A muddled mess ...
Review: I know a few people who liked Mulholland Drive, and one who loved it. Pretty much universally, when they praise the film they say something like, "Don't expect a story or a plot ... just enjoy the images and symbolism." Then the guys add, "Oh, and the lesbian scenes." Then the kicker: "Most people just won't get it." This, of course, in a vaguely disappointed, vaguely pitying tone.

There are plenty of movies out there with imagery and symbolism ... AND a story. I'm actually a damned bright fellow, and if there were anything in Mulholland Drive to "get," I'm very capable of getting.

But there's not. Mulholland Drive is a slapped together piece of surrealistic [scenes], disguised as a "visual poem." It's about on par with the work of an average second-year film student.

But it DOES have lesbian scenes!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A lot of ado about nothing - strictly nothing
Review: This movie is about...

...well, it's not about anything. There are a lot of characters, including an amnesiac woman befriending an aspiring actress, and a movie producer that has his hand forced by weird mafiosi to cast a certain woman in his movie, but there is no coherent thread or story, not even the patina of naturalism. This is the most disjointed and pointless movie I've ever seen. It's as if a pitcher with muscular dystrophy threw symbols around until there were enough of them to make a two-hour movie.

...The first third was somewhat interesting, but the rest is such a meaningless jumble of symbols that it makes you hate film just on principle.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Why you can't skip to a scene with this DVD
Review: I'm not sure if anyone's brought this up in the 700+ reviews, but the reason you can't skip to a scene with this (or any other number of Lynch DVDs) is that Lynch makes a conscious decision to keep this capability off the discs. He wants you to watch the movie the way he intended; strictly from beginning to end.

P.S. When oh when is 'Eraserhead' going to be available on DVD?


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