Mulholland Drive

Rating:
Summary: Good? Yes. Great? Probably. Brilliant? No.
Review: Lynch is the master of everything that is flipped on its
head. Anyone who has seen any of his previous films
probably already knew that. By the end of this movie,
you have profound grief for the principal character, and
the effect has great impact. Never mind anyone that says
that the movie is incomprehensible. It just isn't true. No, it's
not linear storytelling-- but there isn't anything about it that is
any more complicated than your average noir thriller.
Nonetheless, I thought that this film was less than brilliant
by a notch. It is one of the best films of 2001, though.

Rating:
Summary: So sad
Review: I was very excited to finally watch this movie after hearing all the hype, I love these kind of movies. But sadly after watching it twice, I have to say this [was disappointing] ! The first round I didn't quite get the whole story so I actually sat through the whole thing again a second time. Well, I think I got the story all right. Some areas were put together cleverly, the acting wasn't too bad, but the story itself is just terrible. Nothing exciting or original !! For those who compares this with Pulp Fiction or Memento, please don't ! Its nothing like them. The otheres were clever, this is plan stupid.

Rating:
Summary: Stupid movie.
Review: I read the glowing reviews about this movie, I remember David Lynch's other works ("Twin Peaks", "Blue Velvet" and "Wild at Heart"), and since I grew up in L.A. just off Mulholland Drive, I bought the DVD despite my personal rule of never buying a DVD without seeing the movie first. **HUGE MISTAKE!** While this film may be very artsy, the story is disjointed and just plain wierd. Yes, I 'got it' - the plot is basically a dream sequence. I feel like I wasted not only the money I spent on the DVD, but -more importantly- 2.5 hours of my life watching it. I have since sold this DVD. In my humble opinion, this is an awful, terrible movie. It is a complete waste of time and money. Don't bother.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Most Thought Provoking Movies I Have Ever Seen
Review: "Mulholland Drive" is a haunting and surreal trip through the curvy streets of dreamland, on par with the expressionist masterpiece Das Cabinet de Dr. Caligari and the Dada surrealism of Le Chien Andalou. Mulholland is not meant to be a movie completely understood but more or less felt, not in an emotional sense, but on a more intellectual level. Like a dream, Mulholland has many interpretations, and I humbly submit mine.

Have you ever had a dream so beautiful and perfect that the dream begins to feel like reality. May be it is a dream of wealth, may be one of fame, may be one of love lost, found or discovered but never conquered. Elements of the real world start to blend into those of the dream state until it seems as though the real and the unreal have blended into one. But it is always in the crescendo of the dream, the estacy, that the dream ends. There is a point when you are half asleep, half awake, wanting to dream more of your utopian fantasy, but realizing that the dream is lost. You wake up with an extreme sadness that such a perfect world is not meant for you to possess. What you are left with is bitter reality. May be the dream has given you a larger sense of your reality, a brief moment of clarity. You think about your past, what might have caused you to dream this dream, what is the reality and how can the fantasy be achieved or some fragment salvaged. But it can also fixate a deeper sense of despair if the reality and fantasy are so far apart that there is no hope for the two to meet, even in the movies.

In essence, this is Mulholland Drive.

Lynch has always been a master at showing the grimy underbelly of a seemingly perfect world (aka Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks). There are elements of this in Mulholland Drive, in the constant majestic views of Los Angeles including the Hollywood sign (LA LA Land...the dream factory). But they are always accompanied by a deep growling soundtrack, full of menance and foreboding. Back room deals, strange characters or caricatures of Hollwood or underworld figures, they are all here.

In a more linear sense, Lynch is critiquing Hollywood, the emotionless, aging, cripple in wheelchair of a town that dictates the next big thing and then chews up and spits out the others. Hollywood changes not only our realities but also changes the names and faces of those they make into stars and harletts, those they pay to force feed us our fantasies.

But in a more cubist sense, Lynch is showing us different views of who we are. We long for the fantasy, it fulfills something empty in us all. We are consumed by it. What are our desires? What have we achieved? What do we long to achieve? What are our desires, our fantasies and how do me meet these or how do we fail? WHAT IS IT!!

Most people will recall the audition scene, the lesbian scenes, the latin version of Roy Orbison's crying, or the quirky moments of comedy and weirdness that punctuate the film. But I will be most haunted by the last scene in the film, with that haunting theme music, the two stars alight with innocent delight, the visual embodiment of Gloria Swanson's last line in Sunset Boulevard (where one of our protaganists ends up...or is it starts up)..."I'm ready for my close-up." Then, "Silencio."

They are forever in their dream, their unreality together, via that dark, twisty, dangerous road that curves through the hills of Hollywood called Mulholland Drive.

Rating:
Summary: P.U.
Review: Before I saw this film, I honestly thought I couldn't hate a movie more than I hated Armageddon. Boy was I wrong! As bad as Armageddon is, it at least has a coherent ending. Though Lost Highway had infuriated me, The Straight Story made me forgive Lynch for indulging himself in utter absudity for it's own sake. But with Mulholland Drive, I realized that he is a lost case. Lynch has descended completely into the echo chamber of his own mind, and he's not interested in letting the rest of us in.

Rating:
Summary: What a tangled web we weave...
Review: I knew before I watched this film that you either hated it or loved it, thought it confusing or brilliant, therefore I went in watching this with an open mind and... I loved it!

"A love story in the city of dreams" so the tagline goes. Ha Ha. David Lynch does have a sense of humor.

I was compelled with the story and Rita and Betty and the Director (Justin Theroux). I wanted to know how all three of these people fit together and then came the blue box and everything shifted. Wow! Then I realized how everything fit together. If you love movies with a little more intelligence in them, I highly recommend MULHOLLAND DRIVE.

My one gripe was that I wished a little bit more of the Diane and Camilla story were fleshed out more because I felt that Camilla was a little too cruel to Diane. I wanted to understand why Diane would be involved with such a cold-hearted woman and why Diane would spend the first half of the film... well... I won't give anything away.

This one is a keeper.

Rating:
Summary: stuck...in......my..........HEAD!!!!
Review: I cannot stop thinking about this movie. After watching the movie, my first reaction was, "Um...What the heck just happened here???". A co-worker even said to me, "The director of this movie should issue a formal apology to all who watched it!" It was only after I watched it a second time, discussed every nuance over with a friend & other co-worker, and then purchased this movie that I came to understand it....to a point. I still cannot, with confidence, say that I understand the blue box, or the Silencio part. I have my theories, but they remain just that...theories.

If you want to simply sit on your couch and be fed a storyline with a nice beginning, middle and ending, then you will be disappointed. Only by carefully examining reality, and the characters actions and motives can you understand what happens throughout this movie...in a retroactive way. This is a great conversation piece because it is chock full of meaning and symbolism.

The only problem I have is with the DVD itself. There are no chapters in this movie...only one long movie, as if you're playing a tape. I think the director did this in order to make it as difficult as possible to figure this movie out. But it is still quite annoying nonetheless. Thus....4 stars. It upsets me because I LOVE the part in Silencio where the woman sings a Spanish version of "Crying" (it's spine-tingling), and this part is toward the end.

This is not the type of movie that will leave you hanging. Everything is there...you just have to figure it out.
I recommend this movie highly.

Rating:
Summary: Lynch's newest masterpiece demands to be noticed
Review: Mulholland Drive was one of the most polarizing films of 2001, not surprising considering that it came from one of the most polarizing directors ever--David Lynch. Lynch has made a career of strange films, with quirky characters, non-linear plots, violent and/or psychosexual imagery, and themes which invite ever interpretation under the sun--that is, unless the viewer simply dismisses it as "too weird." With such a history behind him, Lynch's latest film seems nothing if not a natural progression from its predecessors.

The plot can be summarized in only a few sentences, but the paths the characters (and their seeming alter-egos) take could fill up a book. Many viewers have said that multiple viewings have still not cleared away the cobwebs of their confusion. However, I was quite surprised to find that even after seeing it once, I felt like I "got" most of it. I feel simultaneously lucky--and fearful that my interpretation was incorrect. Consequently, I will be returning for several more viewings.

Kudos must go to Lynch's masterful direction, the beautiful cinematography (curiously, shot in 1.85 rather than 2.35 like, say, Blue Velvet), the music, and the great acting. And even if the story confuses the heck out of you, you can still enjoy the two hot girls.

Rating:
Summary: Mulholland Drive explained
Review: Don't listen to anyone who tells you that this movie is impossible to understand. That's not true. Difficult, yes...especially on first viewing, but there is method to David Lynch's madness and there is an explanation to be found for those willing to look.

Mulholland Drive is a brilliantly structured film even though the structure is unconventional. Basically the first two hours play out as the dream of a very troubled young woman by the name of Diane Selwyn. In the final 30 minutes we are taken into Diane's reality. Mullholland Drive is a very disturbing portrait of the inner world of a woman about to commit suicide and we learn about her life and what led her to murder and suicide through the dream imagery of the first two hours.

What confuses many people the first time they see Mulholland Drive is that David Lynch doesn't use the normal cinematic techniques to tip his audience off that they are watching a dream segment. In fact, the dream plays out in fairly conventional linear fashion while it is the reality portion of the film that plays out in non-linear form, jumping back and forth in time and introducing psychotic hallucinations as well. This further blurs the line between reality and fantasy in this film.

Contrary to popular belief Mulholland Drive is actually very intricately plotted, although the narrative is not readily apparent on the first viewing. The dream portion is a mirror image of reality and it displays a reversed reflection of Diane's real world. A few examples: In the dream Rita exits the limousine and walks downhill; in reality Diane exits the limousine and walks uphill. In the dream Aunt Ruth is alive; in reality Aunt Ruth is dead. In the dream Adam Kesher's world is spinning out of control and he is losing everything; in reality Adam Kesher's world is very much in control and he has everything. In the dream the hitman is incompetent; in reality he turns out to be all too competent. In the dream Camilla is alive and Diane is dead; in reality Diane is alive and Camilla is dead.

Betty is, of course, the idealized dream version of Diane. She's a prettier, more wholesome, and more talented version of Diane. However, Diane is not Betty in her dream as most people automatically assume...she's Rita.

Mulholland Drive is a challenging and haunting film that I believe will only rise in stature as the years go by. David Lynch spoonfeeds nothing to his audience but challenges them to explore the nightmarish inner world of Diane Selwyn for themselves and reach their own interpretations and conclusions. There are great rewards for those willing to do so.

Rating:
Summary: City of Lost Dreams
Review: I have to say this film, Mulholland Drive is the best film, I have ever seen. The first time I viewed it, I hated it because it made no sense to me. But after viewing it, about 8 other times...i finally appreciated it. For all those who think this film would have a basic story structure. I have read past reviews on this film here, on amazon..and I was interested in how some hated it, and how it was a piece of garbage, and i quote "If u like this movie, you were forced to deal with it by the critics"!. Well, I have to say u must give this movie a chance at least, trully I have loved it too death..and David Lynch is simply a brilliant director!!!! Give it a try