Mulholland Drive

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Summary: One line reviews; "Mulholland Drive"
Review: A smooth, elegant fabric of a film, the kind you can run softly along your skin and shiver at the sensation.

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Summary: A Hilarious, Hypnotic Thriller
Review: After all he's done, each with its own varying degree of weirdness, Lynch has finally nailed it right. With Mulholland Drive, he says everything he's been saying for the past twenty years, but he says it better than ever before, and of all his films it is the biggest and the fullest--his epic. It's the best thing he's ever made, better even than Blue Velvet. Mulholland Drive is teeming with all of his familiar touches, and for the first time ever in his body of work he pulls them off as well as he intends to. In comparison, all of his previous films look like sketches and riffs, as though he were dutifully getting us ready to launch this one at us. Lynch pulls out all of the stops as never before, and the effect is intoxicating; you don't know where you are, but you love every minute that you're there. Even when the plot "collapses" (i.e., when it really starts to feel like a Lynch film), the collapse doesn't bring about an avalanche. Technically, the film looks and feels superbly controlled, from Lynch's gorgeous direction to Angelo Badalamenti's ethereal music to the saturated, mesmerizing cinematography. Naomi Watts, who plays the film's perky blonde heroine, gives one of the best performances in any Lynch film--in any film this year, in fact--and she her "audition scene" with the lecherous Chad Everett is purely breathtaking. The eerie, hilarious film, which is some sort of film noir wet nightmare, reaches its apex at a dreamy theater/club called Silencio; it's the most electric moment in the movie. The film costars Laura Elena Harring as an amnesiac brunet; Justin Theroux as an obsessive, nerdy filmmaker; Ann Miller as a kooky landlady; Chad Everett as a lecherous actor; and Lee Grant, in a hilarious cameo as some sort of psychic.

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Summary: Carolyn
Review: Worst movie in the whole world.Don't waste your money.It is really terrible

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Summary: 147 minutes of pure [junk]. I really give it zero stars!
Review: I hated this film, but that's just my opinion, you're entitled to yours. I have talked to a lot of people about this film, some liked it, and some hated it. I'm not going to go into why I hated this film,(I couldn't do it in less then 1,000 words) I'm just going to tell you why I hated the DVD.
This DVD is horrible because it doesn't have scene selections. You have to fast forward. I was at the 2 hour mark when something happened to the DVD player and I had to start at the beginning, I was just hoping to God the film would end. I just wanted to finish the film! BUT NO! I had to spend what seemed like an hour, fast-forwarding through the stuff I had already scene (AND HATED). One of the pluses of having a DVD is so you don't have to fast forward. If you really want to waste your money on this film, buy the VHS.
I will tell you this, after watching this movie I felt I had been cheated, that I had wasted almost 3 hours of my life, and had gained nothing. That's not a pleasant feeling.

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Summary: Uh-huh!.....Huh??
Review: Watch this film purely for the beauty of "Rita" and the steamy love scenes between Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring. Other than these pleasures, this film is a mind-bending vortex that becomes more work than entertainment to follow. The end of the movie left me feeling sad and betrayed for the heartbroken lover... until I realized these two women may have never met?!
A little creepy.

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Summary: Good movie, ignore the rest...
Review: First off, no more talk about "no chapter stops". Are you people so ADD that you can't watch an entire movie straight through? David Lynch does not use chapter stops. Period. So quit whining. Also, David Lynch will not do any interviews, director dialogue, nothing for his movies. So stop complaining that there are no extras. Enjoy the freakin' movie.

This movie is unconventional. Yep, it is. If you don't like thinking, go back to "Rush Hour 2". But this movie will require your attention. The movie seems very complicated at first, but after a second viewing, the plot does start to fall into place. Again, this is Lynch, so be patient.

It's a shame this didn't get picked up as a series. I've had about enough of shows like "Will and Grace" and "Frasier" being considered good television.

Enough of my whining. Anyone who is a David Lynch fan (and you would probably already know this) should go to davidlynch.com. You can pick up a DVD of his early films (well worth the money), and Eraserhead is supposed to be released any day now (although it's been on back order for months).

Long story short, this is a great movie in the era of fluffy garbage ("Pearl Harbor", anyone?). Please just give it a shot, then go read a Kurt Vonnegut novel (I suggest "Breakfast of Champions"). You'll be a better person in no time...

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Summary: Mulholland Dr. is brilliant...
Review: The most complicated film of 2001, Lynch's Mulholland Dr. is brilliant, surreal, and hypnotically gripping.

Mulholland Dr. is one of the few movies that won't let you just sit down and ignore it. It involves you so utterly, and requires your attention all the way...similar to 2001's second most complicated film, Memento. Like Memento, Mulholland Dr. is a movie that assumes from the beginning that the audience is intelligent enough to get what happens. The difference between Memento and Mulholland Dr.? In Memento's case, everything is explained at the end. In Mulholland Dr., you don't get the luxury of an explanation.

The majority of the movie plays out much like a film noir. The movie is set up at the beginning with the car accident, and proceeds to play out eerily, set off by an old couple who seem so happy, it's almost chilling. The characters all seem to be somewhat cliche'd, but there is a reason for this. Then, suddenly, the movie takes an unexpected turn close to two hours into the movie, a point in the movie in which many may sit in their seats and utter one word collectively. "HUH?"

In fact, for this last thirty minutes or so, things just seem utterly confusing. The director tries to help with some small clues (whenever he zooms in on an object, that should be a hint that that is a clue), but the majority will not figure out the brilliance of the movie, even after the credits are finished rolling. Unfortunately, there will be those that just walk out, and won't even bother thinking about it. That is a large percentage of the audience, and these people will unfortunately walk away from this movie hating it, and never knowing the utter genius of this piece of art. There will be another percentage of the audience that will love it, but never understand it. And finally, there will be that audience that will hopefully try to figure out the answers, and will get the full impact of the movie. As well, for some this movie may just simply be too weird to like - which is perfectly understandable. Like Moulin Rouge, this is an acquired taste.

Don't be afraid to check the internet after this movie. If you don't get the movie right after, remember this: YOU ARE NOT ALONE. A famous example would be Roger Ebert, who in his review hinted that he thought the entire movie was just a bunch of random images thrown together (it is not, everything fits together), yet he still loved it all the same.

Beautiful performances enhance this haunting puzzle. Laura Elena Harring has this quality to her that just seems to engross the viewer...it's hard to explain, but when she talks, it feels like she's one of those classic movie stars you see in the brilliant old film noirs. And Naomi Watts...she was just amazing. There is one part in the film when she auditions for a part in a movie, and her entire demeanor transforms, and she is suddenly an entirely different person...sure to become a classic scene.

This is a movie that requires you to rack your brain afterwards to figure out just what the hell happened in the last two and a half hours. It's even more of a mystery than Memento, because the movie won't tell you the answers. Hell, it took me forever, and I figured out some of the puzzle, but it took a trip onto the computer and the internet, before I fully understood what happened in the movie.

And when I did understand what happened in the movie, I was in awe. It's probably not going to hit you as hard as Memento, but it is equally as complex as Memento in some ways. Many have accused Memento of having no heart, and of being a movie that shows no emotion. Even though I disagree with those accusations, Mulholland Dr. is like Memento with a heart. David Lynch shows us in this movie the very heart of the human soul, and could almost be labelled a character examination, as it reveals to us the hopes, losses, and dreams of one woman in a truly gripping experience.

Reviewer's note: By the way, as a sidenote, Deep River, Ontario is a real place, and in fact, I lived there for about ten years.

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Summary: more realistic than it seems
Review: People seem to either LOVE this movie or hate it with a passion. Those who don't like it seem to think that there are countless holes in the plot that are left unfilled. This simply is not true. Every humans views of things are slightly different other humans views. Views become even more twisted over time. Chances are that most of your memories are slightly askew from what the reality was at the time. Betty/Diane came Hollywood expecting it to be everything in her dreams. When she realizes the reality of things she gets torn apart mentally. Thats why she kills her lesbian lover at beginng of the movie(the end chronologically) and it is why here memories of what happened are get so twisted until she shoots herself in the head to kill the demons inside. I can understand someone not liking this movie because of its disturbing nature, but everyone should atleast acknowledge and give credit to director David Lynch because he is certainly smarter than the average movie maker.

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Summary: Re-defining what to expect from Hollywood
Review: David Lynch's career is that of a struggling genius, and I can't help but feel like MULHOLLAND DRIVE is going to be the most memorable expression of Lynch's artistic talent. In many ways, MULHOLLAND DRIVE builds on the artistic devices explored in Lynch's magnificent LOST HIGHWAY. LOST HIGHWAY shatters our expectations of coherent identities, linear narratives, and self-identical subjects, and submerges the viewer into the murky waters of the unconscious. We witness twice the metamorphosis of Bill Pullman's character as an impotent, married saxophonist is transformed into a young mechanic and then back again. While Pullman's character turns out to be fluid, his wife's character is split into two separate characters, and then is reunited at the end of the film ("If she tells you her name is Alice, she's lying! Her name is Renee!") in one of the most enjoyably bizarre scenes in the history of film. From the very beginning of LOST HIGHWAY, we know that we're watching a bizarre film.

MULHOLLAND DRIVE employs the disruptive techniques of LOST HIGHWAY, but uses them more subtly. MULHOLLAND DRIVE introduces a coherent cast of characters, and, slowly but surely, blurs their identities until we no longer have any idea of who is who, and what is and isn't real. Instead of what appears to be the Occult acting on the characters (as in LOST HIGHWAY), the narrative disintegration of MULHOLLAND DRIVE takes place within Diane Selwyn, as we meet the figures that occupy the unconscious spaces of her Imaginary.

But MULHOLLAND DRIVE is not simply an extension of the cinematographic methods employed in LOST HIGHWAY. As in BLUE VELVET, TWIN PEAKS, and WILD AT HEART, MULHOLLAND DRIVE is peppered with hilarious scenes that at times threaten to outdo PULP FICTION. Lynch can be unbelievably funny.

What really distinguishes MULHOLLAND DRIVE from the rest of Lynch is the incredible depth of the characters. Unlike even BLUE VELVET, which develops extremely complicated characters but still at times reduces them to props (Frank Booth is a complex character, but at bottom he's still just an evil madman), MULHOLLAND DRIVE humanizes its characters in an unprecedented way. I think this helps to explain why the erotic scenes in MULHOLLAND DRIVE outdo even the intense sex scenes of UNFAITHFUL. Instead of seeing the sex-prop characters of LOST HIGHWAY and BLUE VELVET doing what we already know they will inevitably do, we see two human beings touching each other, having been brought together by experiences that the audience intimiately understands. Because the film is so long and covers such a short period of time, we are deeply acquainted with the motivations of all of the actors, including the mysterious Diane figure, and their erotic unions are more believable than any boy-meets-girl movie you'll ever find.

Getting to the point, this movie will blow you away. After seeing this film, you'll wonder for weeks who the REAL Camilla is, what the blue box is, etc. This isn't just "some movie that doesn't make sense," though. It's a blur of incredibly erotic scenes, hilarious scenes involving the director and his wife, chilling scenes with the cowboy and at the silent theater (wow!), and mind-boggling sleights-of-hand in which Lynch makes it impossible to figure out who is who. After every scene, your exclamation will be WOW! WOW! WOW!

Sexy, intellectual, hilarious, chilling. MULHOLLAND DRIVE has nothing that you'd expect from a successful Hollywood film, and everything that you SHOULD expect.

This is not a cool action movie, or a cute comedy. This is one of those WOW-THAT-WAS-AMAZING films. You'll remember this film in 50 years. You won't remember A BEAUTIFUL MIND in 5 years.

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Summary: A great film by America's foremost Surrealist
Review: God I loved this movie! David Lynch isn't for everyone. If you want your movies to "make sense," move on. His films feel both natural and heavily stylized at the same time, and if someone doesn't care for a mildly artificial treatment of things, they will not like this movie. Myself, I like heavy stylization if it is done well. And in my book, Lynch does it very, very well indeed.

David Lynch is, in many ways, the last great master of surrealism. Many of his moments seem to be tied to everyday reality, but instead reveal a different, stranger reality under girding our perceptions. As behooves a true surrealist, this comes out in many odd and strange moments. For instance, the two main female characters go to a club, and a woman there comes out and sings Roy Orbison's "Crying" . . . only, in Spanish. Yet, we discover that she isn't singing at all, despite all the tears she engenders in our two heroines. It is all a recording. And at the end of the song, one of the two pulls a bizarre, square cube out of her purse, which we hadn't seen before, and which she evidently hadn't seen before, either. That is on the micro level. On the macro level, the film is even more surreal, but I couldn't explain that without given away a great deal of the plot. One of the themes of the original surrealists was that truth is revealed in dreams. And MUHOLLAND DRIVE functions not like nothing so much as a dream.

One of the things that stands out about this film is Lynch's very, very strange sense of humor. The humor is sharp, but almost always in what would normally be considered highly inappropriate moments. For instance, there is a very strange scene in which a character murders a person, and then tries to fake it as a suicide, but manages to botch it so badly that he ends up killing others as well. But what is paramount in the scene is not the killing of additional individuals, but the hysterically funny way in which things keep going wrong. Mass murders shouldn't (and, in real life, aren't), but I found myself shrieking with laughter in the entire scene, all the way up to the moment when the killer "murders" a vacuum cleaner. Or when a character, suffering from amnesia, goes through her own purse in hopes of discovering who she is, encounters one thick stack of one hundred dollar bills after another. Or, Billy Ray Cyrus, in a small part, after having had sex with another man's wife, explaining morality to the man after he has caught him with his wife. Or (how's this for product placement), when Naomi Watts is departing for a movie audition, she calls out to "Rita", "Don't drink all the Coke."

Some have commented on how good the acting is, but I find that hard to understand. On one level, the acting is utterly dreadful. One example is Naomi Watts when she first comes into her aunt's apartment. She walks about it, with this absurdly open-eyed wonderment and delight at everything that she sees. I suspect the badness of the acting in the scene isn't her fault. Instead, I think it is an intentional effect requested by David Lynch. Indeed, I suspect that most of the really bad acting in the movie is more a result of the particular style demanded by Lynch than by innate inability on the part of the actors and actresses.

As the opening credits were playing, one name I noticed was "Ann Miller," and I thought to myself, "Just like the great tap dancer from the thirties and forties." Well, it WAS the great tap dancer from the thirties and forties! Ann Miller was easily one of the two or three great female dancers from Hollywood's Golden Age, and it was really exciting to see her in a small role here as "Coco," the manager of the apartment complex. How marvelous that she is in this movie! Tragically, musicals went out of style and Ann Miller's career was cut tragically short (her last major role previous to this was 1953's KISS ME KATE), when she was only 30 years old. That was far too young to have a talent of her caliber to be cut short.