Rating: 
Summary: And what have you learned, Dorothy?
Review: I dreamed of this movie for days after seeing it.
An equal to Lynch's best work. It has the mood of the Twin Peaks series with the sensuality of Blue Velvet and the sensitivity of The Straight Story. And it's super weird. I recommend seeing it alone. Then talking to someone else who has seen it a few days later.
The performances are excellent, and Naomi Watts gives more dimensions to her character than any other performance I've seen. She's like a walking acting school.
And Laura Harring is as erotic as Issabella Rosellini was in Blue Velvet.
It would have made the best television series ever.
Rating: 
Summary: A brilliant, or demented, film. Maybe both.
Review: Back in the late 1960s, the film 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY was a major hit. (I saw it eight times.) Most of the plot was straightforward: humankind sends a manned space mission to Jupiter to follow-up on an extraterrestrial artifact found on the moon. Then, the ending careened off into surrealism and symbolism, and the audience was left to debate the meaning of it all. I mean, what was with that black monolith, anyhow?MULHOLLAND DRIVE, though set entirely on the Earth ... well, Hollywood, anyway ... follows much the same trajectory. During the first half or so, there's a reasonably coherent storyline. A way too perky blond, Betty (played by Naomi Watts), arrives starry-eyed in LA from Toronto to seek her fame and fortune in the movies. She has use of her aunt's Hollywood apartment while the latter, also in the Biz, is out of town. While first exploring her new home, she discovers a disoriented woman (Laura Elena Harring), who chooses to call herself Rita, taking a shower. From the first scenes of the film, we know that "Rita" narrowly escaped being murdered on MULHOLLAND DRIVE by the fortuitous intervention of a head-on auto crash. Dazedly emerging from one of the cars, she stumbles down the hill into Hollywood and takes refuge in Betty's aunt's apartment, apparently by random choice. In any case, Rita now claims to have amnesia. Betty, being a kind and generous soul from out of town, is determined to help Rita rediscover her identity. So far, fair enough. Then, about halfway into this two and a half hour film, the images on the screen totally detach from reality, or at least from what the viewers might expect as tidy plot evolution. What's with the really scary, homeless derelict living behind Winky's coffee shop? Is he hideously deformed, or just incredibly dirty? We never get a clear enough look to decide, and maybe don't want to. And what of the enigmatic blue cube that he introduces into the plot? (Is it a baby monolith reminiscent of 2001?) Why does Rita have a mysterious key and bundles of $100 bills in her purse? What piece of the puzzle is represented by the putrefying dead girl, Diane, whom Betty and Rita discover in another Hollywood apartment? On a seemingly unrelated tangent, why is director Adam Kesher (Justin Theroux) being forced (by the Mob?) to select a particular actress for the leading role in his latest film? Strangest of all, who's the inscrutable, Stetsoned cowboy reminiscent of Tom Mix? One's enjoyment of the film comes from the exquisitely photographed and choreographed individual scenes. They comprise a series of visual vignettes that the viewer can lose him/herself in, though they're incomprehensible in the aggregate. And let's not forget Laura Harring. From the point of view of this piggish male, she ranks right up there with brunettes Monica Belucci and Catherine Zeta-Jones as luscious eye candy to be ogled. While I still don't understand many elements of this mind-bending movie, if I stand back and squint, I think I can discern the message, and will share it as my personal opinion only. You must decide for yourself. The key clues, for me, are the characters (or single character?) of Betty and Diane. And the message ... The glamour and glitz of Hollywood is just a façade. Behind it lie corruption, seduction and betrayal that may result in anguish, madness and suicide, even for the truly talented.
Rating: 
Summary: does nobody see the emperor wears no clothes?
Review: Mulholland Drive is the most pretentious, discombobulated, self-indulgent drivel since the last bit of slow-moving, sepia-colored dreck Lynch foisted on a subservient and servile tribe of critics who have been too long in the land of too much sun (for the skin), too much dope (for the mind) and too much hot tub (for the proper and efficient functioning of the nervous system). Those who would sit still for the full length of this (film) manifest the surest signs of an eroded sense of time and tempo and a completely lost sense of dynamics, musical, emotional, and any other, including aesthetic and olfactory.
Rating:
Summary: A modern masterpiece
Review: No, I'm not a huge David Lynch fan. However, this movie was stunning and hypnotic, and made perfectly good sense after I sat around and deconstructed it...the movie was so powerful it was just gnawing away at my psyche for days. After viewing it a second time, my mind was blown yet again and my suspicions were confirmed. This movie runs deep on many many levels, but there is indeed a plot and a storyline, however non-linear. This could be one of the most brilliant dream-oriented movies ever made. Watch it carefully and get drawn in, and you'll be amazed at how your assumptions dissolve at the conclusion of the movie. Hard to believe that the first half of this movie was originally intended for a TV pilot, rejected by ABC. Lynch rebounded in a huge way here...I think this is much more accessable than some of his other stuff (Lost Highway, Fire Walk With Me). A psychological thriller of the highest order.
Rating:
Summary: A Dream Place, Indeed
Review: I would venture that anyone involved in the, uh, let's call them 'esoteric spiritual arts' who has also lived or manages to live in Hollywood/Los Angeles grasps this disturbing film very easily. When our blonde ingenue gasps to her relative on the phone that "it's a dream place!", she doesn't realize how honest she is. To complicate matters, she takes on the film/TV industry and its assortment of manipulators as friends. Duh. Did anyone ever tell her to get a dog? Lynch's foray into the split/schizo nature of the sunny LA Dream factory has as much in common with the tales of Don Juan by Carlos Casteneda ("The Art of Dreaming")as anything. Beneath all his trademark wisecracking, Lynch warns the uninitiated to take Hollywood very, very, very seriously, because it is a place where boundaries dissolve, egos fragment, and the doors to perception swing wide open. Mulholland Drive is one of his best dread-rides, I call them. Lynch's facility to establish and maintain mood within a slow pace is at the top of his form here. It's interesting thta the aborted TV show from which the film sprang, itself, became only a piece of the larger piece of art being born. Any artist worth his words understands things like that sometimes happen. In any event, Mulholland Drive has a signature Lynch scene in a strange theatre named Silencio; the ten odd minutes or so are worth the price of admission. A Machiavellian host gives a little sermon about the fact that "It" is all a tape; "it" is all illusion. At once he is discussing, perhaps, the nature of cinema, and the nature of Life. Then the exquisite Rebekah del Rio sings a Spanish version of "Crying." The response of the protoganist is to go into convulsions!! In minor ways, 'Mulholland Drive' is a trip down "Siesta" or "Owl Creek.." lane. But it ventures further, deeper, into frightening realms where Self, sometimes, unwittingly gets dissolved. It's also very funny. In a dark way, of course.
Rating:
Summary: Truly Awful
Review: I live down the street from an art theater and see almost everything that comes there. As a result, I see some interesting films ("The Filth and the Fury." "Bread and Roses") as well as some of the worst films to ever be shown on the big screen. ("Requiem for a Dream"). It's not that those of us who hated this movie "don't get it." We are not stupid. Anyone can see that Lynch is trying to mesh together certain images/scenes/characters to create an atmospheric film that says something about a place - LA, here - or characters without actually telling a traditional, linear story. Fine. Understood. That being said, it's not near enough. This film took no more skill to create than your average MTV video featuring a montage of things that also, in a way, follow a theme: girls in bikinis, expensive cars, choreographed dancing and macho posturing. [...] But at least they don't cost eight bucks to watch.
Rating:
Summary: If you don't get it...you're just not paying attention.
Review: I've been laughing at the comments, not only from people here, but elsewhere who just don't get this film. If you ask me, it's one of David Lynch's easiest films to figure out. You just have to pay attention and be willing to sit back for a moment and follow all the threads. Sure, there are some characters who are introduced that are just left dangling. So what? The main story line is that of Betty/Diane and Rita/Camilla. That's a clue for all of you who haven't seen it. I won't spoil it. You just have to go and see it for yourself. People are so caught up in how "weird" David Lynch is, that they have started reading more into what is actually on the screen. However, what continues to bother me is how people want their films nicely fed to them. They want Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise in romantic comedies or serious dramas where the plot is spoonfed and not a single ounce of thought has to go into it. Yes, I know, movies are supposed to be escapist entertainment, but I like a film that challenges. Why must films tie up all the loose ends nice and neat so when you leave the theater you automatically forget what you've just seen? My friends and I spent over an hour discussing Mulholland Dr. and we're still talking about it two weeks later. That, dear readers, is what movies should be about. Go see this or get it on DVD.
Rating:
Summary: In a nutshell, Lynch has created an astonshing film.
Review: ...After seeing "Mulholland Drive," I realized that I sat through two hours+ of what appeared to be one very large dream or combination of illusions, ideas, and fantasies etc. I don't want to get into explaining the plot without giving anything way - The basics boil down to (in my own interpretation): Naomi Watts' character has just moved to Los Angeles to "become" an actress, and Laura Elena Harring's Rita is in a freak car accident on Mulholland Drive. Harring now has amnesia and ends up on Watts' doorstep - Watts decides to help her put the pieces of her past together leading up to the car accident. The rest of the film is somewhat confusing yet enormously fascinating at the same time. This is a film that requires you to think and to really pay attention to what's happening on the screen. Watts and Harring are both ravishing, especially the beautiful Harring (they both are 100% on the mark in playing the typical Hollywood archetype). As the last half hour of the film unravels - you will be completely sucked into Lynch's twisted storytelling and highly ambiguous imagination. ...one of the great things about this film, is you can pretty much analyze it any way you want to after viewing it. I hope to see it again and again because the experience overall, was challanging and at the same time, definitely rewarding. :) Grade: A (Another top-notch film of 2001!) Also: Don't miss the notable supporting performances from Justin Theroux AND yes, Ann Miller. Kudos to the engrossing original music composed by Angelo Badalamenti, and the master direction of David Lynch. Here come the Oscars!
Rating:
Summary: Lynch is Back
Review: I thought Blue Velvet and the initial episodes of Twin Peaks were brilliant, but more recently I felt Wild at Heart and Lost Highway were pretty bad movies that showed David Lynch trying to get by with outrageously vivid imagery and negligible substance. I'm happy to say that Mulholland Drive is an unqualified masterpiece. While there are certainly some loose ends (many doubtless tied to the film's genesis as a TV pilot), for the most part it made perfect and sublime sense to me the first time I watched it. In fact, while probably not his original intent, Lynch's encapsulation of the first two-thirds of the film as the wishful fantasy of a bitterly frustrated starlet is in my opinion nothing less than brilliant. Mysterious, playful, thought-provoking and erotic, this is definitely a welcome film for those of us looking desperately for alternatives to the latest romantic comedy or action/adventure flick.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliance!!
Review: If you are a strictly linear thinker, this movie's not for you. But as a non-linear thinker, if you follow the movie from the very beginning to the very end, you will see how every single piece of it connects, that this puzzle is actually complete. The first time I saw it it just blew me away. The second time the pieces came together and it just keeps getting better with each viewing. I think it's brilliant work and I'm not a die-hard David Lynch fan. Yes, it's confusing and challenging but it's also thrilling and provocative and compelling. MAJOR SPOILERS HERE!! DON'T READ FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT AND PLAN TO! At its core is a simple love story, albeit a love story gone bad. As dream becomes reality and reality becomes nightmare, both lead characters have major identity switcheroos that at first leave you scratching your head but in hindsight (or on repeat viewing) you realize just how diabolical this whole set-up is. In pure Lynchian style, not everything is as it appears to be. Naomi Watts is DYNAMIC as the flawed and fractured lead that begins so sugary sweet she's too good to be true. As the story unfolds, we witness how very true that is as Betty becomes Diane and Diane is so diametrically opposed to Betty that it's a profound and shockingly dramatic reversal of character. Laura Elena Harring is so stunningly beautiful, Lynch gives her far less to do than he does Naomi, but she manages to make her amnesiac Rita a compelling and sympathetic character who then morphs into the sexual predator of Camilla. Where Diane may have murderous intentions, Camilla maims the heart and soul of those she seduces and then casts them off as though they were mere distractions in the first place. Together, Watts and Harring have a chemistry that leaps off the screen. The sex scenes between them are a bonus of this chemistry, one with the funniest line of logic in sex scene history. They are erotic but not gratuitous, providing specific turning points in the characters' relationship. This movie is hypnotic and engrossing. It's a thrill ride that you simply must give yourself to or else you'll sit there thinking too much to enjoy it.
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