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Mulholland Drive

Mulholland Drive

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "What A Beautiful Dream!"
Review: I'd never seen any David Lynch film before I saw "Mulholland Drive", bar the final twenty minutes of "Wild At Heart" where Willem Dafoe blows his head off and Nicolas Cage wonders through the film with a painfully large broken nose. To be honest, critic appreciation and its winning untold prizes drew me to it; and I am glad to say that for once the critics are right ... "Mulholland Drive" is easily the best film to be released in 2001, a towering achievement in terms of direction, acting, tone, menace, comedy and beauty. The effect it leaves you with afterwards is like that of a potent, lucid dream; and it makes the painfully clear point that Hollywood isn't so great at playing weirdo-parade than the indies are (compare Lynch's tour-de-force to Cameron Crowe's bland "Vanilla Sky" and you'll see what I mean).

A lot of people walked out of "Mulholland" totally perplexed and bemused, many saying that the director deliberately made an infuriating mess of a film just to see the critics and arthouse crowds clamour for more 'dangerous' filmmaking without realising how ineffectual it is as a thriller or even a cohesive film. In response to this: 1) if they want an easy-to-follow thriller, they can rent "Ronin" or something; 2) "Mulholland" is not in any way a thriller; 3) people are allowed to read into a film as much as they deem necessary and if it flies over most people's heads, where's the harm in liking it? For me, "Mulholland" crammed everything a great film could be into a tight two-and-a-half hour running time: comedy, romance, tragedy, horror, lesbianism ... the only thing missing, of course, was a monkey. I can't reveal anything about the film's plot / story, other than you can only watch it for yourself to find out what the hell I'm writing about! So, please, do that!

Not only is it's mixing of genres thoroughly enjoyable, but aesthetically, it sweeps the board. The photography, from the guy behind "Evil Dead 2" and "Scream" and its two sequels, is beautiful, the camerawork in keeping with the noir sensibilities the film adopts in its first two thirds and the editing superb. The acting, particularly, is amazing; Justin Theroux is suitably befuddled throughout, Laura Elena Harring belies her gorgeous looks with an equally beautiful performance and Naomi Watts ... if the world wasn't as cruel as it is (or if the Academy wasn't so susceptible to Hollywood actresses), this woman would win the Oscar hands down. The audition scene, particularly, is an acting masterclass; it is every wannabe actor's dream envisioned and emblazoned on the big screen.

That said, "Mulholland" is the best film I've seen in a long time; Oscar nominations should be handed out for film, director, actress, original screenplay, photography, editing and score immediately without hesitation. It's not going to get them though, seeing as most people did't walk into the theater knowing what they were letting themselves in for. My advice: let it wash over you, like a dream, don't try to pinpoint an exact story but try to remember the moments and piece your path back together. Thought "The Usual Suspects", "Memento", even "Vanilla Sky" were weird? Well, you haven't seen nothing yet!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Billy Bob does the trick
Review: Though this was a slow paced movie, in my opinion, it was very well written and all of the characters combined made this film receive a 4/5.

Billy Bob Thornton plays a depressed married man who is second-chair in a Barber shop. Quite content at cutting the hair off people without the 'razzle-dazzle' in which his brother-in-law Frank does superbly ( played by Michael Badalucco ), he suddenly is pushed into a surreal situation. A bald buy walks into the shop wanting a trim and there begins his story of an unparalleled series of mishaps.

It is heavily narrated by Ed Krane ( played by Billy Bob Thornton ) and it is obvious as to why it is so at the end of the movie. Without giving anything away, it will make perfect sense why this is the case.

Set in the 1940's and filmed in Black and White, it is uniquely filmed and has a great character base. Everyone has a roll to play in this movie which helps it unwind and unravel as time goes along and each putting in a performance which generates a true interest in the movie.

Some people may not like this movie and I probably wouldn't blame them. It starts off very slowly and doesn't really pick up the pace, however, given that the script is written to perfection it does compensate itself well.

Finally, it is one of those movies you either love or loathe. I liked it and I'm sure many will - but comsumer beware. If you're after some type of black 'n' white gangster movie with guns and cars then think again. In fact, don't bother with this movie if your thinking is like that. It is well written with a dark insight to a man who just was in the wrong spot at the wrong time - so it would seem.

Overall, it didn't really have the climax I was after at any time during the movie, however, I'll definately give it 4/5. Absolutely fantastic..!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Relax
Review: I loved this film. I am a film maker myself and for the entire time Mullholand drive flashed before me I did not think of the processes of film making, I was utterly enthralled by what was going on, and the world that was created. There is nothing I can say here that someone has not already said, but I do have just one problem with this film. Indeed it's not the film itself, it's some of the people who have gone to see it, or reviewed it. So many reviews here on Amazon or in Magazines, newpapers etc use big words, or incredibly long sentences that effectively mean nothing. Is this to make you seem as compelling, complex and enthralling as the film? Look closely, you'll notice lynch tells his story without all this drivel, so just get to the damn point! Lynch just does it his way and this is why he's so brilliant. Love or hate this film just watch it, discuss it, but don't try to emulate it's complexities by being so mysterious and pseudo intellectual. It's a movie, watch it and keep your muddled thesis to yourself. Big sentences rarely solve a mystery or make you more mysterious. LOL

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Brilliant Postmodern Tour-de-Force
Review: A riveting and innovative meta-cinematic masterpiece! In true postmodern fashion this film brilliantly explores the narcissistic and schizophrenic nature of Hollywood and the individual.
A complex labyrinth of love, confused and reconstructed identity, naivete, broken dreams, and heartache, Mulholland Drive mirrors the film industry which reflects back to us our own dream worlds. The audience is doubly seduced into becoming riddle-solvers like Oedipa Maas in Thomas Pynchon's novel The Crying of Lot 49, and like Betty (Watts) and Rita (Harring) themselves, trying to make sense out of Drive's ostensibly inexplicable connections, ever-shifting identities and occurrences, and surrealism. Is leaves us wondering: is there such a thing as an authentic or fixed identity? Do demons emerge, as they do for Diane, when we lose ourselves and our "true" identities within our dream worlds (be they in the movies or in our own imaginations)? Or is the fluidity of identity more appealing and perhaps more real than what we perceive as "real"?
The two moments in the film that best affirm existential value are the love scene between Betty and Rita, rendered with utmost tenderness, and Del Toro's beautiful Spanish rendition of Roy Orbison's ballad "Crying," during which one is compelled to cry along with Betty and Rita, to cry at the simultaneous beauty and ugliness that marks human existence and the many-sided, multi-layered and contradictory state of the human soul that Drive mirrors so well.
The film's end seduces the audience with a reminder, "Silencio...," but Drive seduces us to be anything but silent.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Lynch as Tragic Poet of Hollywood Dazzles & Dislocates
Review: The depth of emotion Lynch attains in Mulholland Drive is both unprecedented and stunning. The possibility of classic tragedy may be long long lost to us, but Lynch, embedding time and spatial dislocations throughout Mulholland's narrative, achieves a poetic alchemy in which a newly invented dimension of the tragic emerges from the cosmic wormholes that cascade through the film's partitioned structure. Frankly, I can think of no film that narrates emotion as this does, as if through a veil of tears with a little string theory thrown in. Quite Extraordinary!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Nothing could mess this up
Review: mr.lynch is back!and he brought life to an otherwise boring,predictable movie year.if youre not a fan of his,or anything original,you will still like this.he could of made the title any number of things...''wrong way road'',''calling rita'',anything.why he settled for this title,one that has already been used is questionable.regardless,it is a great movie.dont try to figure it out,youll only get frustrated.just allow mr.lynch to drive this thing and enjoy the ride.and i hope to see miss harring again soon!(in my house?maybe!)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A beautiful, haunting movie (PS. yes, it has a point!)
Review: I enjoy watching movies, not as much as some, but more than most. Most movies will slip in and out of my mind. I'll see it on a Friday night and forget about it by next Friday. Oh, I may recall seeing the movie years later when it's brought up in conversation, but for the most part, it remains archived in my mind in the dimly lit, seldom visited corner.

Then there are some movies I can never forget, and don't want to. Mulholland Drive is one of them. However long I live, when someone asks me to list my favorite movies of all time, I have no doubt that this will be on that list. Melodramatic statements aside, yes, I like it that much.

At first viewing, the movie is a collection of strange, eerie scenes, some of which are hauntingly beautiful. Initially, I was utterly confused (as were most). But after some hard thinking, I made the connection between the first and second part of the movie. There is a point to the movie; there is a story; there is a meaning. And understanding the movie with that perspective elevates it from a quirky, but strangely compelling visual spectacle to a masterpiece. In the end, Mulholland Drive is a common, tragic story, told in a novel way. It's worth taking the time to think about it; even doing a web-search on analysis of the movie if it doesn't make sense. The epiphany is worth the time spent.

The great movies are the ones where, after it is done, you sit in your seat and say, "Why can't more movies be like this?" The great movies make you realize how un-great most movies are. Mulholland Drive is one of those great movies.

-Mark

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A beautiful, haunting movie (PS. yes, it has a point!)
Review: ...

Then there are some movies I can never forget, and don't want to. Mulholland Drive is one of them. However long I live, when someone asks me to list my favorite movies of all time, I have no doubt that this will be on that list. Melodramatic statements aside, yes, I like it that much.

At first viewing, the movie is a collection of strange, eerie scenes, some of which are hauntingly beautiful. Initially, I was utterly confused (as were most). But after some hard thinking, I made the connection between the first and second part of the movie. There is a point to the movie; there is a story; there is a meaning. And understanding the movie with that perspective elevates it from a quirky, but strangely compelling visual spectacle to a masterpiece. In the end, Mulholland Drive is a common, tragic story, told in a novel way. It's worth taking the time to think about it; even doing a web-search on analysis of the movie if it doesn't make sense. The epiphany is worth the time spent.

The great movies are the ones where, after it is done, you sit in your seat and say, "Why can't more movies be like this?" The great movies make you realize how un-great most movies are. Mulholland Drive is one of those great movies...

... Okay, well, here goes: from the first limo ride scene up to the point Rita opens the box is a dream, concocted by Diane Selwin. The events in the first part have to be taken in "dream context". Look at it in that perspective and then try to form connections between dream and reality. That's the beauty of this film. Example: notice the name of the director when it's Betty and the old guy, and the name of the director said during the dinner party. Same name, Bob Brooker. Now, why did he say what he did in the dream sequence? Hmmmm.... MD is left to multiple interpretations of the small scenes as well as the movie as a whole. MD still generates thoughts and theories even when other movies, even other good movies, don't haunt my mind at all. That is why I love this movie...

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Negative
Review: This struck me as being a very dull, unoriginal story of depressing things in general, but told by someone who was so pumped with hallucinogens that they couldn't even keep their characters straight. Yes, the actors change who they play for no obvious reason. Go figure. There are also mini elf-people, a guy dressed in a bigfoot costume (I'm not joking), and a million-hour-long rehearsal of Sole Mio which ends in the singer dying or something. In the end, the basic story gets through, but it is SO smothered in pointless scenes and random "artsy stuff" that it's hardly a story anymore.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Now that's what I call "Lynchian"!
Review: I found "Mulholland Drive," directed by David Lynch, to be a truly stunning piece of cinema. The film stars the luminous Naomi Watts as a wholesome blonde who arrives in Hollywood with dreams of becoming a movie star. She soon becomes entangled with an exotic brunette, played by the voluptuous Laura Elena Harring, who has recently survived a terrible trauma. The two team up to solve the mystery behind the experience of Harring's character.

"Mulholland Drive" is funny, absurd, nightmarish, erotic, frightening, startling, surreal, grotesque, voyeuristic, and just plain weird. It combines a crime mystery with a love/lust story and a satire on Hollywood. The film is ultimately like a jigsaw puzzle that the viewer must assemble in his or her mind.

Harring is excellent, and there is a hilarious cameo by Billy Ray Cyrus. Ann Miller is fun as a flamboyant landlady. Watts, who looks like a young Grace Kelly in this role, is truly amazing in superb, multifaceted performance. The marvelous cast is greatly complemented by great production values; the film is really a feast for the eyes. A great soundtrack (both score and vocals) further enhances the total cinematic experience.

"Mulholland Drive" is a reality-warping trip that could, I imagine, inspire many different interpretations. This film is real cinematic food for the brain; although many will likely gag on it, I devoured it with gusto -- maybe you will too.


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