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Mulholland Drive

Mulholland Drive

List Price: $14.98
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Lynch's Journey into the Darkness of Hollywood
Review: If ever a storyteller was irresistibly drawn toward the cinema and its camera's all-seeing eye, that person would be David Lynch. "Mulholland Drive" uses the camera as an omniscient eye into the world of Hollywood filmmaking, utilizing the talents of three remarkable performers, Laura Elena Harring, Naomi Watts and Justin Theroux.

The film begins with Harring helplessly wandering the streets of Hollywood after a collision occurs on Mulholland Drive with the limousine in which she was riding, causing an explosion, after which she barely escapes with her life. Lynch shrewdly uses the magnificent contours of Harring's face, accenting her perfectly sloped cheekbones, to achieve maximum benefit from a purposeful camera. Laura Elena was the first Hispanic ever to win the Miss U.S.A. contest, after which she became a countess by marrying into the prominent Bismarck family. At that point she began studying drama in London. Her marriage ended and she pursued her film career vigorously, with Lynch providing her with a solid breakthrough performance.

Harring interacts in the film with the lovely blonde actress who won Breakthrough Performance of the Year honors from the National Film Board of Review resulting from her sterling effort in "Mulholland Drive." Naomi Watts was born in England and raised in Australia. After a decade of fervent effort to build a film career Lynch provided her with this solid break, with which she made good. When Harring, unable to remember anything, occupies Watts' apartment shortly before her arrival by plane from Canada, the understanding young blonde woman immediately befriends her, inviting her to move in with her. Watts, whose aunt, a famous actress, is the apartment's occupant, and is letting her use it while she is making a film in Canada, immediately assists Harring in seeking to uncover the mystery associated with her memory loss.

In the manner of Lynch, the film develops into a series of dramatic situations in which the viewer is confronted with the task of separating a dreamworld of illusion from reality. As the film develops we learn that Watts and Harring are vying for the same starring role in a major film.

Justin Theroux enters the mix as a confused director. Lynch is to be credited for never depicting Theroux as a raving lunatic, but rather someone who launches into bizarre behavior in a low key manner, rendering the character more uniquely effective. Theroux remains outwardly calm no matter what happens, even after he is forcibly thrown out of his own Hollywood canyon home by the pool cleaner he finds in bed with his wife.

By the film's end Harring is enchanting everyone, male and female. At one point Watts becomes jealous over her attention, along with her competition for a role she wants in the film Theroux is directing. Theroux has been warned by the gangster element financially backing the film that he is duty bound to put Watts in the starring female role, leading to conflict.

One of the film's zaniest characters is a professional hit man with the efficiency level of Inspector Clousseau at his daffiest. He is compelled to eliminate large numbers of people to cover up his staggering inefficiency.

Playing the role of the shrewd "You can't fool me" landlady of the apartment building where Watts and Harring stay is veteran Ann Miller, who starred in MGM musicals in the fifties. She immediately sees through the flimsy explanation provided by Watts to justify Harring staying with her. At one point the relationship between the two beautiful young women heats up into an erotic love sequence captured beautifully by Lynch's all-seeing camera.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good movie---awful DVD
Review: This hasn't a single special feature beyond the trailer. Even worse is that this is the first DVD that I ever seen that doesn't allow you to select scenes. There is no chapter select menu, and there is no option while watching the film to skip ahead to the next scene. This movie is has ONE CHAPTER. Rent this film, and wait 3 months to buy it when they sell it again as a Special Edition to all us suckers who couldn't wait.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: WARNING: May cause symptoms of drug-induced coma.
Review: I have David Lynch completely figured out. His whole intention in film-making is simply to throw every Freudian cliche, nightmarish symbol, and bizarre twist that he can dream up into a pot, thereby creating a confounding stew that even he doesn't understand, because there's nothing TO understand.

This product is then marketed to an ersatz intellectual audience who debate and decipher all sorts of meaning out of this stream-of-consciousness mess, while Lynch laughs at his audience...all the way to the bank. Ludicrous, but true.

This is the most accurate, in-a-nutshell review of "Mulholland Drive" you may ever read.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wow. And I do mean, WOW.
Review: Being that my wonderful video store is rather slow at getting movies, I finally got a chance to check this one out and now that I'm done watching it...What the hell was that?! This movie really threw me for a loop and I must say, I'm still recovering. Beautifully shot, this is one trippy movie, David Lynch at his best. I'm not going to go into what it was all about, blah blah, because I think the intentions was for everybody to have they're own perspective and I'm not about to ruin it with mine. If you love weird, mind-numbing movies that actually make you think, then you won't be let down. If, unfortunately, you are one of those people who need things spelled out for them, good luck with this. The only complaint I have is with the actual DVD itself. Where's all the features? Other than that, I loved it, David Lynch is a genius. A rather weird one, but genius nonetheless.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: channeling your anger - David Lynch is responsible.
Review: A great film, and one meant to be viewed in its entirety. To the fuming reviewer below, David Lynch himself stipulated that there be no chapter stops on the disc, and for a film of this type I can understand why. Who on earth uses search by scene features much anyway? If watching in a couple of sittings (a BAD idea for Mullholland drive), just hit play and you'll start from where you left off anyway. If you're desperate to find that certain scene hit the 30x search. Sheesh.

Again, this is a film meant to be WATCHED, without distraction and without fast-forwarding, rewinding etc. (like being at the cinema, geddit?).

Great stuff.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A Real Head Scratcher
Review: First off, the DVD does not have chapters. Took me a while to figure that out. Second of all, I really just didn't get it. This film is so obviously Lynchian, in all it's twists and memory erasing turns. I suppose I didn't like it simply because I didn't get it, that may seem like a bad reason but it's true. Some of the moments were worth seeing, the Silencio sequence, but most was just a bunch of hooey. I felt as if I needed Cliffs notes to figure out what really went on. The performances were quite good, and it looked really great, with great direction by Lynch, but in the end, I just didn't get it!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Clueless
Review: After the film ended my wife and I looked at each other and said "What the [heck]! was that about?" It was 2 hours of aimless incoherent ramblings. The ten clues included in the DVD case didn't help at all. Watching it three or four more times may help but I doubt it. The only memorable moment was an excellent Spanish version of Roy Orbison's "Crying".

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Montana Man strikes Again
Review: After the ridiculously good Straight Story, Lynch has gone back to his old bag of tricks. That isn't a bad thing of course. No filmmaker has ever been able to make a film seem like a dream like Lynch. He seems to be able to make it seem surreal without even trying. His view of Hollywood as a dark, twisted, skewed netherworld coincides with this dream-like journey. The suns out but its dark everywhere. It didn't surprise me to learn that this was once an ABC TV pilot, the first 100 minutes are engaging stuff that I would have tuned in to see. Its got the patented Lynch weirdness, the espresso scene is just so bizarre that I couldn't help but laugh. Also the [messed]-up murder was morbidly humorous. The sequence in the beginning in the coffee shop is why I love Lynch, it is a dream, it is so disturbing without actually being disturbing, its the atmosphere, its indescribable, and I'm becoming a meandering pretentious loon. The "narrative" involves Rita and Betty, Rita is suffering from amnesia which sounds contrived but this is Lynch and it doesn't matter. They form a common bond and their quest to find out who Rita really is had me [pulled] in. They navigate the twisted landscape of Hollywood together. The other main player is a director who looks suspiciously like Steven Soderbergh or at least the glasses make it look that way. The events that transpire don't really conjoin, just exist. But what everyone talks about is the ending, where everything becomes a free-for-all of identity exchange, lesbianism, and violence. It doesn't make sense, and no sense is supposed to be made I guess. I just sat back and watched it all unfold, not really caring about the ending because I knew it wouldn't make sense. I could probably come to some conclusion about the meaning of it all, but everyone should come up with their own. And that is why Lynch is such an essential filmmaker, no one will ever do it like he does, and no one ever has. People can debate the meaning of his films for all of eternity and never agree, and that alone makes this film a worthwhile entry in the Lynch legacy.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An Experience.
Review: You do not watch this movie, you experience it. So be prepared to watch it through in one sitting as that is how it should be seen--and there are no chapter stops.

Normally I hate this type of film. I like to come home and watch something with a beginning, a middle, and an end that ties everything together. But this movie makes you think. And the answers might not be the same for every viewer. David Lynch is not always, or even often, on target, but when he is--Hoo Boy. I walked around for the next two days trying to fit the individual scenes together.

I hope you have not read too much about the film prior to viewing and I certainly would not want to tell you anymore about it other than there is a haunting Spanish version of Crying in the pivital scene. Do not read anymore about it, go watch it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: another creepy work from the great David Lynch...
Review: David Lynch. Either you love him or hate him, there is no middle ground. Mulholland Drive is yet another nightmare from the warped mind of David Lynch. If you liked Twin Peaks or Blue Velvet, and you haven't seen this, you need to see it. If you enjoyed Lost Highway, enjoyed the tense moments from the most mundane happenings, then by all means, see this movie. If none of the above really moved you at all, didn't freaked you out, you probably won't enjoy Mulholland Drive.

It involves two women, Rita, a bombshell brunette who as a result of a life saving car accident, is an amnesiac. And Betty, the blonde, naive, idealistic, "coming to Hollywood to be discovered" stereotype. As the two women struggle to try and decipher Rita's identity, all the work done in the movie for the viewer, character and plot development is almost entirely undone. It's decipherable, but it's going to take a few viewings. This is a great movie to watch for those classic Lynch moments, the opening of Rita's purse after she meets Betty, the initial discovery of Diane Selwick, and the entire scene inside Club Silencio.

Lynch was nominated for Best director for this film, again verifying that he is one of the foremost in Avant Garde filmmaking today. He goes a little easy on us, providing in the inlay, 10 clues for unlocking the mystery of this movie. Lynch also does one last subtle trick, that i can't help thinking is intentional. He allows for NO scene selection. He allows only one way to watch this movie, from beginning to end, as one 2 1/2 hour chapter on the dvd.


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