Rating: 
Summary: Dont like a movie just because you are told to
Review: This was by far the most ridiculous movie I have ever seen. I know a lot of people will try to justify the pretense of this movie by saying it's film noir and therefore quite artsy and above the average joe's comprehension. Really, it's just a piece of crap trying to disguise itself as art. However, the movie did have some redeeming values. Naomi Watts played her duel roles quite excellently considering the material she was given. Also, the cinematography during the last phase of the movie was quite an enjoyable juxtaposition from the first half. Come on though! Aren't you tired of being told to like something because it is abstract when you really feel like you got ripped off ? "Abstract" is an exploited term usually thrown on any piece of garbage not good enough to stand on it's own as a valid piece of art. Frankly, I'm tired of it being used as an excuse for lack of quality. This film reminds me of standing in a museum trying to figure out how a piece of string taped to a canvas is supposed to move me. When you have to try this hard to make a movie seem good....well, do I really need to finish the sentence?
Rating: 
Summary: Lost on Mulholland Drive
Review: Wow.
Um...OK...this movie was...umm...wait, let me start over.This movie was...the most...the most...INTERESTING?...movie I have seen so far? Yeah. That's the word. Interesting. I'm still confused. But I liked it. Naomi Watts was excellent! and it was a treat to see Ann Miller!
The imagery was stunning to say the least, but I won't be going behind any diners for a long,long time. Watch this film. You won't ever forget it.
Rating: 
Summary: A Standing ovation !
Review: I am still figuring out what the heck the cowboy is doing in this movie among other things. And I think you've hit it on the head. I guess you can't take this movie too seriously, and you can't drive yourself nuts trying to figure it all out. It's a film noir with lots of style and yes, I agree with less substance. I think Naomi Watts and Luara Harring (if I am not mistaken, she was a Miss America/Universe in her early twenties) did an excellent job portraying their respective characters. It also helped that they are both very pretty because the camera is right on their faces a lot. It was pretty brave of them to show off a lot without showing any skitishness or hesitation, that's why a fellow reviewer went as far as describing their sex scenes as one of the sexiest. Most of the scenes were explicit to the point that you can actually tell, that these girls are all naturelle. However I think this is just a sidebar and a distraction from one's task as a viewer, which is trying to make sense of it all and David Lynch's talent is making you care and keeping you facinated. I like this movie a lot because it keeps you entertained and begs you to watch it several more times to make you really understand the premise. The DVD itself gets ZERO STARS. It has no extras, it doesn't allow you to skip, it has no scene index. It would have been nice if Mr. Lynch spend a few minutes and perhaps shed some light on his thinking and methods in making the film. This is my only complaint about this DVD!
Rating: 
Summary: David Lynch explores the dark side of the Hollywood dream
Review: My son contacted me after watching "Mulholland Drive" and demanded that I explain the last ten minutes of this film. I tried to provide the simple explanation--to wit, this 2001 film is written and directed by David Lynch--but that was not enough of an explanation. Part of the problem, if you consider it to be such, is that "Mulholland Drive" is more style than substance, with Lynch creating his more surrealistic film yet. There might be those who think that this is some sort of film noir because there is a scene where a couple of hard-boiled cops show up and spout film noir type dialogue. But there are bits and pieces of different film genres throughout the film, which is another clue to the tapestry of Lynch's tale. I lucked out when I started watching "Mulholland Drive" because the beginning, in which Rita (Laura Elena Harring) barely survives being murdered because of a car accident, strongly reminded me of the beginning of the cult classic horror film "Carnival of Souls" (the original and not the ghastly remake). The connection was a shot in the dark, but it had me thinking that everything was not what it seems right from the start in this film. However, when the second main character in the drama, Betty (Naomi Watts), gets off the plane in Hollywood ready to pursue her quest to become a star, it never dawned on me that there was more to the kindly old couple that wishes her well and drive off in a limosine. Betty moves into an apartment, only to discover Rita, who has apparently suffered amnesia after her near death experiences, taking a shower. Betty is from Canada, so she opts for helping Rita rather than calling the police. The two become friends and more than friends in a couple of the best sex scenes seen in a movie in the last decade (they also serve to underscore how unsexy more sex scenes are in movies today). There are other characters and plots in this film where the bits and pieces do not always fit nicely together. The film that many viewers will think of when they watch "Mulholland Drive" would be "Pulp Fiction," first because there is a scene where two characters have a strange and intense conversation in a family restaurant but also because there are all these plots lines and intersects in various ways. For example, there is a movie director (Justin Therous) who is told he will be killed if does not cast a particular actress in his movie and a dwarf in a wheelchair (Michael J. Anderson from Lynch's "Twin Peaks) who issues orders on his cell phone. But the key narrative thread is Betty trying to become a star and find love in Hollywood. However, it soon becomes clear that we are seeing that played out in multiple ways. "Mulholland Drive" is a movie about Hollywood, or more appropriately the dream of Hollywood. It means something that Rita, who does remember her real name, pulls the one she uses from a movie poster for "Gilda." Betty is the plucky young kids from the sticks who wants to be a star. The unwritten rule about such people is that they would do anything to achieve their dream and in a sense Lynch's film just flips the dream over and looks at the nightmare side of the equation. However, I have no problem with the idea that for many of those who watch this film that "Muholland Drive" will not come close to making sense to them until the second time they see it and that many of those people are not going to make the effort. For those of us who have seen Lynch's other films, most notably "Eraserhead" and "Blue Velvet," we knew going in that was probably going to be necessary. I mean, come on. This is David Lynch people. What did you expect?
Rating:
Summary: Rubbish
Review: There was no car chases or big explosions. Very bad movie. The ending was not that happy either and it was not a real feel good movie. Where was the hero? Or the love story. Not as good as a Sandra Bullock movie.
Rating:
Summary: Do I dare say the greatest film ever?
Review: Mulholland drive.
This dark and twisting film is beautifully directed. It may take you some time to understand and confuse you at first but once you understand it you will be in shock. There may not be any film that can compare to this one. Dare i say that it is the best film ever.
Rating:
Summary: Explained.
Review: DO NOT read this review if you want to figure out the puzzle of Mulholland Drive on your own. You have been warned. For those who are tired of being puzzled by it, here is the explanation. One of the first shots of the movie -- right after the jitterbug credits -- is of a head falling to a pillow. Everything that follows after that -- until the cowboy says "It's time to wake up" is Diane's dream. Here is what is real: Diane Selwyn(Naomi Watts)is a struggling actress. She became friends with Camilla Rhodes, a much more successful actress. The two became loves, then Camilla broke it off. Camilla gets together with Adam, her director, and at a dinner party the two announce their engagement (or perhaps they announce their pregnancy. It's ambiguous but doesn't really matter.) Diane is falling apart after breaking up with Camilla, and the announcement pushes her over the edge. She hires a hit man to take out Camilla. And then she falls asleep. And the dream begins. Everything in the dream is some element of Diane's life rearranged so that she is the desirable one, the one in power and control. Betty -- Diane's dream-ego -- is innocent but clever, resourceful, and talented. The cowboy represents Diane's subsconscious; he is ultimately in control of everything. At one point he says, "a man's attitude goes some ways toward how a man's life will be." Definitely true of a dream sequence: one's attitude determines the reality of the dream. Diane's relationship with Camilla is rewritten so that Camilla is needy and Diane can help her. Diane's hatred of Adam is represented by her dreams' desire to strip him of power: the cowboy forces him to cast the lead role his way, while at the same time, he is oddly attracted to Betty. The director who once told Diane she wasn't any good instead tells Betty she is amazing -- but at the same time, Betty turns him down, going instead with the casting director who will take her bigger, better places. The strange blue box is a subconscious representation of Diane's guilt over killing Camilla. Remember that the hit man used a blue key as the sign that the hit had taken place. Teatro Silencio is both a signal from the director to the viewer and from Diane's subconscious to her conscious mind: what appears real is actually fake. The scary man behind Winkie's is the truthteller, and everyone is afraid of him. He holds the blue box that is Diane's guilt, and from it runs her innocence -- symbolized by the nice people Betty meets on the plane to LA. Her former life.
Diane wakes up when her subconscious (the Cowboy) tells her to. Her neighbor comes over to collect the last of her stuff. She sees the blue key on the table which means the hit has taken place. But she is cracking; she also thinks she sees Camilla. As she continues to crack, she is terrorized by the spectors of her lost innocence (the old people) until she kills herself. See? It all makes sense.
Rating:
Summary: What the hec was that?
Review: Well, I just watched it. What it means is beyond me. Scenes lasted forever and went nowhere. Save yourself 2 1/2 hours and watch paint dry!
Rating:
Summary: Weird, but compelling
Review: David Lynch has a lot longer rope than most directors in Hollywood. He can get away with incomprehensible storylines, monosyllabic acting, and disquieting scenes, because he is one of Hollywood's master shotmakers. The guy can create tension with a camera and a vacant lot. His senses of style and pacing can be uncanny, if not a little bit maddening. His movies require you to pay attention, but don't always reward you for doing so. Mulholland Drive is his most interesting, and most successful film endeavor so far. I spent most of the movie thinking "I don't understand any of this," but I kept watching. I was compelled to do so. For most of the film, the dialogue is vague and campy, the acting cheesy and over-the-top, and yet I knew there was a purpose to it. I knew David Lynch was up to something. Some people have called this a dream sequence, some have called it Hollywood viewed through a kaleidoscope. I'm not sure it's either one. It also seemed a bit like spirits of the dead returning to roam the earth. All of these interpretations are plausible. The plot involves Betty (Naomi Watts), a spunky and naïve young woman with dreams of stardom who arrives in Hollywood. She hooks up with Rita (Laura Harring), a beautiful amnesiac who has survived a nasty traffic pileup. The two fall in love while they search, Nancy Drew style, for clues to Rita's past. Paralleling this is a storyline of Adam (Justin Theroux), a film director having a very bad day, who is "directed" by some hired goons and higher-ups to recast the lead role in his upcoming film. That's the first half of Mulholland Drive. I did my best to simplify it. It gets stranger and stranger from there, with some of Lynch's trademark images along the way: lush red drapes, lush stages, and ersatz troubadours giving incomprehensible performances. I have suspicions what it all means, but I can't be quite sure. What I do know is that this film is tense, tight, beautifully filmed, and wickedly funny. Lynch has little love for Hollywood, and it shows in his digs at the film biz. Watts gives a solid, wide-ranging performance (how many actresses can do a good job of bad acting?), and Harring has that classic pinup look, which fits perfectly with Lynch's nostalgic 1950s props and sets. All in all, an enjoyable experience at the movies. Odd, but enjoyable. And I'll certainly watch it again, even though, I suspect, it still won't make much sense.
Rating:
Summary: Some kind of sick joke...
Review: Mulholland Dr. is so far beyond any other film I've ever seen and while I don't believe in perfection in cinema, this comes very close. It can be confusing and some might find it somewhat abstract, but believe me, there is a very linear story. Even being a Lynch fan (I'll swallow my pride), I myself didn't understand the film very well after my first viewing. But after figuring it out, you come to realize that this film is a very profoundly beautiful piece. And very articulate. Every color, every item, everything has so much meaning to the overlay of the plot. This is Lynch at his best, so much detail was put in the picture, like every brush had some purpose. I cannot stress how amazed I am at all the tie-ins and hints that can be told by every little detail. This isn't one of those films that leaves you hanging either, there is a definate tale that cannot be argued or disputed. Lynch challenges you to find this message, but that's how he works. That being said, Mulholland Dr. isn't for everyone. Whether this is the film for you or not, I'd still recommend at least one viewing, especially since Naomi Watts is so great in it. I haven't felt so in awe of an actor/actress' performance since I saw Bibi Anderson in Ingmar Bergman's "Persona." Ms. Watts' performance defines good acting. Mulholland Dr. is basically a simple story of love and revenge. And while the film is definately not told in a conventional manner, the message is very much so. The dvd comes with really no extras and no chapter selection, but purposely intented to be packaged like that. Call it pretentious, but the film is intended to be viewed in whole and Lynch is very closed to explanation as it prevents an open perspective. If the film does linger an interest for a viewing, my only advise is to be patient and don't get frustrated after one viewing, the film is complicated, but is also very gratifying. If you aren't really into films that demand complete attention during the viewing and analytical thought after the viewing, then this obviously isn't your cup of tea. If it happens to be your flavor though, I'd recommend watching Robert Altman's "3 Woman," Francois Ozon's "Swimming Pool," and of course Bergman's "Persona" in addition to "Mulholland Dr."
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