Mulholland Dr.
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Movie Reviews of Mulholland Dr.
Movie Review: Sheer Genius
Summary: 5 Stars
David Lynch is the most brilliantly innovative and interesting filmmaker working today, and Mulholland Drive is yet another masterpiece. Beautiful, ugly, poignant, haunting, hilarious, dark, nightmarish, mesmerizing, thought-provoking, puzzling, confounding.
Is it a horror film? Like all things in the Lynchian universe, the answer is an emphatic: yes and no.
What's the story about? The more proper question is: Is there a story? Again, there is and there isn't.
Mulholland Drive is not so much a story as a series of events, veering off into divergent tangents, surrealistically (but only partially) interconnected, sometimes returning on a Mobius strip in new form, sometimes dropped and forgotten, or lingering on a subconscious level.
Welcome to Lynch's dark and beautiful nightmare. You either love it or hate it.
Like Lynch's Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive opens in a hyper-idealized America. A perky all-American girl (from Canada) with stars in her eyes wins a jitterbug contest -- 1950s kitsch in a contemporary America permeated with anachronistic sensibilities. She arrives in Los Angeles, seen resplendently through her naive eyes.
That's Betty (from Archie comics?) played by Naomi Watts. In Mulholland Drive, Betty's brunette foil is Rita (Laura Harring).
Rita hails from L.A. noir. A dark femme fatale riding in the back seat of a car, moving languorously, hypnotically, down Mulholland Drive. Rita's mysterious identity is compounded by her attempted murder. Then a strikingly brutal (and seemingly arbitrary) incident drastically alters the course of events.
As in a nightmare.
Lynch is one of the few filmmakers who can pull off such seeming arbitrariness. His films' narrative subtext, cinematography, art direction, and music create a surreal interconnectedness that fuse events together despite drastic and seemingly arbitrary plot detours.
I don't want to reveal too much. Mulholland Drive should not be spoiled for those who've yet to see it.
After driving down Mulholland Drive, Rita has amnesia. She wanders into Betty's house. Betty -- who came to Hollywood to be star -- takes Rita under her wing. Like Nancy Drew, Betty is an innocent drawn to adventure. Innocent, because no modern day Nancy Drew would last long in the dark and violent world Betty is set to enter (and Rita, re-enter).
This is a common Lynchian theme: The innocent who is drawn to dark strangers living corrupt lives under the Disneyfied surface of Americana. (It is tempting to see Lynch, raised in Montana, as that innocent.)
In Mulholland Drive, Lynch (through Betty) pokes underneath Hollywood's glitter. Naturally, we find lies, corruption, power plays, egos, exploitation. The pain and heartbreak beneath Hollywood glitter is an old target, extending back to the similarly titled Sunset Boulevard. Yet remarkably, Lynch breathes starling new vigor into this well-trod tale.
The Hollywood power plays involve a dwarf in a red room. And a cowboy, and much else that remains unexplained. That is what Hollywood feels like for many. Actors wondering why they were not chosen. Directors wondering why they were bumped off a project, or why a project was canceled.
Oh yes, Rita has a blue key. And there is a blue box, reminiscent of Hellraiser's puzzle box. Mulholland Drive's first hour can best be described as a noir mystery with Lynchian overtones. That's confusing enough. But midway through, Rita finds the blue box, and things take a turn into the metaphysical.
Remember when in Twin Peaks, Josie's form emerges from the wall at the Great Northern? And it's ever explained. No, that's not what happens with Rita's blue box, but it's in the same territory. Lynch claims to be fascinated by furniture. And by music, and much else. His films are less linear stories than surreal journeys through his dark fascinations. The latter half of the film journeys deeper into those fascinations.
Mulholland Drive was originally a pilot for an ABC TV series that was never picked up. It was finished (as a feature film) with French money. That's one explanation for the sudden turn of events midway through the film. But once again, Lynch makes it work.
There is so much more in this film, but I won't spoil it by recounting the events.
Do see this film alone, or at worst, with a mature audience. I saw it at an IFP/ West screening at the L.A. Film School. No doubt, the crowd imagined itself hip, trendy, sophisticated. Yet many laughed at the most inappropriate times. They laughed at Betty's idealized entry into L.A., upsetting the scene's fine balance. (As in many horror films, Lynch's films establish a delicate tension between unease and humor -- a tension whose beauty and poignancy and unease can easily be weakened and destroyed by inappropriate laughs.)
Yes, Betty is naive, but we are meant to empathize with her vision -- not laugh at her. Remarkably, the IFP crowd also guffawed at a lesbian scene. I thought I was surrounded by a crowd of Beavis and Buttheads.
Mulholland Drive was nominated for, but did not make, the Preliminary Ballot of the Horror Writers Association's Bram Stoker Awards. That is no shame on Lynch. It does disgrace and cheapen the Stokers.
PS: While we may all review the final film, and what it means, we should be careful about assuming any "intent" on Lynch's part. This is because Mulholland Drive was never intended as a film. It was initially shot as the pilot to a TV series that wasn't picked up. So Lynch took the pilot and, with some additional French investment money (from Canal Plus), expanded the pilot into a film.
That's why it "gets weird" later on. The initial part of the film (the pilot) set up some storylines with specific resolutions in mind. Then when the series wasn't picked up, an additional hour or so was filmed and edited into the pilot, creating wholly different resolutions (and different storylines) to what had initally been intended.
Movie Review: Mulholland Dream
Summary: 5 Stars
Director David Lynch always polarizes his audience. The Webster's definition of polarize is: To cause to concentrate about two opposing positions. That's what watching a Lynch film is all about, and it always baffles and amuses me when certain people take Lynch to task for being obliquely evasive.What we have in Mulholland Drive is a sophisticated director's surrealistic vision of a highly refined dream world. Both dialogue and visual metaphors abound in many of Lynch's films, and I'm pleased to say that the Mulholland Drive's story is explored in the director's usually understated, though deliberately jarring, manner. Instead of going into the meaning of this film (which many have admirably attempted, even though it can be an exercise in futile subjectivity when it comes to Lynch), I think that I have more insight to give as far as what this kind of film means to me).
Although the cast, with Naomi Watts in particular displaying impressive range and depth, is memorably quirky and uniformly interesting, it is the framing of each scene and the flow between them that creates such a captivatingly edgy atmosphere. I've noticed that Lynch often will frame a shot as if it were to be photographed or painted, and this is no surprise since he began as an abstract expressionist painter.
Much credit as well should be given to Lynch for his judicious use of Angelo Badalamenti's moody film score as it is so effective in magnifying the dreamy glossiness into a tangible nightmare reality.
Of course, no matter how much I think that David Lynch is one of the world's most uniquely transformative filmmakers with Mulholland Drive being one of the most galvanizing, hallucinatory, and sadly affecting movies ever made, there will always be those who simply feel that behind the refined, wryly surreal surface qualities of the film lay nothing more than manipulative mood theatrics, with the actors seemingly there more for decorative, rather than realistically emotive, purposes. I don't see these things as negatives, however. Here's why. Approaching his art in a painterly fashion, Lynch's images and sound work together in greater sympathy than is typically the case in film. This means Lynch conveys feelings by using emphasis and de-emphasis as if he were painting. Its as if he sees a particular scene as a primary color, and then proceeds to exagerate the hue, i.e. mood, by directing with broader, more dramatic strokes when he sees fit.
No one actor is the axis for it is the overall effect of the images and sounds utilyzed within a scene that creates the feel. Its not about how "realistic" the acting or events are, its all about how everything works as one in service of that great intangible, mood. The merging of the two diametrically opposed worlds of reality and dreams creates quite a tangible otherworldliness. I'd say David must be doing something right because, really, who else does this kind of filmmaking with the same flair? Its such a uniquely individual style that the term "Lynchian" is now commonly used as an adjective for the surreal. I am aware of the term "Cronenbergian". I do think director David Cronenberg is a visionary surrealist who shares some similarities with Lynch, but their methods of approach and aims, not to mention humor, are quite different.
It is quite common in Mulholland Drive and other of Lynch's films to feel an overall stillness, as if indeed viewing the painting of a dream world. The film / painting analogy is so common as to be a cliche, but the oddly detatched feel of Lynch's work has an air of mystery about it that, like an abstract expressionist painting, draws in anyone who cares to look at the imaginary recesses. The naysayers will say that this kind of approach to filmmaking achieves nothing more than simulated depth. I however, think Lynch's films have an uncommon degree of depth because of what they suggest.
Mulholland Drive suggests a number of possibilities, like all art that's worth a damn. In other words, where I believe the strength of this film lies in its suggestion of ambiguity.
It shouldn't have to matter whether or not there is a specific intent because we experience what we bring to the table, so to speak.
The viewer is allowed to freely interpret it as it suits them, and this is why I think this movie, for instance, divides people so. For some, the result is seemingly difuse. A common complaint by Lynch's detractors is that he suggests too much and delivers too little, thereby leaving "loose ends".
For others, myself included, there are no "loose ends", only possibilities that suggest freedom of interpretation within the context that the director presents.
I argue that Mulholland Drive's (and this of course goes for other Lynch films as well) point is recontextualizing the suggestions as the delivery. Its about the journey being all the points of its own destination (If I ever write a review of Lynch's 'Lost Highway', I would definitely want to state that).
The key to getting something out of Mulholland Drive, and other remarkable David Lynch films, that will resonate on a personal level, is to perhaps, ask yourself this: "Do I prefer to be in control of my dreams or do I feel curious enough to surrender to them and stop questioning their validity?"
I for one prefer to just go with an experience such as this and realize that what I see is, in and of itself, its own reason for being. David Lynch is framing Hollywood sideways, painting in the borders of his own inner world off canvas, and onto film. If that last statement seems meaningless or is overreaching to you, then don't be surprised if you don't like Mulholland Drive or other surreal Lynch films.
Movie Review: Highly Engaging & Uniquely Crafted - A True Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive" is without a doubt one of the most well crafted & thought provoking film of our time. While there has been over thousand reviews written about it, each with its own interpretations, here comes another one which will at best try to put together various pieces of this riddle which ultimately might provide answer to various queries & clear ambiguities. This film has received two extreme forms of reviews - either it has been tremendously appreciated or it has been trashed. I agree to the fact that this film is very hard to gulp if you watch it at a theatre for the first time. But the fact that the plot stays with you long after you have left the theatre or that you start brainstorming merely points to the fact that the film has accomplished in its motive to baffle you & putting a riddle in your head.
While I wouldn't go into the routine of telling what the story is all about, I would rather point out to some events, some characters or situations in the film and connect them with other events or moments in the film, which one should pay attention to. Even if you haven't seen it & want to discover it on your own or you have seen it once & plans another viewing (which is most desirable) - these observations might make it easier for you. In the beginning the camera focuses on a red cover & slowly zooms towards it. You hear a breathing sound from underneath it. That's where Diane's ('Betty' - Naomi Watts) dream begins. The dream continues...you see a car driving through the dimly lit Mulholland Drive....you see Camilla ('Rita'-Laura Harring)...she asks the driver "What are you doing? We don't stop here." Now move over to the part when Diane (Betty) is not dreaming & the events in reality is shown during the last half-hour of the movie. Diane (Naomi Watts) is being taken to a 'surprise party'....same road, same car, same camera angles....she asks "What are you doing? We don't stop here."
Camilla receives her...they start walking uphill. In her dream Rita (Camilla) walks downhill.
Think of the dream as opposite of reality. Look at the characters in real situations appearing at her dream with names she has encountered at various turns in her life.
* When Betty arrives at Aunt Ruth's house she meets Mrs.Lenoix. She tells Betty "Oh! Just call me Coco. Everybody else does." In reality she meets the same lady at the party; Coco says the exact same thing.
* In her dream Adam (Justine Theroux) is the director contemplating recasting the lead actress in his film. However he cannot make any choice on his own. He is shown the picture of a girl,' Camilla Rhodes', whom the 'Castiglianni Brothers' insist should be selected for the part. Watch out since the same girl in the photo is the girl who whispers at Rita's ear & kisses her at the party.
* In her dream the Director's (Theroux) life is in shambles - both personally & professionally. In reality it is just the opposite. He declares his engagement with Camilla (Rita).
* A very interesting thing is the 'Cowboy' character. He sort of bullies the director to select the 'girl in the photo'-Camilla Rhodes. But where does he come from? Just pay attention to the scene at the party-again! The girl (in the photo) comes, whispers at Rita's ear, kisses her & walks away. At the same time a guy with a 'white hat' passes by. Well he's the 'cowboy' at her dream.
* The hit man whom Diane hires to kill Camilla (Rita) seems inefficient in her dream. He messes up when he tries to kill a guy. In reality he is very skillful. Take a look at the guy standing near the counter when Diane is having a conversation with the hit man at 'Winkies'.He is the same "weird guy" at Winkies at the beginning talking about his strange dream & "God-awful feelings." In a way he is inconsequential to the actual events, but he reflects Diane's (Betty's) fear & anxiousness in her dream. This guy was, in reality, standing beside the counter - in her dream Betty sees this guy talking about how he has seen the man sitting opposite to him "by the counter"- looking scared.
Paying attention to these small but relevant instances is what is going to make this film even more interesting to you. Actually Lynch uses the unique style of presenting fantasy as if its reality & the transition from dream to reality are not shown in a decipherable manner. Again if you pay attention to the 'Party' scene, we find jerky camera movements, hazy shots - things we expect in a surrealistic sequence. Well that is Mr. David Lynch for you!!! With such brilliance at every shot, Peter Deming's cinematography, Angelo Badalamenti's awesome score & of course both Naomi Watts & Laura Harring's performance it would be unfair to give this film anything less than five stars.
In a nutshell this film can be looked upon as the story of a girl who comes to L.A. with stars in her eyes, to make it big in Hollywood. In the process she meets another beautiful actress, falls madly in love with her which slowly turns obsessive & she also gets ditched by her. She gets mixed up in a world of treachery, nepotism, lies & false promises - all hidden behind the flashy lights, glitz & glamour of Hollywood. She takes revenge. But her action keeps haunting her; she repents it, laments it & all these completely erode her mentally & physically. You see the once beautiful & aspiring actress literally enter a world of self destruction. And you become a part of her journey through life. What could be better than having a DVD which you can watch over & over & keep on discovering newer things every time? This film is Lynch at his best. A true masterpiece & a MUST BUY.
Movie Review: Amazing
Summary: 5 Stars
Like life, this film gives us a swirling soup of experience from which we have to construct a meaning. That the meaning we arrive at is by no means predetermined & unambiguous, as well as the fact that we first have to undo the macrame Diane has woven from the strands to justify herself makes this gem of a film linger in the mind.
While many reviewers seem to throw their hands in the air & claim that this film is not meant to have any real coherence, just atmosphere, I disagree. There are certainly thought-provoking ambiguities, but there is also deep structure that keeps us enthralled by the story. The hero arcs, just not happily.
There seems to be some common confusion about a number of the scenes & characters. Here are my interpretations of some of the most frequently asked questions. Beware of spoilers!:
This film has been called a dream by several reviewers, but to me it's more just the way the mind works all the time, constantly mashing things up, rewriting events until a final version of history is reached, usually on reflection & in consultation with others. Especially if--like our protagonist--you are wigged out about broken love, probably on drugs, & seriously depressed about your career. For instance, how many times have you worked out this kind of detail with your significant other?: so, who was that person at the party? Oh, I thought he was her brother. No? Her boyfriend? Didn't she work for Xerox? Oh, it was Kodak. Wasn't that the other girl? I thought he had dark hair. His name is Dave, right? No, John...etc. Now turn that process into pictures & it looks a lot like Mulholland Drive.
How do we know that Diane was involved in prostitution?
Did you notice that the prostitute in the scene with the hitman [pimp?] matched the general description of Diane, i.e. blond, passive, young? Did you wonder how a struggling actress might have known a hitman to call to bump off her ex-lover? In fact, there are a lot of blonds in this movie, & they all seem to represent Diane--either her delusional ideals or her reality.
Why is Camilla/Rita such a darling of the mafia dons who are pushing to get her in the lead role of "The Sylvia North Story"?
I found the power-brokers to be far more symbolic than real. They were Greek Gods, dispensing favor capriciously, spurning sincere burnt offerings [espresso, I love it!], & selecting favorites more or less on whim. At least that was Diane's perception of things, although the audition scene clearly suggests that Camilla's acting chops & screen sexuality were much stronger than Diane's, even though we saw the scene as though Diane was the actress. The theme of Greek mythology was hit on in the opening scene as well, as the man in the coffee shop acts out a convincing oracle, & later, as the Lee Grant character predicts impending doom to deaf ears like Cassandra. There's also something vaguely Odyssean about the pool guy & unfaithful wife grappling with the indifferent giant.
How do we know that Aunt Ruth was dead in real life?
Diane tells us at the dinner party. Also, where else would a struggling actress have gotten a large amount of cash to slide across a table to a hitman if not from that inheritance? Maybe having spent her last resource helped push her over the edge.
Why did Rita feel compelled to cut her hair after the "Silencio?"
Diane was putting things back together in her mind, realizing the consequences of her actions, separating the reality of herself from the fairytale version conflated from her initial naivete & inflated perception of her talent, talent that was actually Camilla's. The two characters beginning to look alike demonstrates this recognition, as does the final disappearance of Rita.
What was the purpose of the older couple she met on her flight into Hollywood & at the end of the film?
To me, the old couple seem to symbolize hope--the hope of a naive young actress just arriving in Hollywood, the hope that was the only thing that Pandora managed to hold in the box after she released all ills on humanity [Greek mythology again], & the hope that escaped that blue box when it was dropped in the brown paper bag by the beast behind Winkie's near the end [perhaps also a comment on Diane's substance abuse]. The torment of failed hope in the form of the fluttering hands of the old couple was what finally caused Diane to pull the trigger.
In addition to the repeating Greek mythology theme, something I haven't heard other reviewers mention is how blatantly referential the imagery of this film is to Hollywood. Diane's early outfits [& hair] look like they were done by Edith Head for a Hitchcock film; the early scenes of the dance contest look like Annette Funicello will appear any second; Cowboy looks like a live-action Howdy Doody; & actors seem to have been chosen for their industry resonance: Ann Miller, Chad Everett, Billy-Ray Cyrus.
Movie Review: A Cruise through David Lynch's Imagination
Summary: 5 Stars
This is not a simple film. I can tell you someone was murdered (or I think I know), and by the end, I'm sure someone commits suicide (or I think I'm sure). And along the way, there's a lesbian romance between an amnesiac and a dance contest winner with big-screen ambitions; there's a thuggish hit man; a book with important names in it; a film director coerced by mobsters into selecting a particular actress; another hit man made more frightening by his folksy cowboy affectations; a blue cube in which the whole fiction is possibly stored (and a blue key to unlock it); a sinister homeless man living behind a restaurant; and a theater of pantomining performers -- to list just a few of the incongruent oddities that comprise this film. If you're looking for something different in the way of cinema, this list of characters and props should pique your curiosity.
To date, I've seen MULHOLLAND DRIVE between fifteen and twenty times, and I honestly can't tell you with exactness what it's really about. But it doesn't matter. Instead of concretely and objectively comprehending it, it's interesting to watch how David Lynch strings all of this together. Every scene is compelling to watch, and the plot is vaguely alluded to by the similarity of some compositions. It's just difficult to tell where to look for the rest of it. In any case, the result is you're seduced into watching it, like being hypnotized, lulled by your fascination with Lynch's dreamy blend of menace and humor, and his sublime imagination. It's not just a film: It's a journey into the labyrinth of Lynch's creativity.
As he's done with some of his other more abstract films, Lynch establishes a unique relationship with his audience. I believe he's a prankster of sorts, but not one who wishes to make the viewer a fool. Instead, he weaves the blackest of comedy into a mysterious tale, the humor slithering through it like a hallucinogenic plant through a trellis. Lynch's respect for the viewer is comprehended only when the viewer allows him- or herself to become part of the humor, by submitting to it. What appear as segues and non sequiturs then become vignettes in a baroque gallery. A Lynch film is indirectly about Lynch's imagination. The art is in the connecting of images and characters of mind-boggling originality, Lynch pushing his imagination to the extreme while respecting some indefinable limit, thereby maintaining a semblance of structure. The bewildering sequences are so mesmerizing, you don't really care if you get your mind all the way around whatever happened. Lynch pushes buttons that alternately amuse and repulse us. He's captured what a dream feels like, with characters reacting to the most puzzling phenomena as if they're commonplace occurrences. When it's over, you can't with certainty make sense of it. Feel free to take guesses, but don't take them seriously or you'll deprive yourself of the fun, though "fun" might be putting an inaccurate spin on Lynch's accomplishment, making it less than what he intended.
Let not my gushing over Lynch lead you to believe that he's the only talent in evidence here. I found all of the actors, even the ones with small roles, to be very convincing. The script demands that all of the primary actors play two roles, as toward the end -- after the unlocking of the mysterious blue box -- everyone becomes someone else. The transformation of Naomi Watts from the naive "Betty" to a downtrodden and betrayed "Diane" was the most striking. But Justin Theroux as "Adam Kesher," the personally and professionally beleaguered director, was my favorite. His performance was natural and understated, and the exchange between him and "the cowboy" is my favorite scene in the film. The beautiful Laura Elena Harring as "Rita" is a doe-eyed, quivering victim until the blue box is opened, then confident and patronizing as "Camilla Rhodes" after the dream is over.
Now, here's the caveat about this DVD: It's not divided into chapters. If you want to take a look back at a previous scene, for heaven's sake, don't accidentally hit the wrong button. You'll find yourself back at the very beginning of the film and the only way to get back to where you were is by fast-forwarding. It's all very weird for a major title release, so this DVD production seems to be an extension of Lynch's bizarre sense of purpose.
The DVD's extra features consist of the theatrical trailer, and production notes, the actor and director biographies. The biographies are typical, each concluding with a list of previous film credits and so on. Except for Lynch's. His biography consisted of two lines.
"Born in Missoula, Montana."
"Eagle Scout."