Movie Review: Mulholland Drive
Published June 01, 2006
The Hollywood power plays involve a dwarf in a red room, a cowboy, and much else that remains unexplained. That is what Hollywood feels like for many — actors wondering why they were not chosen and 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 two hours can best be described as a noir mystery with Lynchian overtones. That's confusing enough. But then Rita finds the blue box and things take a turn into the metaphysical during the last half hour.
Remember when, in Twin Peaks, Josie's form emerges from the wall at the Great Northern — and it's never 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, 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 in 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, and 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.
Thomas M. Sipos is the author of the anti-Communist satire, Vampire Nation and Manhattan Sharks. Some of his essays on horror film aesthetics appear in his horror collection, Halloween Candy. He founded the Tabloid Witch Awards horror film contest and festival. He is Vice Chair of the Los Angeles County Libertarian Party.
- Movie Review: Mulholland Drive
- Published: June 01, 2006
- Type: Review
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: Horror, Video: Fantasy, Video: Art House, Review, Video: Suspense and Mystery
- Part of a feature: The Communist Vampire's Horror Review
- Writer: Thomas M. Sipos
- Thomas M. Sipos's BC Writer page
- Thomas M. Sipos's personal site
- Spread the Word
- Like this article?
- Email this
Save to del.icio.us
Comments on this articleComments
this would have been a better review if other than talking about lynch, some words were given to commenting on the brilliant performance of naomi watts as betty & diane. a few film critics actually said this was not only a lynch's film, but also a naomi watts' film.
I meant the most innovative and interesting that I've seen. And yes, it's subjective to an extent.
I also believe that Meat Loaf is the greatest living singer of our day. Not everyone would say so.
Naomi Watts? Yes, she was good. But she was nowhere near as good an actress in The Ring, nor in that Lift remake. Good, but nowhere near what she did in Mulholland Drive. Makes me think that Lynch had something to do with her performance.
I'd be more inclined to say that the writing had more to do with her performance than the direction. That tends to make the vast difference between good acting and bad. A good director can enhance, sometimes, but can't, more often than not, extract a stellar performance from a cut-rate one. If the writing's there, all else tends to follow, and she can act just fine.
Huckabees, a comedy with less motivation than Mulholland, showed some range, and let's not forget the mild dialect barrier. Since she always has to worry about her accent, that adds a dimension to her acting that American actresses don't have to worry about.
Meat Loaf. That's funny.
aren't this a review of mulholland drive, NOT the ring nor the shaft? if so, why not her oscar-nominated film 21 grams, or the universally praised king kong? if you were such a lynch-ist and could only talk about lynch and nothing else in this review, you should have known that lynch said he had to thank naomi for nailing every scene in the film for him. i also like lynch but the success of mulholland drive was not entirely his, it was partly watts'.
I'm probably going to step in it here, but whatever. Lynch has been, for many of his films, a horrible writer. I think that while his thanking of Naomi Watts was probably in earnest, that what he didn't realize was that a lot of actors just couldn't 'nail' a role that lacked motivations, obstacles, objectives, etc.
But this? This was his best writing effort of his non-linear films. (Personally, "the straight story" is high quality stuff, even if the plot's thin.) One of his few films where an actor could actually form a believable, consistent character.
What David didn't realize, perhaps, was that he had improved.
Watts also owes something to the context of the story (the whole writing and direction), and to the Badalamenti's music score.
Take away that music and show that lesbian scene out of context of the film, and it's likely to look like an outtake from a cheap porn film.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/48615)
"David Lynch is the most brilliantly innovative and interesting filmmaker working today, and Mulholland Drive is yet another masterpiece."
I'm a Lynch fan since Dune but this statement arouses my curiosity. There are a lot of innovative, interesting directors out there, and at least one I can think of who's, hands down, better than my man David: Pedro Almodovar.
Of course, this is highly opinionated, but did you mean American?