Oh, About That Muddled Meaning

Rating: Null/10 (11 January 2006)

A long string of mostly indifferent images wedded to some glib chatter is what comes to mind when I think about this pointless film from the same director who brought us the sci-fi turkey called "Dune" (1984). To be fair, there are a few artistic images in "Mulholland Dr." The sequence at the Silencio Club I seem to recall was interesting in a surreal sort of way. But that was about it.
Apparently, Lynch is trying to make a film about filmdom. But the convoluted plot leads us down a garden path that splinters into a muddled maze of plot twists that confuse viewers as to the film's "meaning". I have no problem with film puzzles wherein the solutions are vague or open-ended. But a film whose puzzle is puzzling is a different matter.
The problem here is the screenplay. Any newbie writer with a head full of jumbled ideas can write an inane story, and then have his or her stooge proclaim it to be a masterpiece because it is unintelligible. But for an industry professional, the writing standards need to be a little higher.
In "Mulholland Dr." I sense a bored or lazy professional, resting on his dubious laurels, unwilling to exert the requisite cerebral effort to tell a story that is both original and has purpose. Coated in superficial gloss, the film is empty, senseless, and self-indulgent. It is also, by logical extension, very, very pretentious. We can argue until the cows come home about a film's "meaning". But I, for one, am not going to waste my time or my brain on behalf of a lazy writer.