Maddeningly brilliant

Rating: 10/10 (11 March 2016)

I loved Mulholland Drive. Simultaneously, I kind of hated it if that makes any sense at all, which it probably doesn't. Like this movie. MD is made up of loads of random and seemingly irrelevant scenes with one rug pull after another, but the core storyline involves an aspiring actress trying to help an amnesiac find the answers behind the car crash that gave her amnesia. An art-house, surrealist movie, this only becomes more and more confusing as it goes along and trying to work out what on earth it's about is like trying to do an advanced physics exam while riding a roller-coaster while listening to heavy metal. Yet it's fantastic. It truly is. It's one of the best movies of the 2000s. The performances are superb, the direction is excellent, the screenplay is ingeniously constructed and best of all, it's not all meaningless, flat surrealism. There is a compelling narrative and emotional centre here. On a thematic level, this movie is fascinating and only becomes more intriguing- and thus more maddening- as it goes along. This is the first film by David Lynch I've watched, but with only one film he's proved that he has unnatural ability to bring avant-garde surrealism into the mainstream and make it less an exercise in unique style and more as a fascinating way of exploring powerful story lines and themes, and blurring the line between dreams and reality. I now want to see the rest of his filmography. This will annoy a lot of people and it certainly annoyed me, but it's a fantastically done movie and left me reflecting on it for days. Therefore, I have no choice but to give it my highest ranking.
10/10