Intriguing, engrossing, beautiful - something to massage the intellect

Rating: Null/10 (14 August 2002)

I suppose just about everyone who watches Mulholland Drive comes away in head-scratching mode... but as a vague Lynch fan I think I had started the scratching process after the first half; so the only mystery left for me was how he was actually planning to end the film.
Above all else, Mulholland Drive is Lynch flexing his unique, 'bent' story-telling muscle. Forget the dream/waking-state metaphor - this film is simply a montage of plot devices rather than a traditional story. And in this it fits perfectly within the Lynch Portfolio.
He combines his love of the absurd (...the poor Winkie's man; the scene in the theater, the hit/miss man and the jewellery-in-hot-pink affair) with an almost reverential regard to great cinema. The slow peeking around the corner at the hobo's lair, ravishing lead actresses, cascading score, the blue box mystery and even the stop-frame animation (!) seem more reminiscent of movies of a bygone era. Throw in the mix a swapping of time, faces and names, and you have a neatly-ordered chaos which first challenges then massages the intellect.
Don't look for too much meaning here - while each pastiche contains a minimum of logic, the real thrill comes through watching things unravel.
Oh yeah, the lesbian scenes are pretty hot, too.