Running on Empty

Rating: 1/10 (26 January 2013)

I watched this movie not knowing what to expect. The only thing I knew was that a lot of people called it their "favorite" movie so I figured, "How bad could it be?" I must admit I was intrigued by its mysterious qualities and its set direction. The longer I watched (and I watched the whole damn thing)the more I felt that I was becoming the victim of an elaborate joke. I'm not a David Lynch fan. I saw "Eraserhead" back in the 70's when I was in art school, and felt compelled to praise it. After all, art is supposed to be weird, right? I was still willing to give Mulholland Drove a chance, as I love movies with suspenseful, twisted plots that reveal dark parts of the psyche (Vertigo is one of my favorite films.) I was totally irritated by the end of this movie. It seemed to be specifically crafted to set off a train of speculation and to intimidate the viewar into thinking "it must be a work of genius because I don't understand it." I propose that, like the "performance" towards the end of the film, it is an empty, pretentious bag of tricks that teaches us nothing about ourselves or the human condition. Unlike Hitchcock, Lynch is a true Master of Pretense.