10/10! What a gorgeous movie!

Rating: 10/10 (26 October 2001)

If one of the functions of art is to increase one's capacity for empathy and encourage adoration of the human, Mulholland Drive is an incredibly effective work. I can't imagine anyone seeing the movie and not falling in love with Betty and Rita. Any character who takes a chance like the one that Betty takes at the beginning of the film will always grab me. Rita is nearly a blank slate through most of the film, but even when Lynch starts to layer onto her character a few unsavory pigments, it detract from my fondness for her.
The movie also has a non-linear sort of layout that I found very pleasing. This seems to allow Lynch to show us just enough in the way of what might be cherished ideas for him: without revealing so much that he cheapens those ideas. The film has the sort of evanescence that tends to hang over most beautiful things. And yet, it's not simply a series of lovely images strung together. Each of the scenes that brought me close to tears (A scene from Wild at Heart is the only one that ever made me cry in a theatre) brought to mind this phrase/fragment: adoration of the human.
I feel tempted to go out and buy a television and VCR so that I can watch this movie over and over again. I'll have to see it a few more times, at least. There has to be something in it that I can complain about.