A bitter and beautiful cinematic treat!

Rating: Null/10 (27 April 2002)

Few recent films have prompted as much discussion and dissection as director David Lynch's latest exploration of the relentlessly bizarre, Mulholland Dr. Film journals and internet message boards are currently ablaze with analyses of this neo-noir fable set in present day Los Angeles.

(Plot spoilers ahead!)
At first, Mulholland Dr. plays like a relatively conventional (by Lynch standards) thriller. Through the perilous, winding roads of the Hollywood Hills, a black limousine makes its way. The limousine's cargo, a darkly beautiful, unnamed woman (Laura Harring) is soon to be the sole survivor of a horrific, head-on collision. She escapes with a small wound on her head but has a large case of amnesia. Stumbling from the wreckage, she eventually takes refuge in an apartment that is being briefly vacated by its tenant. Little does she know that the tenant's niece is about to move in. The niece, Betty a guileless ingenue and aspiring actress who moves to Los Angeles after winning a 1950's style dancing contest (Australian Naomi Watts is truly a revelation in this role), soon becomes embroiled in the search for the mystery woman's identity. It is at this point that the serpentine plot of this unique thriller thickens most deliciously. We are soon confronted with a typically Lynchian dreamscape inhabited by Mafioso, psychics, seedy Hollywood types, smoldering nightclub singers and the obligatory midget or two. To add an extra layer of the bizarrely kitsch, a lecherous pool-cleaner is played by Billy Ray Cyrus! Thankfully minus his trademark mullet this time. Australian audiences are also sure to be intrigued and amused with appearances by soapie alumni, Marcus Graham (E Street) and Melissa George (Home and Away). Possibly the preponderance of television performers has something to do with Mulholland Dr.'s' conception as a pilot for a weekly series. Not that the film in any way resembles typical television fare. Like his groundbreaking television masterpiece 'Twin Peaks', Lynch offers an unnerving mix of quirky humour, dark sensuality and jolting violence. Longtime Lynch collaborator, composer Angelo Badalamenti provides the suitably unsettling score and in concert with the precision cinematography of Peter Demming, a sense of intense foreboding hangs bleakly over the entire film.
Much like his 1997 mindbender 'Lost Highway', Lynch takes us on an abrupt detour at around the halfway mark as we descend into (or is that out?) of nightmare and to an exploration of multiplicity of identity and parallel worlds. Well, that's my theory anyway.
Those audiences looking for conventional narrative structure and neatly resolved plot threads had better steer clear of this demanding film. The more adventurous filmgoers amongst you will be rewarded with a bitter and beautiful cinematic treat that is guaranteed to haunt you, long after the final credits roll.