Mulholland Drive 8/10

Rating: 8/10 (5 November 2002)

In the year of the trippy movies, here's one that outdoes Memento. Mulholland Drive is a movie that knows it's weird and forces us to enjoy it and think about it, which it does.
Naomi Watts is a bubbly new actress coming to Hollywood to try to make it big named Betty. However, in her aunt's apartment where she's staying, she finds Rita (Laura Elena Harring). Rita doesn't remember anything about herself, so Betty tries to help her. The less you know, the more you'll enjoy it.
David Lynch shows us some seemingly unrelated scenes, one about a man killing his friend, another about a monster behind a restaurant. They all come together somehow...but how? I really had no idea, and I still don't. If you sit back and keep your eyes glued to the screen, you'll have a blast.
Everything is pretty much straight forward until about 2/3 of the way through, when Rita and Betty...profess their love for each other. Then nothing is sacred and we have no idea what is happening, from a club where everything is recorded to a blue box. That blue box is the bane of my existence...someone please tell me what it's for! I've read some articles about symbolism, scroll down past the review for what I think about this movie.
The actors are all good, but not as exceptional as everyone says. Justin Theroux plays a director which seems to be another totally different sideplot until the ending. Mulholland Drive is also quite funny in places, especially when Billy Ray Cyrus comes in.
What else to say? Mulholland Drive isn't one you can say a lot about, except it's great, trippy, and worthwhile and something that you'll never forget.
Rated R for nudity and homosexual situations.
My rating: 8/10

MY TAKE ON THE MOVIE:
Obviously, this is going to have SPOILERS, so don't read ahead unless you've seen the movie.
BETTY/DIANE: Diane is a real person who came to Hollywood for the same reason Betty came in Diane's dream. When her jitterbug days were over, she worked at Winkie's and her life is now miserable. Her friend and lover Camilla is famous and she's jealous, which is why she's going to have Camilla killed.
RITA/CAMILLA: Rita is Betty's lover and friend in Diane's dream, but the roles are sort of reversed. Since Diane is Betty, she wanted to have the spotlight instead of Camilla/Rita. Her dream is what she wanted it to be like.
CLUB SILENCIO: When the M.C. says "it is an illusion", the best I could think of is that Diane's dream is an illusion. When Rita is mumbling in Spanish, it kind of called her to the club.
THE BOX: Hoo boy. The box was a portal between reality and virtual reality (so to speak). When Rita opened the box, the Cowboy work Diane up, a transport between the dream world and the real world. When Diane opens the drawer to get the gun, the box is visible, saying that death and life are two different worlds.
THE COWBOY: Um...could it be that the cowboy represented everything that wasn't right in Diane's life? The cowboy made sure that Camilla starred in the movie, and the cowboy woke up Diane, taking her away from her dream that she loved, since it is everything she wanted.
There you have it, I think. Of course these aren't what everybody thinks, so post your thoughts on the message board.