A stunning oblique film

Rating: Null/10 (18 December 2001)

'Mullholland Drive' is the most arresting film Lynch has made since 'Blue Velvet' (also recently reissued in the UK). Though I liked lots of 'Hotel Room', 'Fire Walk With Me' and 'Lost Highway'- they all were less satisying in ways compared to 'Eraserhead', 'Blue Velvet', 'Twin Peaks (the TV series) and 'Wild at Heart'...('The Straight Story' is a welcome diversion, a lo-key 'Elephant Man' style picture; 'MD' on the other hand is full-on Lynch).
As with 'Lost Highway', the film makes great use of sound, camerawork and soundtrack; using the noir-darkness apparent in 'Blue Velvet'. The plots- very Poe: "All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream"- if they are plots as we know them- are perplexing and oblique. Theorists will explain the ending, the significance etc; I don't care- MD, like a dream is on one hand explainable in the lucid dream sense and on the other a vast monolith of uniknowing. The two reflect off each other and we know and we don't know...
'MD' had its roots in an abandoned TV-pilot, it is kind of the world of 'Sunset Boulevard'& 'The Day of the Locust' (West's novella, rather than the film). There are 50's references. 'Crying' is sung in Spanish in a This Mortal Coil manner that will have you sobbing like Betty & Rita. There are amusing bits of comedy. There is strange horror behind a cafe. There is a film within a film. There are minature dwarfs. There is a rotting corpse. Electricity. Lesbian-erotica. Deja-vu: a lip-synching karaoke of a nightmare script. Sinster Kafkaesque/Pinteresque film producers. And Billy Ray Cyrus!
'Mullholland Drive' is an awesome cinematic experience, for a generation of retarded filmgoers: 'Legally Blonde', pro-war films and John Travolta routine-thrillers are more the favoured films (this IS due to the monocultural cartel of film chains across the world and Hollywood's conservationism since 'Heaven's Gate'). People want Spielbergian black&whites, clear moral certainties and soap-opera puntuated plots. This film does not have those; but for a challenging, mindblowing experience- MD proves that David Lynch is an artist of vast powers. This film will haunt you like a forgotten dream!