A masterpiece of cinema. No film has blown me away like this for years.

Rating: 10/10 (24 August 2007)

Part Fellini's 8 1/2 part Bergman's Persona, the key to Mulholland Dr. is to imagine that you're dreaming. In your dream, you're with a good friend, but there's something different about them. You're in a house that's strangely familiar, but you're certain you've never been there before. Your friend leads you down a dark hallway and you follow. Something in your gut tightens. You stop and call out your friend's name, but you realize that you're alone. You can't breathe. You can see the light at the end of the hallway, a soft glow, and you know that something wonderful or terrifying (or both) is waiting for you just around the corner.
That kind of uneasy excitement is what I felt throughout the entire running time of Mulholland Drive, which may be the best film David Lynch has ever made. Sure, Lost Highway captured the bleak, nonsensical feel of a nightmare lost in a huge, windy world, but Mulholland Drive reaches another level entirely, playing on the emotions with a ruthless precision that's absolutely stunning and makes you even go to extreme lengths to question your own sanity...a film that can achieve this deserves all the praise it gets.
The film is centered around naïve, overly ambitious blonde named Betty (Naomi Watts) arrives in Los Angeles with dreams of becoming an actress. As Betty is settling in at her absent aunt's apartment, she walks in on a woman taking a shower who calls herself Rita. Rita was in a tragic car accident the night before (on Mulholland Drive) and she can't remember who she is or anything about herself. Betty takes a liking to Rita and offers to help her unravel the mystery. While Rita and Betty are embarking on Nancy Drew-style adventures of self-discovery, a film director (Justin Theroux) is ordered to cast a specific actress in his new movie (or else) by a cryptic cowboy who doesn't like smart alecks.
Sounds simple? Well no. It certainly ain't, keep in mind, this is a David Lynch movie. In the last half of the film, a transformation process happens and everything is messed up. Nothing is clear, and every scene seems like assorted pieces to a puzzle that has been dropped all over the place. And that is what is so amazing; Mulholland is intriguing and will not fade on multiple viewings like many films of its kind. It becomes a completely different experience/interpretation every time.
This is a movie that makes cinema feel exciting again. It takes you so deep into its world that it ceases being a movie and becomes an experience. It keeps you on edge, laughing in morbid delight at one moment, then recoiling in fear the next. Consider, for instance, the hilarious sequence in which a hit man's simple hit goes terribly awry, one little mistake starting a domino effect that causes things to go from bad to worse as he realizes that this just isn't his day. It is like being on a thrill ride, a roller coaster that has many different aspects, many different turns that evoke a new feeling each time.
Mulholland Dr. is clearly going to go down as a cinematic masterpiece. It has become famous for its plot, and perhaps more so for its lesbian sex scene between Watts and Harring than has been discussed countless times. But there is more too it. Just go ahead and watch it, twice and then again. You wont be watching the same film all three times, I guarantee it.
GRADE: A+