'everything is prerecorded'

Rating: Null/10 (3 February 2002)

Lynch leans heavily on the performances of the actors and they truly pull it off. Naomi Watts initially comes across like a vacuous nurse from 'flying docters' and rapidly shows she is a very talented actress. Laura Harring did a good job, but Watts is clearly more versatile and subtle. Mulholland Drive starts as a completely credible story and develops into a genuine David Lynch work of art: enigmatic, cryptic, steamy, surreal, baffling, kind of slow with (unfortunately) terrible music. Lynch totally forgets about entire parts of the 'plot' and concentrates on the unexpected. Even some strange (horror) sequences from Eraserhead (1977) are recognizable.
Unmistakenly from the director of Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks and Lost Highway: not exactly intuitively directed, but I say intuitive viewing is required like when viewing Lost Highway. Don't try to explain everything that's going on and let the images and surreal editing/developments create the atmosphere of the movie. Some may say it's arthouse, but IMO it's too accessible for that. I'd say it's off beat and haunting from beginning to end. Peter Deming (Lost Highway, Evil Dead 2 !, From Hell) is quickly becoming one of my favourite cinematographers. Get this guy in 'Visions of light 2' plz.
If you thought David Fincher makes mind candy, see Mulholland Dr and think again. Most people will find this more accessible than Twin Peaks though. Go see it in combination with 'Outer Space' (1999) in the Paradiso theater in Amsterdam. There are some really annoying and pointless sequences, but I still rate it 9/10 which includes positive discrimination of Lynch, not because I supposedly don't want to admit I didn't understand the movie ;-) This one really made me curious about the way Lynch directs a movie on set.