Surreal, scary, heartbreaking, thrilling, funny and most of all, Lynchian

Rating: 10/10 (29 April 2017)

After seeing Mulholland Drive, I found myself going through the reviews on IMDb, hoping (as many of you will) to find not a theory to latch onto but stimulating discussion of the movie. What I instead found, for the most part, were tons of hate-filled reviews which said nothing much other than that all those who liked the movie and did indeed find it intellectually enjoyable and found that it did not underestimate its audience were lying to "save face", as one reviewer kindly put it, or "seem smart" as another did more brashly.
Right now, I can assure you that this is not the case. Mulholland Drive is a powerful piece of cinema, boiled down to (much like Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO) the very simplest form. Both movies were made with a smaller, TV crew (in Mulholland's case that is not surprising) and both are regarded as hallmarks of film today.
Mulholland Drive boasts a very good lead performance by Naomi Watts. As with much in this movie, to reveal any details regarding the use her talent is put to would be spoiling it. Unlike most movies, which aim to create a world that one feels is real and inhabited by real people, Mulholland Drive goes the opposite way. The majority of the movie happens within an apartment, and it feels as if Watts' character and those who she stumbles across are the only people in the world.
The remainder of the movie (up until the unexpected and quite devastating finale) is punctuated with glimpses of the great beast of Hollywood. We follow director Adam (Justin Theroux) as he stumbles into strange and darkly comic situations. The tone of Adam's scenes -foreign and funny- contrasts very strongly with those of Betty's -heavy and emotional. Despite the strong-sounding adjectives used to describe Betty's scenes, they are strangely lacking in deep emotion in comparison to Adam, who feels very real.
The movie shifts wildly in tone, but manages to keep the audience involved and guessing right up to and long past its final note. It makes the audience a character in the film, witnessing the tragedy and illusion that plays out before us like the works of Club Silencio. Having finished this movie, I sat for am hour past the end credits, both trying to shuffle my own interpretations on it into order and attempting to communicate to my body that I was Jo longer watching the illusion. It really is a dream: First a happy one, then an erotic one and finally, a nightmare that leaves us crying in our beds, unable to tell real and Lynch apart. Maybe they aren't.
10/10