Let's get this plot thing out of the way . . .

Rating: 10/10 (18 June 2002)

I think this is a masterpiece, but would not qualify as such if it had no coherent plot to it. WARNING: TOTAL SPOILER FOLLOWS-- DON'T READ ON UNLESS YOU'RE ONE OF THOSE WHO THINKS THE STORY MAKES NO SENSE, AND HAS NO DESIRE TO WORK AT FIGURING IT OUT. It is possible that once you see the story for what it is, you can open up to the rest of the delights this film has to offer.

There seems to be a lot of confusion about the plot-- even among the professional reviewers-- and much talk about how "one sees what one wants to see" but the actual plot is quite clear and definite once you unravel it: Two aspiring actresses show up in Hollywood at the same time (the blonde, Diane, after having won a jitterbug contest in Canada). They meet while making the rounds of auditions and become friends, even fall in love with each other and have sex-- only the black-haired one (Camilla) is much more successful at landing acting jobs and eventually drifts away from the blonde until the culmination at a party on Mulholland Drive where she announces she's marrying her director. The blonde can't take both her failure to find work and the complete rejection and has her ex-lover killed, then kills herself out of guilt and despair.
Confusion arises in the viewer because virtually the entire first part of the movie (more than 80 percent of its running time) is a fever-pitch nightmare had by Diane which, in the fashion and with the "logic" of dreams, revisits this story but in a desperate, wish-fulfillment mode, in which she (as Betty) is talented, successful and in control of her relationship with Camilla (as Rita) who, by virtue of her amnesia, is the needy one. A very critical point to understand is that the dream occurs after Diane has paid for the hit on Camilla and before she awakens to find that it has been carried out. The dream is her last desperate attempt to arrive at some meaning and beauty in her life; it is also quite funny and prodigiously inventive. The dream's frantic re-casting of facts to protect what is left of Diane's decimated self-esteem-- often displaying a profound comprehension of the true horror and absurdity of Hollywood in its bizarre characters and incidents-- is the source of much of its humor. In this nightmare, "Betty" achieves the success she longed for in real life, and the admiration of "Rita" and many others, including Adam Kesher. In the course of MULHOLLAND DRIVE, the dream begins before the titles-- right after the opening jitterbug sequence, when the camera zeros in on Diane's bed and pillow. (Note that the strange older couple-- who I take to be Diane's proud parents-- appear in the jitterbug sequence.)
The nightmare ends only at the point where Diane awakens to her neighbor's pounding at her front door. At this point, Camilla has been killed (see blue key on coffee table-- but I'm not going into all those details-- find them yourself, using Lynch's "ten clues".) At this point Diane has only a few hours to live. From this point the movie gives us at least one hallucination (Diane sees Camilla standing there before making coffee) and a hallucinatory flashback (the ensuing scene with Camilla on the sofa) but for the most part this final section serves to give the viewer the "straight story" of what really happened, using normal (shall we say, "objective") cinematic flashback narrative to bring it up to date. Keep your eyes and ears open and you will find many of the faces, names, locations, incidents-- snippets of reality that popped up in the nightmare, in the normal manner of our dreams. (The party at Adam Kesher's house is the greatest source of these-- keep in mind it is directly following this party that Diane arranges Camilla's murder, and has the nightmare that forms the bulk of the film.)
At the very end we have one more hallucination of Diane's, as her parents reappear as mad demons, assaulting her with the horror of her failures, her guilt and her total degradation. In the panic that ensues, her only perceived escape is to shoot herself dead.
Take it from there-- there are many wondrous layers to be explored in this film.

David Lynch's 10 Clues to Unlocking This Thriller:

Pay particular attention in the beginning of the film: at least two clues are revealed before the credits.
Notice appearances of the red lampshade.
Can you hear the title of the film that Adam Kesher is auditioning actresses for? Is it mentioned again?
An accident is a terrible event... notice the location of the accident.
Who gives a key, and why?
Notice the robe, the ashtray, the coffee cup.
What is felt, realized and gathered at the club Silencio?
Did talent alone help Camilla?
Notice the occurrences surrounding the man behind Winkies.
Where is Aunt Ruth?