Davie goes to Hollywood

Rating: 8/10 (26 January 2003)

In Mullholland Drive, David Lynch has directed not only a highlight of his personal career, but also one of the first seminal films of the 21st century. The strengths and interests of this film will be familiar to his admirers; but never has he carried them off with such aplomb. So we have small-town cookie-ness, taboo sexuality, nods to the 50s, downright weirdness, and the semi-supernatural; and all filmed beautifully, paced without hurry, Lynch's L.A. is still not bustling, but rather still, a slow-moving hypnotic lure. Add in some very funny movie-industry satire, and a deliciously complex plot, and one has the makings of a classic. Yet in spite of this, the question remains: is it any good?
This is a tale of two parallel and contradictory stories, each involving the same pair of women, one seeming to both pre- and post-date the other. The tease is enchanting, but before the film ends, one realises there will be no resolution in the conventional sense. The first time one sees this film, one is partly impressed, and partly dissatisfied, thinking perhaps, Mullholland Drivel?
You may have heard various 'explanations' for this film, attempts to make it all make 'sense'. But even these need caveats and riders, and the advice basically boils down to this: don't trust anything (which is hardly 'sensible' in any meaningful sense). It may be interesting to understand what Lynch was trying to do, to understand why this film has this particular shape (and not any other); but that doesn't make the finished work coherent. But perhaps also, this is missing the point. From Sunset Boulevard onwards, cinema keeps revisiting the lurid hills of Hollywood. Mullholland Drive is simply the most beguiling journey yet.