This is a fantastic riddle with many possible solutions all inside!

Rating: 10/10 (17 April 2009)

This film is just the best of the best for me. In fact, it IS my favorite film, so it come as no surprise to you that I rate it as excellent. There is almost not a single thing I would like to be different.
INLAND EMPIRE, Eraserhead, Lost Highway, Twin Peaks- Fire Walk With Me and Blue Velvet are also all in my top 20 movies overall, but why it is the best? You could argue it has the very best acting. Naomi Watts would have absolutely deserved an Oscar (e. g. not many actresses can start crying when filmed, most use tricks), even more than Laura Dern would have deserved one for her fabulous EMPIRE role. This performance alone has elevated Watts as one of my all-time favorite actresses. It is also great to see how cold and understated Theroux handles his role, or how bizarre some side actors behave - all contributing to the truly unique mood.
This is another thing. The mood is very strong, brooding, emotional, surrealistic, thought changing and elevating. Los Angeles has become an "actress" in this film, seriously. The cinematography is well thought-out, just right almost the whole time, and the soundtrack is very moody and original.
Another thing that makes it the best Lynch film for me is the thought-provocing, non-linear, Moebius strip resembling, multi-layered script. Lynch wrote he had the key ideas to finishing the story in a meditation session, so an expanded consciousness has to do with its greatness. The dialogues are very believable and at times quite strange - even if e. g. the scene where the old couple laughs in the car is even of more artistic value in my opinion. It can get you thinking about what just happens in our lives.
Then, the last thing that makes it the best of his movies for me, is the cut and thus, the pace. It begins dark, in a mid tempo, then mostly slows down a bit with some fast interruptions to keep the tension high, then the last fifth reminds me of a tornado, really.
You should know by now, that I absolutely recommend this film to all viewers which are old enough.
Now we come to some interpretations: About the specific meaning, there has been talked in depth. But here about some more abstract ones: First, this is sort of a meta-film (but not quite like Fellini's 8 1/2 or his later EMPIRE) all having acting and directing as part of the story, and ultimately showing that all movies are illusions, created "dream world(s)". The absolutely beautiful "Club Silencio"-scene can be even expanded in its meaning to life and freedom in general.
Then, it is also a movie about how you create a better world in your fantasy if you made - and often make! - a lot of bad decisions in your life.
Additionally, it shows just how hard earning money in Hollywood actually is for young new actresses, even if they are talented. Jenifer Syme was not tough enough for it, Mulholland Drive was dedicated to her. Another motive is the Marilyn Monroe-one, more concrete: a sexual very alluring and active person lives with multiple affairs at once, making other people jealous and possibly self-destructive, and at the same time, getting better film roles.
Finally, it is a film about identity. Not to go in depth here, it is shown in a specific case that we sometimes want to have the identity of a more successful person we love, possibly in a compulsive obsession. Also, after a tragic shock, we often like to escape our own lives, identities.
You see here that Mulholland Drive has many layers, both concrete and abstract, and that is the most beautiful thing about it.
If David Lynch should ever read this, he can send me a message whether he wants to read one or two scripts by me or not.