silencio

Rating: Null/10 (9 May 2002)

If "Mulholland Dr." is any indication, David Lynch is still in the same bizarre nightmare mode of "Lost Highway," and employing the same theme of dissociated personal identity--which is to say, the same gimmick of having one or more characters suddenly turn into someone else halfway through the story. Shades of Polanski's "The Tenant," too, with its prospect of having the same nightmare tragedy play out again and again, like an endless tape loop. The ending sort of irritated me at first, but the movie is improving in memory as some of the pieces fall into place (I think!). The convoluted story makes any sense at all ONLY if at least 2 or 3 or 4 of the peripheral characters are not, as they seem, gangsters interfering with the casting of a movie, but literally demons, interfering with the "casting" of lives. That... or maybe the lead character is insane. In either case, expect to do some head-scratching. And drop me a line if you figure it out.