***** out of 5

Rating: Null/10 (31 August 2002)

"It will be just like in the movies, we'll pretend to be someone else." After taking a frienly stroll down the Lost highway make sure to turn off onto Mulholland Drive, one single street that could fuel all of your greatest nightmares, if it even exists at all. Sometimes you have to scratch your head and wonder where director David Lynch was trying to fo with Blue Velvet and Lost Highway, well wherever it was her is finally there. Few directors posess their own sense of identity, but Lynch is one that does. If you are familliar with his work you don't come out of his movies saying "that was weird" you come out of his movies saying "that was Lynch." The actors in his movies get into their characters so deeply that they could probably tell the story without muttering a single word. But no matter how many characters Lynch packs into his script or how well he develops them, it is not about the characters, it is about the surreal universe they exist in and the wide spectrum of possibility they are given, which is not possible without the brillant touch from our man of the hour, David Lynch. Roger Ebert said he doesn't reccomend this film to anyone who requires logic, leading people to believe that there is none present. But I must say I feel exactly the opposite, Lynch's mezmorizing script possesses so much logic that trying to pick it apart would be like trying to cut cement with a plastic butter knife. What we have here is the complex story of Betty and Rita, a broke diretor and a mysterious cowboy. Betty is an innocent looking blong who wants to become a big star, Rita is a sultry brunette who can't remember who she is after escaping assassination due to a violent car crash on Mulholland Drive. We also have a director who just got fired, found his wife in bed with another man and is flat out broke. But things begin to change for him after a cowboy tells him to cast Betty as the lead role in his new movie. Betty and Rita also begin a lesbian love affair, as the memories slowly come back and we slowly slip into a bottomless pit of weirdness. The ending is typical as you won't have a clue to what has happened but unlike Lost Highway, with close enough inspection this one can
be figured out. For everyone who saw Vanillia Sky and wondered what it would be like to not be able to tell the difference between a dream and reality should watch a Lynch film, you will probably need someone to pinch you to make sure that you haven't slipped away into your own private dreamscape and really when it comes down to it that's what it's all about, dreams. First we question the destiny of these girls, then we question the fate of these girls, then finally we question the existiance of these girls. The film was pegged as an erotic thriller and where most films today with that lable fail to capture erotism or thrills, Lynch does both to perfection with his weird and obscure method of camera work and offbeat lighting he manages to send more than a few chills down your spine and the love scene between Betty and Rita is so hot I had to stop and wipe the steam off my TV screen. Although the film is less dark than Blue Velvetand less disturbing than Lost HIghway it meets both films right in the middle of the spectrun to make for the best of the three. Lynch got an Oscar nomination for his astounding direction and the film made many a critic's top ten lists and in some cases was even said to be the best film of the year. With that much hype can the film really live up to what it promises? The answer is yes, not only does it live up to the hype it exceeds it, excelling itself right up the latter of perfection.