At least make an attempt.

Rating: Null/10 (26 July 2002)

A lot of people are having a "The Emperors' New Clothes" reaction to this film. There may be movies which just slap together a lot of "artsiness" for the sake of seeming artsy and don't put any thought into the story whatsoever, but this is not one of those movies.
I've been chewing over the movie since I saw it and there are DEFINATELY clues to making sense of it. Not that I claim to understand everything, but I've definately got a handle on it. The thing is, Lynch was forced to pack an entire storyline for a season (or several) of TV into a two-hour movie. Most directors would wrap up plotlines, find some kind of resolutions for the character arcs, drop stuff that was incidental and would have been resolved later, etc. What Lynch chose to do--I think--was instead to develop the entire THEME of the series, and treated the characters and subplots as merely a means to an end. Nobody in this movie gets an ending, except for "Diane", but the basic progression of ideas and images seems to fit together quite completely. He's telling a story of emotions that progress the way they have to, instead of having them play out according to the plot. He even throws out linear time and has the movie circle back on itself, because it's in keeping with the theme.
It's really just the story of a girl who comes to Hollywood with tons of potential, is passed over, and has her dreams crushed. I mean, that's really it. Everything else is just incidental to that, or a way of making the point in a wierd way. For instance, the girl who has her dreams crushed is not the same girl who came to town (literally). Then you have a girl with amnesia and a director who's fighting to remain true to his ideals by casting the girl he WANTS to cast, at the same time that Betty comes to town, naive and hopeful. Then the other girl gets her memory back and the director caves in, and Betty's dreams are crushed. Thematically, it all ties together. Logically, it's a bunch of random, incomplete plot threads. But that's in keeping with the "dreamlike" nature of the story.
If you want 3-act movies where plots are wrapped up, you should know better than to rent David Lynch films. I mean, there's nothing wrong with loving a movie that tells its story in a more mainstream way, but don't talk about how it's more "realistic". Forrest Gump's structure is no more "realistic" than this movie's. Life doesn't play out in three acts. But we're used to that in movies, so we accept it. This movie has different narrative rules, that's all. I guarantee that if you try to piece together the clues, you will find some measure of satisfaction. It's not just artistic w**king.