A different kind of ghost story (mild spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (6 December 2001)

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** "Mulholland Drive" is the type of polarizing film that rarely gets made or seen these days. Judging by the varying degrees of prior critiques listed on this site, most people reading would conclude that you will either love or hate "Mulholland Drive". Also worth noting is the assurance from some critics that this film is only for David Lynch fans.

Okay, so I am a bonafide David Lynch fan. For you the reader looking for opinions whether or not you should waste your money on this thing. I have a simple observation posing as sort of a question. The genesis of Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks are the same. Both were blueprints of television shows. If you do believe as I do that ultimately Twin Peaks was a failure, yet that television series had such an ambitious scope that it could not be ignored, then I think you might enjoy "Mulholland Drive".
Yes "Mulholland Drive", the result of Lynch bringing "closure" to an aborted television pilot and series ultimately falls short, but what the film and Lynch try to accomplish still makes it one of the best movies of this year and maybe the past ten years. I do believe that if the film did fire on all cylinders, It would be one of the greatest films of the past twenty five years.
Why? "Mulholland Drive" in all of it's post-modern glory does reference several other films, most notably Vertigo, Persona, and Sunset Boulevard, but the film boldy tries to make an emotional and spiritual connection with it's audience in a way that counters conventions of three acts, dialogue, and conventional plot. In many ways "Mulholland Drive" lives and breaths in uncharted territory. This film haunts you for days, even several weeks after you have seen it. Being a different type of ghost story maybe the spirits of Hollywood Past and the unfortunate spirits of Hollywood's Future the film conjures up can't easily be forgotten or be denounced by saying "This movie makes no sense". I would even argue that people who even hate the movie have had some of the film's images pop up in dreams. They just don't know about it.

(mild spoilers)
In addition, even though I think Mulholland is ultimately a failure, the film is singular for me in proving that not only the Hollywood Dream but maybe the American Dream is dead or dying. The cause of this can be contributed to all the soulessness that comes with the corporations, be it movie studios or any other conglomerate promising the world to young optimistic naive people like the central character Betty/Diane, then watching as those spirited individuals are reduced to empty shells devoid of spirit, soul, and ultimately life(as proven by the ending of the film, and not unlike the charred blackend being that inhabits the dumpster behind the coffee shop.) It is kind of funny that Diane in her dream choses the Mob and not corporate hollywood as the machinery behind the movie business.

(mild Spoilers)
Now in light of September 11, this is not a comfortable theme to digest. But the film's brilliance is how it becomes almost and interactive experience for the audience. Even though it is a dream state, I fell in love with the idea of Betty and I rooted for her to succeed. That is why the ending was so devastating to me. On a human level we really like the dream factories, we want the optimistic people to succeed. In reality, Hollywood and maybe Corporate America functions better by chewing them up and spitting them out. What do they have to worry about. There is an endless supply of dream seekers. And the great thing is that they all look the same and are interchangable.
In closing, the film snob in me wants to say if you go to movies just to be entertained on a basic level and treat movies as another form of escapism, by all means, do not go see "Mulholland Drive".

But if you want a movie to really challenge the way you think and feel about how movies can work, "Mulholland Drive" with all it's flaws should not be missed.
I also see a lot of similarities between "Mulholland Drive" and "Fight Club". Both were misunderstood upon release. Both are controversial. Both films present similar themes. As the years pass, the status of Fight Club seems to increase. I think the same thing will happen with "Mulholland Drive".
8 out of 10