Very Similar To Mulholland Drive

Rating: 9/10 (17 September 2005)

This was a BRILLIANT movie !! One of the reasons why I loved this move was because, to me, it was so reminiscent of Mulholland Drive (one of my all-time favorite movies). The parallels are obvious ...
In both movies, the majority of the movie was a surreal dream-scape that gradually unraveled. The main character in both movies (Trevor in the Machinist and Betty/Diane in Mulholland Drive) developed this dream-scape due to guilt and denial of a horrible act, which only gets revealed at the end of the movie.
In both movies, some of the real-life characters in the life of the main actor assume alternative personas in the "dream-scape". Both movies also had odd imaginary characters (in Mulholland Drive you had a whole parade of strange characters, in the Machinist you mainly had the creepy Ivan - very effectively played by John Sharian).
Both movies (Roque Baños in The Machinist, Angelo Badalamenti in Mulholland Drive) contained an extremely effective and creepy musical score, although they were quite distinct from each other.
Finally, the main character (Christian Bale, Naomi Watts) in these movies showed extraordinary range in their acting talents.
Of course, there are some obvious differences as well, both of these films are quite unique. And, as many have mentioned, there are some obvious parallels with other movies such as Memento.