Elbert"s Take:
Mulholland Dr. - What can I say about this movie? It is just one fucked up movie. I don't know how to describe it. It is WAY out there. It's a movie that needs to just be seen and not critiqued. I'm not one who can explain it all, I just know that I liked it.
I'm sitting there in the theatre trying to figure out "Do I like this?" And I guess that I do because I am mesmerized by every scene and I can take my eyes off of the screen. I don't know why. I wasn't understanding what was going on throughout most of the film. I found myself saying "what the f---" after every scene and trying to figure out what the hell did that have to do with the movie. I was beggining to wonder if they slid some acid into my cheese nachos because nothing was making sense. This is a David Lynch movie, and he has yet made anything people understand totally, but this one is really off the beaten path, hell, it's off on it's own planet.
The story line is strange (read the synopsis on the left -it doesn't give anything away...I could probably tell you everything in the movie and I wouldn't be giving anything away.) And you probably will not understand the story once the credits start rolling. It's only after giving the movie lots of thought that some sense to the film comes in. That's why I need more of you to watch the movie, so we can discuss. I'm not able to figure this one out myself. But that's what makes this movie so great, the fact that days after seeing this movie, it's so engraved in my head that I'm still figuring shit out. It's not a movie for everybody, many of you will probably be upset that this isn't a structured movie where we have a problem, the main characters fix the problem, and then an ending where things are good or bad. I was starting to understand the movie more and more as I watched and just as I think I've got it down - BAM!- David Lynch throws a twist in there that just sends the movie out onto another planet and it seems that everything that I just saw no longer makes sense.
Like a classic novel, however, this needs to be dissected for all of its symbolism and ironies. I suggest you just watch the movie, take it all in without trying to understand it (because you won't) and enjoy it for what it is. It's alright to like what you see and admit that none of it made any sense. I knew I liked it but I did not know why. And when I started figuring out what some of it meant, I started to like it more and more, to the point where I believe it's one of the best movies of the year. It is a real bold statement on the sleazyness of Hollywood and how it corrupts.
Oh yeah, and Billy Ray Cyrus is in this, mullet and all. Now that is a discussion all in itself.
SYNOPSIS
IN THEATRES: OCTOBER 7, 2001 (NY)
OCTOBER 12, 2001 (LIMITED)
David Lynch strikes again with this literal nightmare of a motion picture--a brilliant, scathing, hysterical, and haunting ode to Hollywood. In the film, a mysterious dark-haired woman (Laura Elena Harring) emerges from an accident with a purse full of cash and a head full of amnesia. Meanwhile, Betty Elms (Naomi Watts), a wide-eyed gal from Deep River, Ontario, has just landed in Los Angeles with dreams of movie super stardom. When Betty finds the nameless beauty in her aunt's apartment, she is deeply intrigued by the situation and offers to help her. This sends the two women on a bizarre search for the truth through the macabre, sun-soaked streets of the City of Angels, where the mob, a young film director (Justin Theroux), a studio executive with a tiny head, and an enigmatic figure named the Cowboy all float into the picture, then out again, until there is no longer any distinction between what is dream and what is reality.
Originally filmed as a pilot for ABC, Lynch's daring, open-ended vision was coldly rejected by the network. As he was about to abandon the project, French producer Pierre Edelman convinced Lynch to rethink it as a feature. The result is this stunning expression of the subconscious, a testament to the power of personal artistic vision.
This film screened in October 2001 as part of the 39th New York Film Festival, organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City.
taken from rottentomatoes.com