Mulholland Drive

USA 2001, 146 minutes
Dir. David Lynch
Rating: [R18]
Genres: Suspense/Crime, Cult / Lesbian, Sex

Feat. Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring, Justin Theroux

Aroview: Dir. David Lynch returns to the defiantly enigmatic mode of ‘Twin Peaks’ and ‘Lost Highway’ with an absurdist Tinseltown satire that probably won’t win over the uninitiated.

Everyone else will be well familiar with his patented trash-noir dreamscape, this time populating La-La land with his oddball archetypes, principally a naïve, small-town ingénue with an appetite for mystery and an impossibly sultry amnesiac, who certainly provides it. Curiously retro-90s in feel, it was salvaged from a once-rejected television pilot into something that is less ‘nothing-is-what-it-seems’ than nobody is whom they seem - the director throwing out the baby with the bath water in a third act that one will either regard as unforgivably or gloriously unfathomable.

Adopt-a-Movie Kindly adopted by Sarah Fish
NZ International Film Festival 2002

Member Reviews

Average rating (Exceptional). Showing 1-3 of 4 member reviews.

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5 stars (Exceptional) Femme fatale Rita and perky blonde, Betty, who wants to make it in Hollywood, helps Rita to get her memory back. Difficult to grasp in one sitting, it takes repeat viewings to understand the dream sequences that blur the lines between reality & fantasy. ~GenXGirl
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5 stars (Exceptional) Everybody I know was trying to decode the plot, but I just loved it - I thought it made perfect sense on an emotional level. Sure, there are some hackneyed Lynchisms, but who else does what he does? Inland Empire, now that's another thing entirely... ~HiFi
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4 stars (Very Good) Screenplay is fluid rather than structured. Some comedy moments relieve the strain of trying to follow the plot. Best photography happens at night when we are travelling the lonely winding roads. Amongst the mayhem is a wonderful performance from Naomi. ~Tubbs