Mulholland Dr. is the first David Lynch movie I saw in a theater and on a big screen.
After years of watching Blue Velvet on shitty pan-and-scan VHS,
I could see a Lynch film exactly the way it was intended. It did not disappoint.
After years of watching Blue Velvet on shitty pan-and-scan VHS,
I could see a Lynch film exactly the way it was intended. It did not disappoint.
Mulholland Dr. was that rare movie that ended up being everything I could’ve hoped for and then some.
Initially, I was concerned that it might be a bit of an overheated mess, like Lost Highway,
which was the most recent Lynch film I had seen at the time.
(I’m not sure I even knew about The Straight Story back then.)
But Mulholland Dr. delivered a nightmarish and hilarious mystery rooted in character and atmosphere
and driven by clever dialogue suffused throughout with a sense of the cruel and the absurd.
Initially, I was concerned that it might be a bit of an overheated mess, like Lost Highway,
which was the most recent Lynch film I had seen at the time.
(I’m not sure I even knew about The Straight Story back then.)
But Mulholland Dr. delivered a nightmarish and hilarious mystery rooted in character and atmosphere
and driven by clever dialogue suffused throughout with a sense of the cruel and the absurd.
Some movies, when I’ve watched them, have confused the shit out of me.
I am full of questions and perplexities and conundrums.
I am left profoundly unsettled, uncertain of the ground upon which I stand.
I no longer know who I am, or I’m not as certain about myself as I was before.
What does this mean?
Why is all this weird shit happening?
Who is that guy? Where did this gal come from?
Why are the dead rising from the grave?
Who actually thinks nuclear war is a good idea?
What the fuck is going on?
Why was Kane so hung up on that snowsled?
Did the monolith make the primates smarter?
Why does the primate ancestor throw the bone up into the air?
Did the bone become an orbital missile platform just like that?
Did the bone become an orbital missile platform just like that?
How did that happen?
Is the magic in the choice of edit?
Is the magic of the edit the power to fuck with space and time and space/time?
Why is there a giant fetus-in-a-bubble in orbit around the Earth?
Why did the astronaut-man get old and die?
Was the elderly astronaut-man reborn as the giant space fetus?
Why did the smart computer being murder the one astronaut?
What was HAL-9000’s major malfunction?
Did Tetsuo evolve into a universe at the end?
Why did the kid go and do that?
Where did he get all that extra mass?
Why do Kanaeda and Tetsuo shout each other’s names over and over?
Where does Optimus Prime’s trailer go when he transforms?
Why do all the crew members of Space Battleship Yamato have arrows on their uniforms
pointing down towards their crotches?
pointing down towards their crotches?
Is Space Battleship Yamato the one true Love Boat?
Did Batman actually die in a nuclear fucking explosion?
Did Alfred actually see Bruce and Selina at that cafe, or was that just his fantasy?
Did The Dark Knight Rises rip off Gundam 8th MS Team’s indecisive double ending?
Why would they do that?
Is it so hard to say goodbye to Shiro and Aina or the Batman?
Or to let a powerful ending work-just leave it the hell alone, people!
Sometimes it’s okay for your protagonist to die.
Or to let a powerful ending work-just leave it the hell alone, people!
Sometimes it’s okay for your protagonist to die.
Especially if it counts for something big, y’know?
Why does Hollywood spend millions of dollars to make a new Halloween movie,
when they could spend a fraction of that cost just to re-release the original John Carpenter film?
That’s the one to see.
None of the sequels or remakes have lived up to the original.
Not even close.
when they could spend a fraction of that cost just to re-release the original John Carpenter film?
That’s the one to see.
None of the sequels or remakes have lived up to the original.
Not even close.
If Hollywood is going to do exploitative remakes, they should try something kind of arty.
Like a remake of a respectable arthouse picture as done by YouTubers.
Think about it: if the Angry Video Game Nerd, the Nostalgia Critic, and Red Letter Media
spent the same amount of time trying to make actual movies that they’ve spent mocking pop culture,
they would be among the most prolific filmmakers in the business.
Like a remake of a respectable arthouse picture as done by YouTubers.
Think about it: if the Angry Video Game Nerd, the Nostalgia Critic, and Red Letter Media
spent the same amount of time trying to make actual movies that they’ve spent mocking pop culture,
they would be among the most prolific filmmakers in the business.
I want to see a remake of Blue is the Warmest Color
directed by Mike Stoklasa
and starring Jay Bauman and Rich Evans
in the roles originally played by Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux, respectively.
Why can’t Hollywood do something like that?
What’s the holdup?
Mysteries . . .
Will I be forgiven for wishing they would've made the Mulholland Dr. tv series?
directed by Mike Stoklasa
and starring Jay Bauman and Rich Evans
in the roles originally played by Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux, respectively.
Why can’t Hollywood do something like that?
What’s the holdup?
Mysteries . . .
Will I be forgiven for wishing they would've made the Mulholland Dr. tv series?
Was it Killer Bob or Leland Palmer who ended those young women’s lives?
Did Killer Bob take over all the spiritual command and control functions,
or did Leland let Killer Bob in?
Did Killer Bob take over all the spiritual command and control functions,
or did Leland let Killer Bob in?
Was it collaboration?
Or total takeover?
Or did collaboration lead to total takeover?
Or total takeover?
Or did collaboration lead to total takeover?
Why did Agent Cooper get fragmented into so many different Coops?
Is the Black Lodge a factory for cranking out doppelgangers or tulpas or whatever you want to call them?
Is the Black Lodge a factory for cranking out doppelgangers or tulpas or whatever you want to call them?
I watch,
and I think,
and I always ask,
“Is this a metaphor or is it just a motherfucker?”
Mulholland Dr., when I first saw it, struck me as a surrealistic mystery which must be definitively solved.
Over the years,
I’ve come to think of it as an experience of unstable identities,
shifting realities,
very much like Lost Highway,
but with more relatable characters, and something closer to a coherent narrative
despite the all-encompassing Lynchian weirdness.
I feel as though I’ve come to understand Mulholland Dr.
in a way that I cannot grasp Lost Highway or Inland Empire-
two of Lynch’s more forbidding cinematic works.
Over the years,
I’ve come to think of it as an experience of unstable identities,
shifting realities,
very much like Lost Highway,
but with more relatable characters, and something closer to a coherent narrative
despite the all-encompassing Lynchian weirdness.
I feel as though I’ve come to understand Mulholland Dr.
in a way that I cannot grasp Lost Highway or Inland Empire-
two of Lynch’s more forbidding cinematic works.
And yet, one mystery still abides regarding Mulholland Dr.:
How in hell did Justin Theroux get top billing over Naomi Watts?
Must have a killer agent.
What will I think now?
Diving in . . .
