MULHOLLAND DRIVE
SYNOPSIS:
Synopsis? You’ve got to be joking!
Review by Andrew L. Urban:
David Lynch’s intellectual version of a filmic executive toy, Mulholland Drive, is
riveting rubbish, brilliant balderdash and a marvellous mish mash of strange events,
stranger nightmares, fatal fantasies and the deadly dream of Hollywood. It’s a
cinematic Rubik’s Cube in which you’ll never get any of the colours to line up.
Yet it’s engrossing, amusing and infuriatingly obtuse. But what a film! Naomi Watts
is a standout as the out-of-towner looking for fame and stardom, thrown into a nightmare
– probably of her own making. Laura Harring matches Watts in every scene – and
some of the scenes are matchless as well as priceless. Nothing is out of context in this
crazy-paving movie as we jump cut from one reality to some other, and then into fantasy
and the surreal. But if you keep glued to your seat – which you will, out of sheer
jawdropped amazement – you’ll have a terrific (and lengthy) time. You might
think it’s a parable along the lines of Biblical Sodom & Gomorrah, or you might
take it as an impressionistic screen painting of a particularly engrossing dream cum
nightmare. Or you might not think at all . . .
Review by Louise Keller:
Intriguing, bizarre, astounding, surprising, confounding and utterly brilliant, David
Lynch's Mulholland Drive is a dark, complex and enthralling mystery that will leave you
breathless! A car crash; a missing person with amnesia; an elderly couple with cheshire
cat grins; a fresh faced aspiring actress with stars in her eyes; a temperamental director
who carries a 3 iron; an executive obsessed with the ultimate espresso; a hit man's
bungled murder involving a vacuum cleaner; a fire alarm and a fat woman; a Dunhill
jewellery box doused with thick lolly pink paint; a wheelchair bound freak who manipulates
people from behind glass walls; the Hollywood trip; sexual intrigue; a cobalt blue key; a
cowboy in his own corral; an extraordinary unaccompanied version of Roy Orbison's 'Crying'
in Spanish; a nightclub inside an illusion; an unknown woman with blue hair …. If
that doesn't inspire you to see Mulholland Drive, think about this. How would you like to
be hypnotised into a reality that is totally addictive? Lynch's characters are wonderfully
written and created; I could spend weeks, months, years just speculating about who they
all are and what actually happened. It's a little like stepping into a magical quicksand,
from which you wouldn't want to climb out of, even if you could. As we sink deeper and
deeper, Pandora's box opens, and it's too late to escape. We are willing victims. Perhaps
we are captured in Lynch's mind (or his nightmare). It was a joint winner of the Best
Director at Cannes 2001, and I can only strongly recommend the trip. Wonderful
performances and a great role for our own Naomie Watts, who shines at every turn, in what
ultimately offers a surprisingly big range. Laura Harring (reminiscent of Jeanne
Tripplehorn) fascinates as the mysterious brunette. Together, Watts and Harring offer
enough yin and yang (and yang and yin) to keep you riveted on the very edge of your seat.
Watch out for Marcus Graham in a cameo role – you won't forget the scene. But then
you won't forget ANY scene. And of course, there's the mystifying twist that leads to the
gobsmacking conclusion. Don't take my word for it, take a drive…
 |
|
|
CRITICAL COUNT
Favourable: 2
Unfavourable: 0
Mixed: 0
DAVID LYNCH interview
by Jenny Cooney Carrillo
MULHOLLAND DRIVE ( MA)
(US)
CAST: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Ann Miller, Justin Theroux, Robert Forster, Dan
Hedaya, Angelo Badalamenti, Melissa George, Michael J. Anderson
DIRECTOR: David Lynch
PRODUCERS: Neal Edelstein, Joyce Eliason, Tony Krantz, Michael Polaire, Alain Sarde,
Mary Sweeney
SCRIPT: David Lynch
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Peter Deming
EDITOR: Mary Sweeney
MUSIC: Angelo Badalamenti
PRODUCTION DESIGN: Jack Fisk
RUNNING TIME: 146 minutes
AUSTRALIAN DISTRIBUTOR: Roadshow
AUSTRALIAN RELEASE DATE: January 31, 2001
|
