Oh boy. This review/rating might come as a shock to people who have known me/followed me over the years, but watching it on the big screen again made me realize what I had been denying all along. Mulholland Drive has lost its luster.
First, a little history: I was introduced to David Lynch at a very formative time in high school. I’ve been a very committed fan for years—Eraserhead, Fire Walk with Me, Inland Empire, Dune, Twin Peaks: The Return, and Mulholland Drive have all at one point or another been on my top ten of all time. Now, I’m much more interested in the realist/humanist side of filmmaking (Mike Leigh), and so Lynch’s quirks are just not cute anymore.
Secondly, to clarify, this is around my tenth watch, so I would definitely call myself an authority on the film, warts and all.
I know a number of the issues I’m going to talk about are probably a part of Lynch’s intent, but as I’ve said in other reviews, subversion for the sake of subversion amounts to nothing. A glaring example occurs quite early in the film with Watts at the airport. The ADR is terrible. Of course, people have assigned this technical oddity with meaning, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. If the intent was to remind the audience of the artifice of filmmaking, okay, you achieved it, David, but couldn’t you have gone further? Couldn’t you have shot it on vhs, for instance? Slightly out of focus? Anything else? The lack of commitment ruins the bit. As it stands, proper sound design would have suited it much better.
Furthermore, Lynch has an aggravating tendency to imply importance during certain moments that ultimately amount to nothing. Probably the most egregious example is the scene (at about the midpoint of the film) when Watts and Theroux are on the movie set. Theroux turns around, and they make a dramatic push in on him, and then Watts turns around, and they push in on her. They lock eyes, as if there was this connection made between them, but nothing comes of it!
Admittedly, Lynch is often a brilliant visual artist, but he could really use a writing partner. Mulholland Drive appears to be the type of story told through a series of vignettes, like Pulp Fiction, Magnolia, Love Actually, except in those films, each vignette amounts to something. Instead, there are so many loose threads left hanging. What ever happened to the purse full of cash? Theroux’s movie shoot? The cowboy? Winkie’s? The little black book (the “history of the world through phone numbers”)? That last one is probably the most aggravating because I quite enjoy that scene. Wish it continued. Very Coens-esque.
Naomi Watts is a great actress, no doubt. And I won’t deny she’s great in this, at least scene by scene. But the issue is the consistency in her performance. There’s none. For a good two-thirds of the film, she’s got this bubbly personality that I think contrasts nicely with the brooding atmosphere. Then there’s this shift, and suddenly she’s a completely different person. I wouldn’t blame Watts necessarily. She does what she can with what she’s given. The issue is that there’s no justification for this shift (i.e. a turning point in the script), so her performance ultimately falls flat.
Really, at this point I’m sick of acting like Lynch is this absolutely singular, first-to-ever-do-it director. Ever heard of Buñuel? Jodorowsky? Deren? Cocteau? Maddin? Kelly? Guterman? Plus he straight up copies Persona shot for shot in this film! And his paintings are too close to Francis Bacon’s work for comfort. Without originality, what else is there!
Unfortunately, it also must be said that I can no longer ignore Lynch’s behind-the-scenes behavior. I typically try to separate the art from the artist, but at a certain point, bad behavior starts to affect the films themselves. I read an article on the Daily Mail about how Lynch had a quarrel with Laura Harring about her nudity in the film, and even though she agreed to the scene, Lynch completely changed her narrative for the last third of the movie and butchered her character arch. It was an incredibly petty move on his part, and a disappointing one at that since I was interested in seeing her character grapple with her memory loss. I also saw some disturbing BTS footage of Lynch harassing child actors on set. Take a look if you haven’t seen it before: youtu.be/LEUlW9IDXOw
It’s been a long and winding road with Mulholland Drive, but I probably won’t be revisiting it for a while. I’ve been sitting on these thoughts for such a long time. Unfortunate timing posting this on April 1 as I’m sure not everyone will take me seriously, but ultimately it’s good to get it all off my chest. I’m free!
Rewatch rating: 2/5
April fools! Still the best movie ever lol