Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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68 of 71 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Silencio!, 18 Mar 2007
Bit of a public service announcement here. Great movie, obviously, and if you don't already have it, this is certainly the edition to buy. BUT, if you have the previous DVD and you're thinking of upgrading to the new edition, I really wouldn't bother. The main selling point to me was chapter selections, which were notoriously absent previously, but notice that the new chapter divisions are "David Lynch approved"... There are now six chapters, four of which are in the last half hour (of a two and a half hour movie). They're only accessible from the menu (so you still can't skip ahead when the film is running, as you couldn't before), and the menu itself gives you absolutely no clue as to what the chapters actually are. So the main disc is really no more user-friendly than before. I think that's quite funny, but I wish I hadn't paid 14 quid to find out. As for the second disc of extras, the "making of" is not a documentary but just a lot of raw footage from the shoot and not very interesting, and the Cannes press conference isn't very illuminating either - not that I was expecting answers or explanations, but Lynch just looks bored and uncomfortable, and the rest of the cast just gush about how wonderful he is. Plus, the questions from the audience have been edited out, so the panel are replying to questions you haven't heard. The rest of the extras were already on the original release.
You DO get a booklet of the Mulholland Drive chapter from Lynch on Lynch, but that book is so good I'm guessing most Lynch fans - like me - have it already. For those who don't, but who do have Mulholland Drive from the previous release, spend your tenner on that book instead.
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31 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Down the drive..., 25 Feb 2007
Los Angeles is not known for being a spooky town, with the palm trees, sunshine and Hollywood. But David Lynch makes it so in "Mulholland Drive," a brilliantly elliptical film where nothing is as it seems. With outstanding acting, eerie direction and a thoroughly strange plotline, this is a brain-bender of the best kind.
The movie opens with heavy breathing, visions of a lovely young girl being awarded, many teen couples dancing, and a slow descent toward a pillow. Then we cut to a three-way car crash, followed by a pretty young woman (Laura Harring) wandering down the hill to an upscale apartment. But she soon encounters the owner's niece, pretty plucky Betty (Naomi Watts). When Betty learns that the mysterious young lady -- who is calling herself Rita -- has amnesia, she decides to help her find out what is going on.
Elsewhere, a promising young film director's life is falling to pieces, because of a pair of malevolent brothers who want a particular young lady to star in his film. And when Betty begins to explore the strange car accident that Rita walked away from, they find that there is a bizarre conspiracy brewing in L.A. Or is there? The path gets more and more twisted, as the boundaries of reality and dreams blur.... and it all centers on a mysterious name: Diane Selwyn.
This is a movie that doesn't make sense on the first viewing -- at first it just seems to be a straightforward suspense movie. But David Lynch completely turns that on its ear. Not everything makes sense in this film -- such as the monstrous man behind the restaurant -- but the pieces start to slowly click together as we find out who Diane Selwyn is.
When you realize what the first two hours actually are, the film makes much more sense -- a muddied look at Diane Selwyn's life, but fragmented and twisted by her desires. Multiple alter-egos, wishful thinking, obsessive lesbian love, jealousy, rage, and random people and places come into her dream, but reflected as she wants to see them, and tainted by her own guilt.
And even the sunny opening scenes, with the starry-eyed Betty arriving in sunny L.A. for an audition, take on a dark tinge when you discover who Diane was, and that she had the same experience. Naomi Watts plays both Betty and Diane, one sweet and innocent, the other bitter and unbalanced. And she's marvelous as both, whether playing a sweet young girl, or a hardened, obsessive starlet. Harding does almost as good a job as Rita, especially as the film starts, but the focus slowly and inexorable shifts to Watts.
David Lynch ignores the shiny warmth of L.A., focusing on back-alley monsters, creepy dreams and hit men. He's known for being incredibly weird, and here he doesn't disappoint -- ordinary words and occurances are sinister, and the camerawork is insanely good. The camera slowly descends, wanders down hallways, and creeps to reveal something horrible. A few scenes -- the lesbian love scene, the monstrous restaurant creature that is implied to be in the middle of it -- seem a bit out of place, but then again, their presence could be interpreted in multiple ways.
Surrealistic noir is the best way to describe "Mulholland Drive," an exceptionally strange mind-bender of a movie. Creepy, beautiful and very very unreal, and not something forgotten easily.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
*Genius*, 15 Aug 2007
Mulholland Drive is I have to say one of my most favoured Lynch films and is a must have for all collectors of DVDs from this particular director. The plot is amazingly complex and Lynch manages to perfectly portray a dream like/nightmarish psyche of which his films are well known for. I would recomend this film to anyone who like Lynch's work the only thing I do have to say is watch it yourself first and try and decipher the plot without looking up explanations on the internet as it truly will blow your mind away. I can guarentee by the end of watching this film you will be utterly confused but will want to watch it again almost immediately. This film goes hand in hand with Lynch's newest monster 'Inland Empire' which will be released shortly on DVD.
Lynch has a brilliant mind!!!
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