Mulholland Drive

This is either a masterpiece or a bad trip, but an excellent and unusual experience in any case. Also, since my first encounter with Lynch, I have learnt how to watch his films (to accept that most of the action doesn’t take place in the real world), so this time I’m convinced that I know what this one is roughly about, and it actually begins to make sense in the last half hour. Basically, it draws attention to feelings and conditions that are common in a person’s daily life, even if they are not always aware of them: desire, disappointment, pain, escape, revenge. PS: Or it’s something completely different. (05/03/2009)

Mulholland Drive is not a film for viewers who need a clearly defined script, want answers, and a clear resolution. It is, on the other hand, suitable for those who like to play, enjoy a mysterious atmosphere, and possess a good dose of imagination and creativity. Mulholland Drive is primarily a typically Lynchian game with genres and pop-cultural references, featuring excellent music, great acting performances, precise editing, and interesting cinematography. It’s a film that made Naomi Watts a major star. Overall impression: 95%. Along with the much darker Lost Highway, it's probably Lynch's best work. (24/09/2007)

I can't help it, but I guess I've seen too many Lynch films in too short of a time, which leads to the fact that I don't like "Mulholland Drive" as much as I could. But when I watch this film, I see elements from all of Lynch's previous works that he has directed. There is something from "Twin Peaks", there is something from "Lost Highway", from "Blue Velvet" and also a certain intensity from "Wild at Heart". It's great that Lynch maintains his style, that it's still him, but his mind games are rather painful for me. The craziest thing is that there are people here trying to analyze the film with the belief that there is a clear explanation of what we're watching. With Lynch's films (especially the recent ones, except for "The Straight Story"), there is simply no key. It's not about understanding what the director meant, but simply taking something from the film, finding your own path, but not expecting that yours is the only correct one. Lynch is brilliant in this respect, but he is also repetitive in this aspect. (19/03/2014)

Brilliantly told...... hypnotic. Once I figure out exactly what the poet was trying to say, I'll pack my bags, drive to LA, and tap a celebratory keg on Mulholland Drive in Lynch's honour, but until then I'll just have a few beers to celebrate a disarming cinematic puzzle that harbours big ideas and never before seen narrative mastery, though it perhaps unnecessarily stretches out the action in the first two acts and delays the final big bang, during which I shuddered even at parts whose inflection is entirely inappropriate for this database, and I was already grasping for potential explanations, only to be outwitted again by Lynch, who has done something that only Jindra Petáková and her high school maths textbook have so far managed to do: weld my brain and condemn me to a grade between 4 and zero. I'll give it a four this time, because I admire the flamboyant command of attention on the level of so many characters, which turns out in the end to be so gripping and mutually motivated, and I'm looking forward to the second viewing, from which I'm already promising myself pure five-star ecstasy over the hypnotic cinematography, the music, the breasts of Watts and Harring, and of course the story, which has something to say, even though it utters it only in unknowns. I'm really eager to figure out how everything works, and with that David has clearly done his bit... 85% (25/10/2012)

A film about the purity and vulnerability of the human soul, about life’s dreams and the desire to fulfil the expectations that are placed on us. A film about the fear of touching the ideal, about disappointment, desperation and hatred, about the ugliness of the world outside (specifically Hollywood in this case). This film doesn’t have one clear point, there is no “right key” to it. Mulholland Drive is a mosaic of multiple ideas that could have been put across in a much simpler, but not as interesting and compelling way. The number of connections in the film that tell you something depends on your personal experiences and your awareness of their place in your life. A simultaneously cruel and beautiful soap opera. (04/10/2005)