I tend to be behind in watching films, especially films that are usually acclaimed, praised, or controversial. I was only 18 when David Lynch's Mulholland Drive had opened in theaters, and during that point in my life, I had not much interest in watching surrealistic films such as this one. I've gone on to see Blue Velvet, Eraserhead, Wild at Heart, Lost Highway, and even sat through half of Inland Empire. However, I've put off watching Mulholland Drive until now.
This film was surreal and dreamlike, fragmented and out of-sync; like many of my favorite Toni Morrison and Virginia Woolf novels, and that of some of Roberto Bolano's writing. I've always got to mention Mr. Bolano. Lynch's film is intensely lush, gorgeous, mysterious, gritty and sultry at the same time. It's definitely a homage to that famous film, Sunset Blvd (1950) the gold standard of how Hollywood tends to discard talent with its fickle mindset. Think of Naomi Watts' dual roles as Gloria Swanson's Norma Desmond having parallel realities (and think of Norma never making it big!) It's also an indictment of the Hollywood machine---who has the tendency to destroy innocence, the tendency to engulf is in its seductive glamour; and of how we use Hollywood as an alternate reality from our own damaged selves. It's a mindblowing film.
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