bnorthup
11-20-2001, 12:01 PM
Mulholland Drive (R)
At the Myrna Loy
Opens Friday, Nov. 23
Four stars
A surrealistic Lynching
Film review by Brent Northup
Picture yourself in an apartment by a river near tangerine trees and marmalade skies. You are sitting in a bean bag chair in a room lit only by a red lava lamp. The wine de jour is Ripple. The music playing on the Dual turntable is the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” In that setting, the perfect movie to pop into the VCR would have been David Lynch’s "Mulholland Drive". Of course, VCRs weren't around yet and the movie wouldn’t be released for 30 years, but those are trivial points since neither Lennon nor Lynch inhabited worlds where time mattered.
"Mulholland Drive" is an “emperor’s new clothes” movie that is either a) so brilliant that we common folk can’t fathom even a third of what is going on or b) so warped and psychedelic that only the patients in Chekov’s Ward No. 6 have any hope of translating it or c) both.
Before joining in this juicy debate, let’s pause for a brief summary (snicker, snicker).
"Mulholland Drive" is about a naïve young blonde with the sun in her eyes who goes to L.A. to become a star. It’s about a bloody murder, a bumbling hit man and a frightening monster who appears in dark alleys. It’s about a lesbian love affair. It’s about a mysterious key in a box. Oh, by the way, the actors play multiple roles without telling us why. At least half the film is flashback, except it’s not so easy to tell – even in retrospect – where the dream sequences begin and end. I kept waiting for rocking horse people to eat marshmallow pies.
Any questions?
First of all, I must confess that I was spellbound watching “Mulholland Drive” simply because I love Lynch’s Mobius strip movies which present his own kaleidoscopic vision of the world. I still haven’t recovered from seeing the nightmarish baby in “Eraserhead” - and that was 23 years ago. I saw “Mullholland Drive” when I was out of town and had to ride a subway to get to it, but I figured it would be worth being mugged so long as I still had $6 for the ticket.
Since returning home, I have been reading about the movie. The best article is on a website called "salon.com." Enter writer Bill Wyman’s name in Salon’s search engine and you’ll find the never-ending essay that tries to decipher the film. Roger Ebert’s essay/interview on his Chicago Sun-Times website is helpful, too.
I would rather steer you to those insightful pieces than to pretend I have unraveled Lynch. I haven’t.
But what a trip it is to travel down Mulholland Drive, past the flowers that grow so incredibly high. I’ll sit in the back with my head in the clouds this weekend just to see if anything makes anymore sense. But, to be honest, I’ll be disappointed if it does. Somebody turn on that lava lamp. And then we’ll turn on Lucy.
END
Note to Carroll Boards film buffs. I think I've given four stars to three films this year - Moulin Rouge, Hearts in Atlantis and now Mulholland Drive. And, yes it's true, I rarely award four stars. I've been attending movies for 50 years and reviewing them for 25 years, so it takes something special to earn my highest rating.
At the Myrna Loy
Opens Friday, Nov. 23
Four stars
A surrealistic Lynching
Film review by Brent Northup
Picture yourself in an apartment by a river near tangerine trees and marmalade skies. You are sitting in a bean bag chair in a room lit only by a red lava lamp. The wine de jour is Ripple. The music playing on the Dual turntable is the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” In that setting, the perfect movie to pop into the VCR would have been David Lynch’s "Mulholland Drive". Of course, VCRs weren't around yet and the movie wouldn’t be released for 30 years, but those are trivial points since neither Lennon nor Lynch inhabited worlds where time mattered.
"Mulholland Drive" is an “emperor’s new clothes” movie that is either a) so brilliant that we common folk can’t fathom even a third of what is going on or b) so warped and psychedelic that only the patients in Chekov’s Ward No. 6 have any hope of translating it or c) both.
Before joining in this juicy debate, let’s pause for a brief summary (snicker, snicker).
"Mulholland Drive" is about a naïve young blonde with the sun in her eyes who goes to L.A. to become a star. It’s about a bloody murder, a bumbling hit man and a frightening monster who appears in dark alleys. It’s about a lesbian love affair. It’s about a mysterious key in a box. Oh, by the way, the actors play multiple roles without telling us why. At least half the film is flashback, except it’s not so easy to tell – even in retrospect – where the dream sequences begin and end. I kept waiting for rocking horse people to eat marshmallow pies.
Any questions?
First of all, I must confess that I was spellbound watching “Mulholland Drive” simply because I love Lynch’s Mobius strip movies which present his own kaleidoscopic vision of the world. I still haven’t recovered from seeing the nightmarish baby in “Eraserhead” - and that was 23 years ago. I saw “Mullholland Drive” when I was out of town and had to ride a subway to get to it, but I figured it would be worth being mugged so long as I still had $6 for the ticket.
Since returning home, I have been reading about the movie. The best article is on a website called "salon.com." Enter writer Bill Wyman’s name in Salon’s search engine and you’ll find the never-ending essay that tries to decipher the film. Roger Ebert’s essay/interview on his Chicago Sun-Times website is helpful, too.
I would rather steer you to those insightful pieces than to pretend I have unraveled Lynch. I haven’t.
But what a trip it is to travel down Mulholland Drive, past the flowers that grow so incredibly high. I’ll sit in the back with my head in the clouds this weekend just to see if anything makes anymore sense. But, to be honest, I’ll be disappointed if it does. Somebody turn on that lava lamp. And then we’ll turn on Lucy.
END
Note to Carroll Boards film buffs. I think I've given four stars to three films this year - Moulin Rouge, Hearts in Atlantis and now Mulholland Drive. And, yes it's true, I rarely award four stars. I've been attending movies for 50 years and reviewing them for 25 years, so it takes something special to earn my highest rating.