My first experience with Mulholland Drive was seminal. It so totally confused and moved me that I was haunted for years and it remained in my head like a dream and a movie I shouldn't weaken with too many views. Over a decade later and I'm so well-read on David Lynch's career that revisiting Mullholland was just a smooth and easy joy.
The film has attained a kind of mythic stature even in the realm of other Lynch projects, as the first great film of the modern era and having an almost universal love from critics, casual moviegoers and Lynch fans. Its pretty straightforward Lynch, with surrealism and code dialed way back, but it still resonates so much. I think its because MD is the film where Lynch's aesthetic clicked for most fans. "Oh, he's talking about loss, madness, delusion, coming-of-age, heartache, idealism and metaphysics in ALL of his work". Its funny to think there was a time where this film was considered impossible to decipher and wildly obtuse. More than Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet and Eraserhead, Mulholland has influenced its generation and kind of capped off the era that came before it.
Needless to say, the film has aged nicely. The flat and bright look of the film came from a small budget, but now it gives it this wonderful fairytale, TV world vibe contrasted with our uber-gritty, super stylized HD modernism. The film is loaded with totally unrealistic sound effects which have to be intentional on Lynch's part, giving it a surreal cartoon quality. These little details escaped me when the film was new. Its so thoroughly modern in its tricks and moods, but this is doesn't seem as personal to Lynch as any other film. This and works like Blue Velvet are more love letters to the fans and America than any dark confession from Lynch, while still being quite brutally honest and even frightening.
Maybe the thing that elevates this one to immortality is the performance by Naomi Watts. She is the quintessential Lynch actress. The duality. The irony. The tragedy. The incredible beauty. The unmistakable reality of herself within the character. And she is supported by a role that really says it all about every Lynch protagonist and Lynch himself. The tragic fall that she takes from happy go lucky, smalltown bewilderment to crushing, horrified, demoralized self-reflective defeat is the major arc in Lynch's life, as he has hinted and played out in his professional life. Watts and Lynch are perfect collaborators with her knowing every tearful detail of his life and him nurturing all of the power and potential within her. This film made an A-lister out of her and cemented Lynch as the greatest director not officially on the A-list. He deserves an Oscar for this film, as does she.
Now its a great intro to Lynch's world as it has all the major themes and stylistic touches, coated in a very basic and easy veneer. In that way, it best captures his overarching obsession with surfaces and what they contain. Its his always amazing view on life wrapped in its prettiest bow.
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