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Mulholland Drive


MULHOLLAND DRIVE
(2001, Lynch)
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"It'll be just like in the movies. Pretending to be somebody else."

That's what spunky and determined Betty (Naomi Watts) tells her troubled, amnesiac friend Rita (Laura Harring) as they try to piece out what happened to her. Betty, an aspiring actress, wants to live the Hollywood dream so much that he transposes the illusion of being "in a movie" to her efforts to help Rita, and God knows to what else.

That's the premise of this surreal mind-bender by David Lynch. Originally conceived as a TV pilot, Mulholland Drive came to be as Lynch kept on tinkering with it after it was rejected by TV executives. The end result is equal parts confusing, impenetrable, mesmerizing, hypnotizing, and beautiful.

Through their journey for the truth and reality, Betty and Rita stumble upon a wide array of characters, which include a troubled director (Justin Theroux), elements of the Mafia, a landlord that wants to look Chinese, a mysterious cowboy, a scary vagrant, and an old couple... all of which help Betty and Rita remember the truth of what has happened.

Ever since I first saw this back in 2001, I've been captivated by it. First day I rented it, I saw it three times in a row, and have seen it several times since. I think the way Lynch manages to pull and create emotion out of this web of seemingly unrelated and unexplainable events is simply magical, peaking with that magnificent scene at Club Silencio.

It is here that Betty and Rita's movie-like pretensions must come to an end, as they are forced to face the realities of their past; something that they might've tried too hard to hide and yet is crying to come out.

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