Mulholland Drive (2001)
David Lynch’s surreal and scathing take on Hollywood was originally meant to be a primetime series for ABC. The network canceled it at the pilot stage, leaving the director to salvage it as a spellbinding feature film that, typical of Lynch, starts off somewhat classically and veers into thrillingly territory midway through.
In a breakout role, Naomi Watts plays an aspiring actress who crosses paths with a mysterious femme fatale (Laura Harring), leading to a love affair and a case of corporal transference.
Things grow even more bizarre and weird, but it’s useless to sum up the film by its plot.
One needs to experience it firsthand, plunging into a world of beauty and decay, fame and murder, movies and the mob that could only be Los Angeles.
Alongside with the 1986 coming-of-age Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive ranks among Lynch’s most memorably haunting and viscerally impressive tales, one for the ages in which every frame bears his authorial aignature.
