Mulholland Drive
Amazing movie. I know it's regarded as one of the best of all time but it is genuinely great.
The performances, especially by Naomi Watts as Betty/Diane Selwyn and Laura Harring as "Rita"/Camilla Rhodes are great. The narrative is entertaining to watch as we try to figure out who "Rita" is while watching Betty seemingly living her best life as an up and coming actress.
Only to find out that Betty is Diane, and I think the theory of it being Diane's dream makes sense (as we see her projections on the characters).
- Betty seemingly has it all: a loving aunt, a caring landlord, a very successful audition, and now a friend in Rita. As her dream tries to navigate through her life, once she encounters the corpse of Diane it fragments the narrative and brings us back to the reality of a depressed, unsuccessful actress.
- In the dream, Rita is left helpless at the hands of Betty. Camilla Rhodes is a bad actress purely cast for mob threats, not for her talent. In reality, Diane is desperate for Camilla's love, yet Camilla rejects her (seemingly to advance her career but maybe not) with Adam, a sleazy director. We get hints of this after Diane's corpse with Betty telling Rita she loves her with Rita giving no response.
- In the dream, Adam is successful career-wise but in life has a wife who cheats on him, drained of all his money, and forced to do not what he wants. In reality, Adam has the control, Camilla, and the success in his life, which makes Diane furious.
The film implies that Diane was the one that put the hit out on Rita in the first place that led to the car crash accident at the start of the film. The movie is just so genius (e.g. Betty is preparing the phone so Rita can call "Diane", saying "isn't it weird to call yourself," when in reality Betty is calling herself).
I think the movie does leave some questions such as about the witch and the blue box (although I interpret the Witch as representative of Diane's bad actions/qualities with the blue box being the Pandora's box releasing these atrocities into Diane's dream as Betty). The Cowboy is representative of the guilt that Diane (and Adam) come across in the film. The cinematography, scenery, and soundtrack are all beautiful too. We feel immersed in Los Angeles and Hollywood, it's just a very visually appealing film to look at.