Mulholland Drive

this film is widely lauded as the best of the 21st century. i don’t necessarily agree with that. it is great, no doubt. the one time i can remember the "it was all a dream" trope working and being very entertaining. the cinematography is beautiful, and the lynch styled feeling to it all is disorienting but amusing above all. i love how it plays on split personality and how diane’s mind and wishes are reflected in the dream portion. the dialogue of the director and the cowboy is very telling and unique, the foreshadowing is great, and the polar opposites of the dream and real life are fascinating to me. it’s as if the negative space of what happened in real life was filled in the dream, flipped on its head. the thing holding me back is that the film lightly displays the truth to itself, it feels off. the film was accidentally a film in the first place, intended to be a pilot episode, and it shows. there are also noticeable plot holes that confuse you more than necessary in a surrealist movie. what was the history of the world book? what happened to the detectives at the start? the last act is as well mended as an unintentional one can expect to be. i’m not denying lynch’s mind or storytelling. i can’t really find a word for how it feels, so i’ll just settle with saying it feels off. i hope im not alone on this. though i do think it’s the best lynch film of the century, i don’t view it too closely to the best film of the 21st century. maybe i need to sit on it more, but that’s where i stand right now.