I appreciated a lot about this movie, and overall I think what it does is really cool.

Starting with the positives:
- Great cinematography, I loved the first person pov shots, built genuine tension and fear for me (Betty exploring the apartment for the first time)
- Not my favorite type of humor overall, but the Billy Ray Cyrus scene is hilarious to me
- Intensely eerie music that generates unease
- The sense of intrigue and discovery in the plot keeps you engaged the entire time

SPOILERS BELOW
My thoughts are best summarized as I love the twist ending and I hate the reveal.

The concept of “it was all a dream” can easily come off as lazy writing and “confusion for the sake of confusion”, and most movies would fall into that trap, but this movie does not. What an amazing concept to take the audience into a dream world for 2 whole hours while simultaneously shoving that in their face (weird plot holes, uncanny dialog and characters) and leaving the audience completely unaware that you are doing that. The movie so successfully fools the audience in plain sight and afterwards makes you go “well that should have been obvious”, which is so clever. I also love a movie that is rewatchable and lets you discover and appreciate new things the next viewings. Great job, this is so cool.

Unfortunately, this movie fails to sufficiently let the audience in on “the joke”. It’s more than a joke for sure, but I think this is a good analogy for my thoughts. Jokes are not funny if you over explain them, and they are similarly not funny if the audience does not get them. Both are bad form - over explaining ruins any cleverness or intrigue, under explaining makes the audience feel dumb and not in on it.

This movie does not sufficiently let the audience in on the dream -> reality transition. While I do not think it should over explain everything, there should definitely be a moment of illumination where something clicks for the viewer. The fact that myself and other friends were able to leave the theater without getting it, means the movie fails to be accessible. This comes off as a bit pretentious and punches down on the audience.

With just the ever so slightest amount more of reveal and illumination this movie could have been legendary. Maybe this is more forgivable of a sin than I’m giving it credit for, but to me this is really important.

Watched with @kt @ratiekeeves @liamnolan @sarish @jide @michaeljecmen

I appreciated a lot about this movie, and overall I think what it does is really cool.

Starting with the positives:
- Great cinematography, I loved the first person pov shots, built genuine tension and fear for me (Betty exploring the apartment for the first time)
- Not my favorite type of humor overall, but the Billy Ray Cyrus scene is hilarious to me
- Intensely eerie music that generates unease
- The sense of intrigue and discovery in the plot keeps you engaged the entire time

SPOILERS BELOW
My thoughts are best summarized as I love the twist ending and I hate the reveal.

The concept of “it was all a dream” can easily come off as lazy writing and “confusion for the sake of confusion”, and most movies would fall into that trap, but this movie does not. What an amazing concept to take the audience into a dream world for 2 whole hours while simultaneously shoving that in their face (weird plot holes, uncanny dialog and characters) and leaving the audience completely unaware that you are doing that. The movie so successfully fools the audience in plain sight and afterwards makes you go “well that should have been obvious”, which is so clever. I also love a movie that is rewatchable and lets you discover and appreciate new things the next viewings. Great job, this is so cool.

Unfortunately, this movie fails to sufficiently let the audience in on “the joke”. It’s more than a joke for sure, but I think this is a good analogy for my thoughts. Jokes are not funny if you over explain them, and they are similarly not funny if the audience does not get them. Both are bad form - over explaining ruins any cleverness or intrigue, under explaining makes the audience feel dumb and not in on it.

This movie does not sufficiently let the audience in on the dream -> reality transition. While I do not think it should over explain everything, there should definitely be a moment of illumination where something clicks for the viewer. The fact that myself and other friends were able to leave the theater without getting it, means the movie fails to be accessible. This comes off as a bit pretentious and punches down on the audience.

With just the ever so slightest amount more of reveal and illumination this movie could have been legendary. Maybe this is more forgivable of a sin than I’m giving it credit for, but to me this is really important.

Watched with @kt @ratiekeeves @liamnolan @sarish @jide @michaeljecmen

Ya, this movie is just jam-packed with symbolism and metaphors; Lynch pays such insane attention to detail in building up and breaking down layers on layers on layers of meaning. I guess my contribution to the oeuvre of flick reviews my homies are comin out w will be to raise the question of whether or not this movie is empowering or demeaning or neutral in its treatment of its two, often braless, female leads

Within the layers and layers, betty and rita, and later, Diane and Camilla, are forces being acted upon by their more powerful, ominous, threatening, and influential male counterparts. their careers, their love, and their safety rest upon their understanding of and participation in an overwhelmingly male system. From Rita literally having no idea who she is, to Diane’s ~woman on the verge~ rage leading her to [make decision I don’t want to spoil], I wonder about lynch’s choice to make the two actresses - who oscillate from being total strangers to being two sides of the same person - the pawns of the game he is problematizing and exploring

Ya, this movie is just jam-packed with symbolism and metaphors; Lynch pays such insane attention to detail in building up and breaking down layers on layers on layers of meaning. I guess my contribution to the oeuvre of flick reviews my homies are comin out w will be to raise the question of whether or not this movie is empowering or demeaning or neutral in its treatment of its two, often braless, female leads

Within the layers and layers, betty and rita, and later, Diane and Camilla, are forces being acted upon by their more powerful, ominous, threatening, and influential male counterparts. their careers, their love, and their safety rest upon their understanding of and participation in an overwhelmingly male system. From Rita literally having no idea who she is, to Diane’s ~woman on the verge~ rage leading her to [make decision I don’t want to spoil], I wonder about lynch’s choice to make the two actresses - who oscillate from being total strangers to being two sides of the same person - the pawns of the game he is problematizing and exploring

mullholland drive is some kind of “experimental mystery thriller” set in hollywood, and it BANGS

it piques your curiosity with its immediate aliennness, it continually wins your full focus with a blend of tension building and clue dropping, and it does NOT hold your hand —  a lot is up for interpretation by the time the credits roll, and trust me, that’s a huge plus. for me that’ll easily be the longest imprint this movie has on my memory. see this with friends and plan to grab food afterwards — you’ll have a ton to dissect and debate

on that front — after discussing with friends, reading some more, and watching some breakdowns (see end for my recommended youtube postgame), I definitely wish I had taken like 30 minutes to think and come to my own conclusions after watching this. I ended up discussing it with the squad, which contained some repeat watchers, and I asked some questions that maybe (maybe) I would have reasoned out the answers to on my own had I given myself some more time

but alas, now I’ll never know

I’m intentionally being vague here, and it’s because there’s a singular “thing” that’s core to this movie, and if you don’t “get it”, you’ll leave the theater confused and unable to engage with the movie at all. as soon as you get it (or look it up a plot summary, there’s zero shame in this IMO it totally unblocks a world of interesting discussion), you’ll be able to see beyond the tip of the iceberg

if this movie wasn’t plain old great anyway, I would be torn on this issue — I’d bet that most people don’t “get it” (it being the entire movie) without prompting, and that certainly annoys me. a lot of the juicy bits of this movie are inaccessible to an average moviegoer without an internet connection. that’s hella lame.

you can definitely convey and understand the full depths of humanity without a phd in literature, so I’ll always prefer the movies that leave all viewers with at least a basic understanding of “what the fuck actually happened”

[[ stop reading now if you haven’t seen this, spoilers below ]]




they nailed the vibe — you can tell something’s up with the story world pretty immediately, and the kicker for me here was the dialogue. the dialogue is TERRIBLE (awkwardly written and poorly delivered), like what I imagine the first talkies sounded like. surely it’s intentional — diane’s idealized “early hollywood cinema world” made even more chiefed by it being a dream. the popular music is so good (there are 3 great songs in here), and the original soundtrack is experimental and unsettling as hell. camera work is great too — some shakycam POV shots, some crazy long zooms / pulls, some really good visual effects (that one layered shot of betty and rita, the small old folks), and most shots are CRAMPED as hell — so claustrophobic, so dreamlike. and of course there are just some plot elements that are so weird — bar silencio and the cowboy are legendary head-scratching moments. “fever dream” is laughably on the nose, which means they nailed what they were going for.

oh and the horror elements are incredibly well done, I was genuinely nervous for a good chunk of this movie and that hobo scared the FUCK out of me

cowboy philosophy scene was definitely my favorite. the directness of his line of questioning is arresting — you are definitely being spoken to as a viewer. ““think for a second.” “I don’t believe you, you’re not thinking about it. stop and think”

the sex / sex related scenes are HOT and tuned perfectly to each environment

and a strange “great acting” nod to give again here but I’m definitely giving it — the dream acting is consistently uncanny. rewatch that original diner scene and tell me you aren’t instantly sure something’s up

great / 10

saw at the roxie with @sarish (big shoutout here for pushing everyone to see this), @kt, @bgivertz, @liamnolan, @jide, and @ratiekeeves

now, postgame 📸🫵: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiCfHW3N3vo

mullholland drive is some kind of “experimental mystery thriller” set in hollywood, and it BANGS

it piques your curiosity with its immediate aliennness, it continually wins your full focus with a blend of tension building and clue dropping, and it does NOT hold your hand —  a lot is up for interpretation by the time the credits roll, and trust me, that’s a huge plus. for me that’ll easily be the longest imprint this movie has on my memory. see this with friends and plan to grab food afterwards — you’ll have a ton to dissect and debate

on that front — after discussing with friends, reading some more, and watching some breakdowns (see end for my recommended youtube postgame), I definitely wish I had taken like 30 minutes to think and come to my own conclusions after watching this. I ended up discussing it with the squad, which contained some repeat watchers, and I asked some questions that maybe (maybe) I would have reasoned out the answers to on my own had I given myself some more time

but alas, now I’ll never know

I’m intentionally being vague here, and it’s because there’s a singular “thing” that’s core to this movie, and if you don’t “get it”, you’ll leave the theater confused and unable to engage with the movie at all. as soon as you get it (or look it up a plot summary, there’s zero shame in this IMO it totally unblocks a world of interesting discussion), you’ll be able to see beyond the tip of the iceberg

if this movie wasn’t plain old great anyway, I would be torn on this issue — I’d bet that most people don’t “get it” (it being the entire movie) without prompting, and that certainly annoys me. a lot of the juicy bits of this movie are inaccessible to an average moviegoer without an internet connection. that’s hella lame.

you can definitely convey and understand the full depths of humanity without a phd in literature, so I’ll always prefer the movies that leave all viewers with at least a basic understanding of “what the fuck actually happened”

[[ stop reading now if you haven’t seen this, spoilers below ]]




they nailed the vibe — you can tell something’s up with the story world pretty immediately, and the kicker for me here was the dialogue. the dialogue is TERRIBLE (awkwardly written and poorly delivered), like what I imagine the first talkies sounded like. surely it’s intentional — diane’s idealized “early hollywood cinema world” made even more chiefed by it being a dream. the popular music is so good (there are 3 great songs in here), and the original soundtrack is experimental and unsettling as hell. camera work is great too — some shakycam POV shots, some crazy long zooms / pulls, some really good visual effects (that one layered shot of betty and rita, the small old folks), and most shots are CRAMPED as hell — so claustrophobic, so dreamlike. and of course there are just some plot elements that are so weird — bar silencio and the cowboy are legendary head-scratching moments. “fever dream” is laughably on the nose, which means they nailed what they were going for.

oh and the horror elements are incredibly well done, I was genuinely nervous for a good chunk of this movie and that hobo scared the FUCK out of me

cowboy philosophy scene was definitely my favorite. the directness of his line of questioning is arresting — you are definitely being spoken to as a viewer. ““think for a second.” “I don’t believe you, you’re not thinking about it. stop and think”

the sex / sex related scenes are HOT and tuned perfectly to each environment

and a strange “great acting” nod to give again here but I’m definitely giving it — the dream acting is consistently uncanny. rewatch that original diner scene and tell me you aren’t instantly sure something’s up

great / 10

saw at the roxie with @sarish (big shoutout here for pushing everyone to see this), @kt, @bgivertz, @liamnolan, @jide, and @ratiekeeves

now, postgame 📸🫵: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiCfHW3N3vo

Gonna need some time to sit on this one. Will come back with fleshed out thoughts later.

Gonna need some time to sit on this one. Will come back with fleshed out thoughts later.

i think this isn’t my type of movie unfortunately. it was confusing even after a few friends tried to explain it too me. its maybe a cool concept/plot but it wasn’t clear enough. outside of that it did create a unique feeling of dread/uneasyness which I haven’t felt before, which gives it points in my book. it also kept me pretty engaged. it just didn’t come together in a way that clicked in my brain as a great movie. there is very little i can point too and say wow I absolutely loved this. maybe its fantastic art it just didn’t connect to me in way that would leave me feeling impacted by it. i know @sarish @michaeljecmen @ratiekeeves @bgivertz @kt all love it, so maybe im just wrong here 🤷‍♀️

i think this isn’t my type of movie unfortunately. it was confusing even after a few friends tried to explain it too me. its maybe a cool concept/plot but it wasn’t clear enough. outside of that it did create a unique feeling of dread/uneasyness which I haven’t felt before, which gives it points in my book. it also kept me pretty engaged. it just didn’t come together in a way that clicked in my brain as a great movie. there is very little i can point too and say wow I absolutely loved this. maybe its fantastic art it just didn’t connect to me in way that would leave me feeling impacted by it. i know @sarish @michaeljecmen @ratiekeeves @bgivertz @kt all love it, so maybe im just wrong here 🤷‍♀️