top 100 films of the 2000s: #6

6. Mulholland Dr., 2001, USA
Dir: David Lynch
Cast: Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring

Mulholland Drive is such an amazing, mind-blowing film and it just might be my favorite David Lynch film ever. It's really close between this and Blue Velvet, both are great for their own reasons, both are incredibly bizarre. Mulholland Drive is the most bizarre and head-scratching film I've ever seen, so how the hell is it not number one? Because the top five films on this list are really that goddamn strong. I've had a hard time attempting to figure out how to place the top seven films on this list and basically, the higher the film, the more it stuck with me and the more of an emotional impact it had with me. So yeah, it's hard to judge something like that, but ultimately, it had to be done.

So why do I love Mulholland Drive so much? It's the blatantly fearless approach to the material, it's the way you can find a completely different interpretation of the film no matter how many times you see it. It's as if David Lynch has created a plot (or lackthereof) that has an endless amount of possibilities and interpretations and no matter how hard anyone tries to successfully decipher the material, there are always going to be things about the film that will remain unanswered. And David Lynch is perfectly fine with that no matter how much it frustrates/baffles/pisses us off. I can't do anything but applaud such an approach.

But it's also a film that I fully expect people to dislike. Some people don't like it at all and I understand that. But whenever I've heard people state their reasons for disliking the film, it just made me like the film even more. You see, I like that this film gets people out of their comfort zone, it certainly got me out of mine. I remember seeing this film back in high school and it was my official introduction to David Lynch. Everything I thought I knew about film was completely turned upside down once that final act came in.

Basically, for the uninitiated, the film starts out being about a young woman named Betty who aspires to be an actress. A mysterious woman with amnesia is found in her apartment and Betty tries to help her figure out who she is. That's basically the framework in which the film operates for a good amount of time, there's also this other story about a filmmaker whose film is being controlled by mobsters who insist on him casting a specific actress for the film. There are also these other little pieces in the film that doesn't really seem to add up and it becomes quite clear during a second viewing (after you saw all the shit that went down in the last act) that this has to be a dream. It has to be someone's dream anyway, then you start to put pieces of a puzzle to that interpretation... but the thing is, it's endless. There's too much in this movie to consider before really coming up with a straightforward interpretation of everything. After awhile you just kinda have to give up and let David Lynch have his way with you.

Mulholland Drive is the culmination of all the themes that David Lynch was trying to explore throughout his career. The movie will drive you batshit crazy, but there's also something to be said about the tender, touching "relationship" between Betty and the mysterious woman eventually referred to as "Rita." Mulholland Drive is about the Hollywood dream; it's about the essence of Hollywood. Just the idea that there is this place that you can go to and you can be famous and make millions but there's also the politics involved, there's also the fact that there are way more people who fail in Hollywood than succeed. Mulholland Drive is about someone who has failed in Hollywood but still dreams of what it would be like to succeed. And in the same way, the movie is also about love. It's about wanting to be loved. Or it's about something completely different, I really have no idea. Those are just my two cents on the matter.

David Lynch is a tough character to figure out, whether it's his films or his persona... and I think the only way to know what Mulholland Drive is trying to say is if you are the man himself.