Mulholland Dr.

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Year:	2001
Country of origin:	USA / France
Director:	David Lynch
Genre:	Lynchian oddity
Starring:	Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Dan Hedaya, Justin Theroux
Rating:	4/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166924/
Tagline:	A Love Story In The City Of Dreams
Favourite line:	"I hate you. I hate us both."

You know, it's always difficult sitting down to watch a David Lynch movie, which is why I prefer to watch them standing up.
That dreadful witticism aside, there is an inevitable sense of despair that envelops you as you watch as, slowly, slowly, you start to feel a wee bit stupid. Not in a knuckles scraping across the floor kind of way, just in a 'I don't get this' manner that you seldom experience when watchng other auteurs of oddness.
Occasionally, as with this movie, Lynch manages to lull you into a false sense of security so that, three quarters of the way through you find yourself thinking 'At last, one I understand.'
Then, all manner of wayerdness ensues, and you are left wimpering in the corner of your living room, feeling every bit as worthless as you know you truly are.

The plot:
*take a deep breath*
A beautiful young woman (Harring) is involved in a car accident on Mulholland Dr. as she is being forced out of a car at gunpoint. She loses her memory and sneaks into a luxury apartment block, finding one empty. An up and coming actress moves into the apartment the next day whilst her Aunt, who owns the place, is off shooting a movie in Canada, only to discover the amnesiac suffering woman in the shower. As it becomes clear that there is a mystery to solve, the women team up to try to piece together the few clues they have, taking them across the Hollywood hills into a surreal, subversive yarn that mixes violence, lesbianism, Mafia, movie auditions and a severely burned prophet.

Confused?
I know I was.
There's much more to it than I am relaying here, with myriad characters whose lives seem to interchange and weave around each other, multiple realities and time frames, and even a form of replicant, in as much as the same characters appear to be portrayed twice, by very similar looking actresses, though living out lives that couldn't be more different.
The only recurring theme throughout seems to be that the Hollywood lifestyle brings despair and, ultimately, untimely death and disaster.
The lead actors are excellent, in particular Watts who manages to simultaneously convey vulnerability and ambition, sometimes in the same shot, which is quite an accomplishment. With Lynch at the helm you know you are in for tension, and this has oodles of it, with an errie, synthesised soundtrack that really puts the nerves on edge.
With an ensemble cast that most directors would quiver at (not the names, just the number) and even an improbable cameo from Billy Ray Cyrus(!), you can be assured this is no run of the mill movie.
Lengthy, at just under two and a half hours, this never flags, and keeps you gripped to the last frame, at which point you frown, dribble a little before beginning to question your very sanity.
Lynch has his detractors, and rightly so, but one thing is certain: no one else makes movies quite like he does, and for that he must be applauded.