 Fresh-faced blonde shell Betty Elms has just moved in with her aunt in California to try to make it in the business. She's gonna be a star. Or is she? Let's talk about the classic 2001 David Lynch film Mulholland Drive. The reason I'm talking about this psychological thriller today is because of Brian over on patreon.com slash Adam does movies. He became a Mithril member, so he could request movie reviews from me once in a while and I have to do them, give him a shout out, and I might not even like the film. So it's almost like torture on my behalf. And I have to say I was a little bit scared to go into this one because the last time I watched Mulholland Drive I was in high school, watched it with my buddy mainly for the lesbian scenes and not much else. We weren't that impressed. Lesbian scenes were fine, but the movie as a whole was just bizarre. It was surreal. It didn't really click for us. But upon re-watching, re-examining, getting into the psyche of David Lynch and his wackadoo world, I have to say I kind of enjoyed it. And thankfully the lesbian action was still there to keep me hooked. I'm a simple man and I'm happily married. Let's go on with this review. Nicole Kidman. I mean Naomi Watts plays Betty. She's almost like a Disney princess here, completely aloof, thinks everything is just all champagne and rainbows, and she's ready to make it in Hollywood as an actress. She's going to accomplish this by staying at her aunt's house for a while and go out on additions. Her aunt knows some people in the industry that can get her some reeds. Seems like it's actually going pretty well for her. Of course, there's a little side story going on as well. Actually there's several side stories going on. The one that immediately affects Betty is the introduction of Rita. We saw Rita right when this movie opened up. There was a car crash, some people died. Rita stumbled through the woods and ended up at the back porch of this house. The very same house Betty's staying at. Rita makes herself right at home, breaks in, takes a shower, and that's where we have our first awkward encounter with these two ladies. Betty walks in on her as she's cleaning herself up and unlike a normal person, Betty's not like, oh my gosh, I'm sorry, and then walk out of the room. No, Betty's like, oh, oh, heavens to Betsy, I apologize. So who are you? How do you know my aunt? I can't keep doing that voice. It's really unnaturally high. It's so bizarre. Nobody talks like this. And for the first hour of the movie, hour and a half of the movie, this is a two and a half hour movie, almost. People don't talk normally. They act like NPCs. It's like you're playing a video game and characters are like, hello. Ah, you're looking for this person. You need to go that way. Goodbye. The stilted, bizarre dialogue, the way they interact with each other, it's so unnatural and it's so on purpose. There's meaning behind all of it and it will kind of be revealed. It will be unspooled as the film progresses. If you're paying attention and can read behind several layers of lines, you might be able to understand what Lynch was going for. And even if you don't fully grasp it all, which to be fair, I don't think I did, it's still a fun journey. It's not about the destination. It's about the friends that you made up in your mind along the way that happen to represent real people that are totally different. I think I nailed that. So who is Rita? Well, that's a great question she would like to know the answer to because she has amnesia from the car accident, has no idea who she is. Now, a normal person would go to a hospital. A normal friend or a person who stumbles upon another that doesn't remember anything would take them to the hospital. But again, we're not acting normal for this first half and it can very easily turn people off, which it probably did for me in high school because I was so frustrated with it all like, this is not how people act. I can't relate to any of this. I don't even know how to put myself in the position of these idiots. You have to let the reveals come and they do take a long time and some of it's very tedious. There were several moments in the movie where I was like, can we move on with it? One of them comes later when they're trying to understand who Rita is. So they go to this little suburban community and they start walking around the campus trying to find the house and they're just kind of wandering for what feels like 20 minutes. Just get to the damn house already. Later, they're watching a woman sing on stage. Beautiful voice. Sure. Can we move on with it? She sings for an eternity until unexpectedly collapsing on the ground at which point the singing continues. Justin Thoreau is also in this. He's a director. He has a part picked out for a specific actress, but the studio heads are going against his wishes. We don't know why. His wife is cheating on him. His life is falling into shambles. He has no money left even though he's a rich, famous director. Nothing's adding up. There's a random cowboy in the film that wants to meet him up at a dude ranch. Who are these people? What purpose do they serve? And how does director Adam's storyline tie in with Betty's? That's just one of about a thousand questions you're going to be asking upon your first viewing of Mulholland Drive. For instance, there's a crazy neighbor lady who looks like the wicked witch. She comes flying over to the house early on, yelling for Betty to get out of there or she's dangerous or something's wrong. Where is the fucking aunt? I don't think we ever see the aunt. Why does Rita only have a mysterious blue box with a key and a big wad of cash on her? Later, there's a creepy homeless person who scares Betty half to death. At the way beginning of the movie, when Betty's dropped off at the airport, there's a sweet old couple. They're sweet for a while until they're scary as hell because as they part ways, they turn and smile and they hold the smile uncomfortably long. But what does it all mean? Where's this story going? Things really take a turn once Rita looks into the mystery box. That's when the whole thing is reset and that's when the actual story starts to play out. Betty isn't Betty at all. She's actually a woman named Diane and she's been wearing some very heavy rose colored glasses because all these people she's encountered, all the accomplishments she made were bullshit. People were real but their personalities were different. Betty was auditioning for roles and killing it but Diane, she was losing. She wasn't getting the roles she wanted. She's a loser. She's a failure and she's madly in love with Rita who in the real scenario is very successful. She became the actress. The majority of this movie is La La Land. It's inside her mind. It's the what could have been, not the what is. The intricacies, the red herrings, the obvious metaphors, the foreshadows that will all be picked up upon your third, fourth, fifth rewatching and that's why people love David Lynch movies because they are so fun to dissect and I get why people dig this stuff. Mulholland Drive surprised the hell out of me. I was surprised I enjoyed it so much. I'm a very meat and potatoes dude and we're in a Jurassic Park t-shirt. It's one of my favorite movies so the artsy stuff while I appreciate it, while it can sometimes work, I tend to get away from it. I tend to steer towards the more mainstream movies. Mulholland Drive though it did it. It worked. Bo is afraid worked for me. It sits, these types of movies sit with you. The way I feel I'm consistent though is if the movie doesn't work on face value then it just falls apart when I want to dissect it because I don't want to dissect something I didn't enjoy watching on a surface level. Bo is afraid was very pretty. It was very intense. It kept you hooked. It kept you engaged. Mulholland Drive is the same. Visuals are solid. Acting is fantastic. Naomi Watts is always great to look at and she's a great actress. The music's cool. The actors and the characters are all larger than life. It's just a freaking sweet movie. So thank you Brian for recommending this. I had a blast and more importantly thank you for supporting the channel. It's a one-man operation at patreon.com slash adam does movies. If you're watching this and had a good time, please think about doing the same. You don't have to be a mithril member. You can just support at $1. There's a $1 tier and that gives you access to 300 exclusive videos, private posts and photos. There's a lot of good stuff over there that you get and it just helps me out, keeps me motivated. All right, thanks for watching. Like the video if you had a good time. Please subscribe if you haven't. If you're new here somehow and YouTube recommended this video, that's great. Love to have you stick around. Take care.