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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

arts

COLUMN: Mulholland Drive continues to mystify

Mulholland Drive

Few artists are as good at creating unsolvable mysteries as David Lynch. The recent finale for “Twin Peaks: The Return” demonstrated he is still just as content to let audiences figure out things for themselves as ever. But few of his works are as delightfully inscrutable as the 2001 mystery “Mulholland Drive.” 

“Mulholland Drive” tells many stories, but at first, it seems as though it is primarily about naive actor Betty Elms. She has just arrived in Los Angeles and is determined to be a star. Elms soon embroils herself in a mystery involving an amnesiac woman, a tormented director and possibly supernatural forces. 

The story behind the making of this film is interesting. Lynch originally shot it as a TV pilot that would be Lynch’s big return to television after the cancelation of “Twin Peaks.” But, ABC passed on it. With the help of StudioCanal, Lynch turned that pilot into what many critics contend is the best movie of the 21st century.

Watching this movie is like trying to play a game in which the rules change every 10 seconds. Just when you think you are starting to understand it, the film deploys a surrealist image or a plot twist. The various changes and indulgence in dream logic of “Mulholland Drive” turn the viewer into a detective who has to solve this movie’s many mysteries.

“Mulholland Drive” is, in part, so hard to unravel because of its shifts in genre. At various times, it is a thriller, a comedy and a surrealist satire on the darker side of Hollywood. The fact that Lynch fulfills and subverts all of these generic conventions is a testament to his under-praised skills as a writer. 

In addition to the great writing, this movie is a fantastic testament to Lynch’s skill as a director. The images that he creates with cinematographer Peter Deming add a beautiful layer of mystery to the city of Los Angeles.

The performances in “Mulholland Drive” are also excellent. Naomi Watts gives a smart performance as Elms that dramatically changes later in the film. Justin Theroux is endearing and silly as a director named Adam. “Twin Peaks” regular Michael J. Anderson shows up to make this movie even more bizarre.  

This movie is best experienced for the first time without spoilers. But I do advise new viewers to be on the lookout for a climactic plot twist in the third act. I will only say that my original interpretation of this plot twist ended up being the exact opposite of the public's most popular theory. But the glory of “Mulholland Drive” is that its rich use of symbolism and transcendent strangeness enable as many interpretations as there are people. Lynch's ultimate success is that he creates a world of mystery in which intrepid viewers can live for as long as they wish. 

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