Wednesday | January 13, 2010 | 1:21 pm
My Pick For The Best Film of The Decade My initial idea was, like every other film critic and blogger out there, to create a top ten list of the decade’s greatest films. As I started to delve deeper and deeper into my movie library and find things that I had almost forgotten about or hadn’t watched in a while it struck me that there were just too many fantastic films over the course of ten years to organize into a comprehensive list that I wouldn’t go back to later and change. There was one movie, however, that always stuck out. Above all others, this flawless masterpiece whose story, imagery, and impossibly perfect direction convey some of the darkest and most complex emotions of the human mind in a manner that leaves the viewer utterly dumbfounded at its merciless execution. The film I’m referring to is none other than David Lynch’s 2001 noir thriller Mulholland Drive. Without a shadow of doubt, I can easily say that this is one of the greatest motion pictures ever made. David Lynch’s entire career led up to Mulholland Drive, his slow and unfortunate decline following that is another story (referring to the utterly insane Inland Empire), but at least he has given us one of the most breathtaking spectacles to be seen on the silver screen. The film tells the story of the young and beautiful aspiring actress Betty (Naomi Watts), as she comes to Hollywood to audition for a role and search of the American dream. She is an upbeat and perky personality, looking at the world through a set of wondrous eyes, always seeing the beauty in the world around her. Her path in life, however, is suddenly altered as she comes to her Aunt Ruth’s apartment in Los Angeles to find the stunningly gorgeous, though apparently injured Rita taking a shower in her Aunt’s bathroom. Rita, a name she took from a Gilda poster hanging on the apartment wall as she doesn’t even remember her real name, is seen is the first few moments of the film as she’s escorted in a limousine to an undisclosed event. Her driver pulls the car over as another man in the passenger seat places a gun to Rita’s head. Her confusion and fear is apparent as a speeding car comes around the corner and hits the limo head on. Rita crawls out of the wreckage and finds her way to Betty’s Aunt’s apartment. Betty, being as pleasant and kind as she is, makes the decision to help Rita and put the pieces of her life back together. From there the story goes to places and introduces character that, if written in a simple synopsis, would make the film sound entirely incoherent and somewhat comical; A movie director (Justin Theroux) is threatened with death if he doesn’t use a particular actress, an apparently maniacal dwarf and his secretary call all the shots as far as Hollywood goes, a disgruntled writer murders an old friend and then accidentally murders two more people and sets a fire alarm off, some lesbian sex scenes ensue, a disheveled and actually rather scary man pops out from behind a dumpster, and then finally Rita and Betty find a blue box that, when opened, unleashes absolute insanity; literal madness. It all sounds like utter chaos right? Mulholland Drive is chaos. It is a representation of chaos in the human mind. This isn’t to say that it’s entirely haphazard and random, with characters and events that are irrelevant; they are all extremely relevant. The viewer has to understand the notion of what the film is; a dream. It acts on the idea of our own thoughts conveying the most intense fear and paranoia we are capable of experiencing in the darkest corners of our minds, and it realizes that, as we succumb to that fear, our ability to organize and create superficial answers becomes more and more apparent. Everything becomes connected, even though it may not have actually happened, it was realized to create a link to why something else happened. In Mulholland Drive you don’t fully realize what that “something else” is until the final twenty minutes or so of the movie. After multiple viewings, some of the films ideas really begin to reveal themselves, and after understanding some of the concepts, which range from incredibly complex to surprisingly simple, the secrets of Mulholland Drive actually do begin to unravel. This isn’t to say that there’s a clear cut interpretation and meaning to it, the film is personal and can mean what you want it to, but there is a very definite commentary on personal identity, fear of yourself, paranoia, and about a dozen other notions. Nothing is as it seems in Mulholland Drive, not even the people. If you need logic and rationale, then this isn’t your movie. I feel as though David Lynch has created something here that caters to anyone who has ever had the misfortune of going a little crazy in their lifetime, and my God does he do a splendid job. He has constructed an uncompromising vision of absolute insanity, and because he’s so relentless he is entirely successful. Perhaps based on some of Lynch’s own experiences in the Hollywood system (I’m sure it is actually, thoughts like this don’t come out of nowhere), Mulholland Drive stands as a testament to mind numbingly brilliant surrealist filmmaking, worthy of Bunuel or Bergman, and entirely unique at the same time. Thank you, David Lynch, for letting me know I’m not alone, even if it was only for a couple of hours. UPDATE: Coincidentally (or perhaps not) Mulholland Drive was just voted Best Film of The Decade by The Los Angeles Film Critics Society. Check out more over at Cinematical. -William Gutheil

My Pick For The Best Film of The Decade

My initial idea was, like every other film critic and blogger out there, to create a top ten list of the decade’s greatest films. As I started to delve deeper and deeper into my movie library and find things that I had almost forgotten about or hadn’t watched in a while it struck me that there were just too many fantastic films over the course of ten years to organize into a comprehensive list that I wouldn’t go back to later and change. There was one movie, however, that always stuck out. Above all others, this flawless masterpiece whose story, imagery, and impossibly perfect direction convey some of the darkest and most complex emotions of the human mind in a manner that leaves the viewer utterly dumbfounded at its merciless execution. The film I’m referring to is none other than David Lynch’s 2001 noir thriller Mulholland Drive. Without a shadow of doubt, I can easily say that this is one of the greatest motion pictures ever made.

David Lynch’s entire career led up to Mulholland Drive, his slow and unfortunate decline following that is another story (referring to the utterly insane Inland Empire), but at least he has given us one of the most breathtaking spectacles to be seen on the silver screen. The film tells the story of the young and beautiful aspiring actress Betty (Naomi Watts), as she comes to Hollywood to audition for a role and search of the American dream. She is an upbeat and perky personality, looking at the world through a set of wondrous eyes, always seeing the beauty in the world around her. Her path in life, however, is suddenly altered as she comes to her Aunt Ruth’s apartment in Los Angeles to find the stunningly gorgeous, though apparently injured Rita taking a shower in her Aunt’s bathroom. Rita, a name she took from a Gilda poster hanging on the apartment wall as she doesn’t even remember her real name, is seen is the first few moments of the film as she’s escorted in a limousine to an undisclosed event. Her driver pulls the car over as another man in the passenger seat places a gun to Rita’s head. Her confusion and fear is apparent as a speeding car comes around the corner and hits the limo head on. Rita crawls out of the wreckage and finds her way to Betty’s Aunt’s apartment. Betty, being as pleasant and kind as she is, makes the decision to help Rita and put the pieces of her life back together. From there the story goes to places and introduces character that, if written in a simple synopsis, would make the film sound entirely incoherent and somewhat comical; A movie director (Justin Theroux) is threatened with death if he doesn’t use a particular actress, an apparently maniacal dwarf and his secretary call all the shots as far as Hollywood goes, a disgruntled writer murders an old friend and then accidentally murders two more people and sets a fire alarm off, some lesbian sex scenes ensue, a disheveled and actually rather scary man pops out from behind a dumpster, and then finally Rita and Betty find a blue box that, when opened, unleashes absolute insanity; literal madness. It all sounds like utter chaos right?

Mulholland Drive is chaos. It is a representation of chaos in the human mind. This isn’t to say that it’s entirely haphazard and random, with characters and events that are irrelevant; they are all extremely relevant. The viewer has to understand the notion of what the film is; a dream. It acts on the idea of our own thoughts conveying the most intense fear and paranoia we are capable of experiencing in the darkest corners of our minds, and it realizes that, as we succumb to that fear, our ability to organize and create superficial answers becomes more and more apparent. Everything becomes connected, even though it may not have actually happened, it was realized to create a link to why something else happened. In Mulholland Drive you don’t fully realize what that “something else” is until the final twenty minutes or so of the movie. After multiple viewings, some of the films ideas really begin to reveal themselves, and after understanding some of the concepts, which range from incredibly complex to surprisingly simple, the secrets of Mulholland Drive actually do begin to unravel. This isn’t to say that there’s a clear cut interpretation and meaning to it, the film is personal and can mean what you want it to, but there is a very definite commentary on personal identity, fear of yourself, paranoia, and about a dozen other notions. Nothing is as it seems in Mulholland Drive, not even the people. If you need logic and rationale, then this isn’t your movie. I feel as though David Lynch has created something here that caters to anyone who has ever had the misfortune of going a little crazy in their lifetime, and my God does he do a splendid job. He has constructed an uncompromising vision of absolute insanity, and because he’s so relentless he is entirely successful. Perhaps based on some of Lynch’s own experiences in the Hollywood system (I’m sure it is actually, thoughts like this don’t come out of nowhere), Mulholland Drive stands as a testament to mind numbingly brilliant surrealist filmmaking, worthy of Bunuel or Bergman, and entirely unique at the same time. Thank you, David Lynch, for letting me know I’m not alone, even if it was only for a couple of hours.

UPDATE: Coincidentally (or perhaps not) Mulholland Drive was just voted Best Film of The Decade by The Los Angeles Film Critics Society. Check out more over at Cinematical.

-William Gutheil

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