Mulholland Drive

So I'm surprised that I had never seen a David Lynch movie before, so I figured I'd start out with the one that's the closest stylistically to stuff I've already seen, just to make sure my head didn't explode. Everything I have heard or read about his movies is about how surreal they are, or in other words, just plain weird. I got through about an hour and fifty minutes into the movie, and was shocked at how realistic it was. Sure some of the events and characters were not your everyday people you see on the street, but only one scene jumped out as being very different. It's the one that I've seen rated as one of the scariest scenes of all time, in which a guy in a coffee shop is telling a friend of his about a dream he had, and then of course, it begins to play out exactly the way he told it. It seemed at the time like it was a little out of place given the state of the main characters story, and you weren't given any sense of how this scene or its characters fit into the narrative. By the end, it makes more sense, but it's still up to interpretation.  Okay so after that hour and fifty minute mark, the movie seemed like someone was screwing with me. Characters relationships and appearances changed, some of their names changed, and it seemed like it began telling a different story with the same actors. Now I immediately ran to the Wikipedia page for the movie as soon as it finished, just to see if there was a consensus opinion on exactly what happened at the end, but apparently Lynch has left it up to the viewer. I have my own idea, but I think I'd have to go back and rewatch it to actually figure anything out with certainty. 

How Naomi Watts didn't even get a nomination for best actress at the oscars, while Renee Zellwegger, Halle Berry and Nicole Kidman did is beyond criminal. Then again it was also the year that Memento got completely shut out, so what does that tell you. I've seen Watts before in King Kong and the Ring, and I thought she was a pretty good actress, but it didn't appear that she had much range. She was still able to help save the awful script/concept of the Ring, but now I see she just wasn't given the right chance. In this flick, she gives probably the best female performance I've ever seen, right up there with Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream. She has an absolutely believable character throughout the realistic scenes, and then became the most powerful part of the the final change-up scenes, and is visibly a changed character. 

Just a final note, f anyone comes away from the movie only remembering the lesbian aspect to it, they need to be hit. It was probably the only part of the movie that made sense to them, which unfortunately, given some of the online responses I've seen, is what this movie is known for. There is so much more to the movie, everyone should watch it at least once. Twice if you really want to understand it.