Mulholland Drive, David Lynch (2001)

The film Mulholland Drive directed by David Lynch begins with a car accident that interrupts a woman’s driver who had pulled a gun on her. She is the lone survivor and walks away into the nearby town. She sneaks into a woman’s home who has packed to leave. As she is in the shower a young girl by the name of Betty enters the house claiming the house is her Aunt’s who let her stay there. After the crash, the woman suffered amnesia and could not remember who she was. They then try to discover who this woman is. However, many more storylines are introduced into the film. Two men at the local diner are discussing a dream one has had about the diner. He says there is someone outside in the back that is up to something and he wishes to never see his face again. When they go out and look for him, a grizzly, bigfoot-like man peaks around the corner. There is also a director named Adam who does not want to recast the lead role in his movie however a strange man named the ‘Cowboy’ tells him he must cast the girl he has been told to. The ending of the movie offers some resolve and ties characters to each other, however the connections are vague and left for interpretation. 

This film is complicated. It is difficult to determine reality from fiction, flashbacks from current day, and the timeline of events is hard to decipher. This confusion may be purposeful on Lynch’s part to communicate certain activity Hollywood engages in. He may be trying to send the message that viewers are often unaware about how reliable or real images and stories put out by Hollywood are. 

I have a lot of unanswered questions at the end of the film and am still confused about the ending it offers. I did not dislike the film but I am very confused.