Hypnotizing And Traumatizing The Audience-- Mulholland Drive

Weirdly enough, I have never said this before, but a part of me always appreciates the fact that among us live people like David Lynch, who see the world in very unconventional ways, and in turn, share their vision of surrealism and hypnotism through the power and reverence and symbolism of filmmaking. David Lynch's 2001 masterpiece, Mulholland Drive (stylized as Mulholland Dr.) is one such strong, thought-provoking and weirdly traumatizing movie that lets the audience take a peek through Lynch's lens and see everything in a very different way.

To keep the enthralling beauty of Mulholland Drive unmarred, the poster above is the only image I will use for reference. I highly encourage everyone to see the movie as fresh and as blindly as possible.

Betty, a cheeky and up-and-coming actress stumbles upon Rita, who suffers from amnesia after encountering a car accident and both of them must work together to uncover Rita's identity. What they don't know is the mysterious, identity-altering and questioning journey they'll embark on. To truly witness the majesty this movie holds, one needs to attentively see it. Reading any review, spoiler-free or spoiler-discussion, won't give you even a vague sense of the experience this movie takes you on.

One of the key things about a movie like Mulholland Drive is the careful and excruciatingly thought-out writing. There will be complaints and nitpicks swerving through your mind for the first quarter of the movie, but as it slowly unravels and you see the layers upon layers of intrigue and character-drive and impulse and heartbreak and trauma rupturing through this movie, you realize the big picture underneath all of it. It's genius how Lynch plays with your expectations and once you are totally engrossed in the movie, you don't know what to trust, what to believe, what to perceive as concrete and not, until the third act of the movie, is marvelous. The extraordinary threading of multiple sub-plots merging into one whole plot of self-disgust and worthlessness and guilt is all the more driving. Lynch's talent sears through every frame, every story beats of the movie.

I won't delve into spoilers here, but I'll briefly talk about one key thing here is that of the various sub-plots in them, lies a love story. One that I wasn't ready to encounter. One that enchanted me, dream-ified me, uplifted me and in the long run, broke me, traumatized me, one that ran through my head everyday. I was so scorched by it that days on end, I'd contemplate if things could have turned out different, I wanted it to end up differently, but as an audience, I could only ponder on it, cherish its memories only in segments, think back to those moments when things weren't so gloomy. The third act only makes it all the more endearing, nail-hammering and other feelings the English language cannot define in words.

The cast did an excellent job of multiplying the intrigue, emotions and heartbreak of the movie. Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Robert Forster, and everyone else and in between did a solid job of carrying the weight of the movie and hit point home. Especially the notable part of the story where they have to put up a facade. It's genius and so believable that you are made to think that the facade is actually real, *but* when it does start tearing away and everyone's true face shows to surface, its made all the more shocking by the talented cast's genius switching to emoting their true intentions. And it really helps drive home the feeling of not letting the audience get comfortable and trust anything.

In a movie like this, cinematography is key to making the audience feel hypnotized and enchanted and engrossed. Peter Deming accomplished that in one fell swoop with the framing choices, shot-blocking, shot compositions and whatnot. His work really makes the intriguing scenes feel intriguing, romance scenes feel warm and lovely, and everything in between. It's a tough thing to achieve and Deming achieved it and more. Every frame feels crisp and raw in emotions, intrigue, suspense, hypnosis, mind-alter and whatnot.

A movie's soundtrack is also a driving point for the majesty of a movie. It's no surprise that for a movie as engrossing as Mulholland Drive, composer Angelo Badalamenti would give it his all in crafting a surreal and haunting score. His soundtrack remains minimal and for lengthy amount of time, absent, but when he snaps, he snaps hard. The "I Am In Love With You" score still sticks with me, and I always lose myself to it, it's that good. His work remains heavily underrated in my opinion.

All in all, Mulholland Drive is an endearing movie in the most unexpected of ways. I truly can't overstate the importance of this movie. For cinephiles and casual audiences alike, this movie is a must-watch. Lynch drove home with this movie. I hope people keep talking about it for years to come