Umm what did we just watch! A mind bending and dramatic thriller with some excellent performances and a great introduction into the creative mind of David Lynch! Thank you all for the support!
You just watched THE most overrated film of all time by the most culted fanbase of David Lynch thinking he's a genius when he literally STOLE this entire film from Satoshi Kon's "Perfect Blue". Story is exactly the same, plot is exactly the same, many of the scenes are the same yet Lynch swears he came up with this himself. I enjoy you two very much but I just had to click this video to comment here because your "Patreon fanbase" doesn't understand this is not a film for you.
@@samspade8830 the greatest movie of all time? He stole Satoshi Kon's work, refuses to acknowledge he did, and this is the greatest? I hate David Lynch fans...
On the one hand, I appreciate him not wanting to color our interpretation of his films, but on the other, I am capable of hearing what it meant to him and still forming my own opinions, so I want to know his perspective. That said, I think this is one of his more straight-forward in terms of themes and plot.
Lynch is unparalleled in his ability to conjure dread and fear seemingly out of nowhere - even in scenes that don't really sound that scary on paper (a man encounters a homeless person behind a diner in broad daylight; an elderly couple chase a woman through her apartment).
@@TBRSchmitt "It is a scary and confusing world" That is almost LITERALLY a line from Lynch's "Blue Velvet". Not only that, it is a line which is very much the point of that movie. Wow. That just blew me away!
I think the whole Betty portion of the movie is a fantasy/dream in Diane's mind. The fantasy was a coping mechanism. It helped her cope with her failure as an actress (in the fantasy, she is a sought-after actress). It helped her cope with her failed relationship with Camilla (in the fantasy, Camilla loves her). And it helped her cope with the guilt of having Camilla killed (in the fantasy, she saves Camilla). Unfortunately, the fantasy wasn't good enough. The horrible reality of her life breaks through in the end.
You're right on one level, people almost universally agree on this being the "plot" of the movie; however, that being said, Lynch is famous for his movies being metaphors, and the characters themselves representing ideas (Lynch "falls in love with ideas", as per his own words), so the movie should really be seen in this context, with the various relations between the characters being a representation of how these different ideas interact with each other. The character of Betty represents the naive Hollywood dream, and the character of Camilla represents the dark reality of Hollywood, where things are not so easy, and where many young actresses have traditionally had to resort to exchanging sexual favors with powerful figures for more roles and prominence. Beginning from there, you can easily start to unravel what the other characters and objects represent (the hitman represents Hollywood incompetently trying to keep a lid on its dark secrets, the old actresses represent the golden age of Hollywood, and so on).
That's also why the hitman is terribly incompetent in the dream, while in reality he dispatches of Camilla fairly easily. Diane's hoping that somehow the "job" hadn't been a success and the mistake she's made can be fixed.
After the dance shot in the opening, we slip into a POV shot. The camera looks straight down at the bed with red sheets. The camera moves towards the pillow and pushes into it creating darkness... that then trans into the Mulholland Drive street sign with flashes of light hitting it. This is her slipping into a dream. Watts' character takes all the people in her life and swaps them around making herself a success instead of a failure. In real life, her ex-lover achieves the dream of Hollywood. Meanwhile, Naomi is left behind and labeled talentless. Within the dream, her guilt for having her lover killed in real life keeps breaking into the fantasy she is attempting to create in her mind, her dream. To the point that Naomi Watts' character actually dreams about her own death before committing the act in reality. The dream shapes her destiny. Once she awakens we see everyone for who they really are. Sort of like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. It was all just an illusion like the Master of Ceremony showed us in the theater just before waking up. The fact that Naomi Watts' character is a failure who had her lover killed sends her into a spiral. The police are closing in. The fantasy is a nightmare filled with memories and reality distortion propelling a tragic end.
This channel with movies like Das Boot, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and now Mulholland Drive has surely taken an interesting turn. And I am loving every minute of it. :) Keep up the good work, guys.
@@jediciah37 Well, given how few movies many other reactors have apparently seen, I don't mind them covering their bases so to speak by watching the more mainstream movies first. Movies like these will come in due time. Or so I hope because I do have a handful of reactors that I really enjoy watching.
the shorthand is: first half is what Diane wanted her life to be, second half is reality. The beauty is once you know that, you can go back and learn a lot about her from the first half.
Oh true, like she was thinking of different possible lives, as they interlope each other in reality. Or multiple lives being led at once. Maybe as point in there on how we feel we need to come off to others.. based on social constructs and groups. So epic
The first time I watched this, my immediate reaction when it ended was to start it over again. I did, and right after it started a friend came in and asked what I was watching. I said it was a movie I was trying to figure out. They sat down and watched it with me. When it was over, she said, “wait….start it over again!”
Amazing! It’s a well made cinematic journey! I just enjoyed the film by how hypnotic it was. It wasn’t till the 4th or 5th time I watched it that I realized the first 2/3rds of the movie was a dream. Lol
When Adam announces that he and Camilla are getting married, and in the subsequent scene where Diane is ordering the hit on Camilla, she is drinking coffee. Because she associates coffee with these painful memories, coffee becomes something sickening within her dream, causing the Castigliane brother to almost puke it out on the napkin. At least that's my interpretation.
Yes, I've always thought that when Angelo Badalamenti spits out the coffee, it's because Diane randomly glances at him during the party while she has a mouthful of coffee and is feeling physically sick (due to the marriage announcement). But (a bit more specifically), with the scenes at Winkie's....Diane randomly glances at the dream-telling guy standing at the counter while she's feeling intense fear because she's ordering the hit on Camilla. So in the 1st Winkie's scene, the random guy she's seen becomes symbolic of her fear...he talks of HIS intense fear (and even literally mentions that his companion was standing at the counter in his dream).
You got it quite right! In short, you were watching the final moments of an unsuccessful actress (Diane) creating a dream reality about herself, after she committed suicide and most likely hired a hitman to kill her former female lover (Camilla). * The blue key was the trademark of the hitman. But Diane had regrets, so unconsciously she hoped he would be so inept, that he didn't kill Camilla. That's the silly killing scene. * The Godfather scenes were her assumption that someone is conspiring against her. She never was successful because of the "dark forces" in Hollywood. * All the bad stuff happening to the director was her way to explain why he didn't hire her - he just had a bad day ... * The old couple actually were jurors at the Jitterbug contest. So they were judging her, always there, creeping up on her, way to the final scene. And so on, and so on. She constructed this twisted reality in her head why she never had success. In the end, reality hit her hard, and she killed herself. Sad thing is, way in the beginning she just may have been naive and sweet Diane, coming to Hollywood, hoping her dreams would come true.
Thank you for this. This movie has never made sense to me. Even after watching it multiple times trying to figure it out, it was just too confusing and frustrating. I usually love movies where they jump around on a timeline, and movies that have a surreal aspect to them, but this one always hit me as nonsense. Your interpretation makes complete sense and I finally feel like I get it… sort of… lol
Your analysis was startlingly accurate for a first time watch. Mulholland Drive is my favourite movie of all time, and it took me a couple of watches and a bunch of reading to really appreciate it. Kudos.
Great reaction. Lynch is my all time favorite director, and Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead, and Blue Velvet are 3 of my favorites. His style is unmatched and all his movies leave you thinking about them long after you’ve finished watching. Repeat viewings are very rewarding. Maybe the next one you guys react to should be Blue Velvet since it’s a far more linear story. And eventually if you guys have time, Twin Peaks is a must see. It’s my favorite TV show ever.
MDK2 It’s one of my least favorite but once in a while I try it again. Im due for another try soon. One big problem is that the digital look is so ugly
@@Asoleimani1989 yeah, that’s for sure. All I really remember about it, aside from my complete loss of the threads of the film, was that Laura Dern’s performance was terrific. But I didn’t know what any of it was about.
A guy just did a good reaction to "Blue Velvet" earlier tonight, one of only two that I know if....and, as of now, the only good one! Here's the link: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Sbw3H6QelLM.html
DON'T FORGET: Mulholland Drive started out as a TV pilot. The show wasn't picked up and Lynch shot an additional 26 minutes of footage to make it a feature instead.
Nobody captures the feeling of being in a dream (usually a bad dream) like David Lynch. Creeping dread & euphoria simultaneously…Lynch, his sound designers, and composer Badalamenti capture it perfectly.
Hey guys! A couple of things about Mulholland Drive 1) There's no one single interpretation about what it "means" at least according to Lynch who refuses to explain anything in interviews, which is part of the joy of watching his films -- you can get as little or as much as you want out of them if you give yourself over to his weird world -- his films aren't for everyone but if you can get into them they're very rewarding 2) It was originally filmed as a pilot for a TV show believe it or not. Ultimately it did not get picked up but Lynch shot additional material to expand it into a feature
You're wrong on point 1); in fact, David Lynch is clear that there is in fact a correct interpretation, he just isn't going to tell you what it is. Twin Perfect made a video unraveling the truth of it, if you're interested, referencing tons of things David Lynch has explicitly said himself, in light of that it becomes rather obvious what the movie is about.
Thank you for disagreeing! These movies have been debated, reinterpreted, and analyzed endlessly for years -- I don't think that's going to end anytime soon which is a big part of what makes Lynch's films so magical. Thankfully there is no "one" single true meaning except perhaps in the artist's mind as you say, and he's content to leave it up to the viewer to map their own dreams and desires on the canvas. I'm sure the video maker you referenced has an interesting take on the material, it sounds very exciting!
@@darklyroaring: It's not going to end because people keep continuing to do it even long after the right interpretation has already been made; that doesn't make this correct interpretation, and we know from Lynch himself that such an interpretation does indeed exist, and is possible to discover, and Mulholland Drive is even accompanied by 10 questions formulated by Lynch himself specifically to help people arrive at it. And yes, the video I mentioned does indeed have an "interesting take", because it shows clearly what the movie is actually about through referencing Lynch himself. It's not a mystery anymore, it has been solved; that doesn't make it any less good of a movie at all, far from it (just like Richard Feynman would constantly point out to artists that understanding more and more of the scientific aspects of a flower didn't subtract anything from its beauty, it only added to it).
@@hoon_sol I'm really enjoying your perspective! For each analysis that claims to being "the one" for any artwork, idea, or dream, the dissension and discussion that arises is really beautiful to sift through -- otherwise, there would be nothing to discuss hah!
@@darklyroaring: You don't understand what I'm saying at all. When you start making a scientific model of something, you understand more and more facets of that thing, until you've arrived at an understanding that's as close to the truth as you define by some margin of error. When someone then comes along and says something incredibly stupid that's not in accord with reality at all, that doesn't make those two "perspectives" equally valid in any way, shape, or form, because the former "perspective" incorporates much more information and knowledge, and is thus far more accurate. Likewise, what I'm talking about here isn't any old "perspective" at all, but literally what the movie was intended to mean by Lynch himself, as clearly evidenced from numerous of his statements, including explicitly stating that he wanted to expose sexual indecency and its role in Hollywood, but didn't feel free to openly talk about it. Thus when you continue talking about how the discussion that arises from any piece of analysis claiming to be the one is great to sift through, that's an insanely clueless statement; some such claims are completely ridiculous, and can be dismissed without discussing it at all, much like if someone suggested the Moon was yellow because it was literally a piece of cheese. The entire point of discussion is to get closer and closer to the truth, and only discussion which actually helps in doing that is interesting.
In an Interview about making the movie Justin Theroux once said: “I started asking him questions [about characters and plot]… When I finished a question, Lynch would say ‘You know, I don’t know, buddy. But let’s find out.’ He wasn’t being cute or cheeky or evasive; he genuinely didn’t know.
Huge props for this one! Actually had a long conversation about this film at lunch today. First off, I LOVE this film, but when I first saw it when it came out I loathed it. It hurt my brain. And I was very vocal about how much I disliked it. But was compelled to rewatch it again and again. It was a massive struggle to decipher, but still impossible to explain, which I now feel is a great attribute. This is David Lynch though. Strange and beautiful. Your reactions throughout are absolutely priceless!
Lynch got into a series of films that are like this (see also Lost Highway and Inland Empire) but this is far away the best. I saw Inland Empire only once and it’s so long and was so hard to follow (I was completely lost by the 45 minute mark) that I have never tried a second viewing. All I took away was Laura Dern’s great performance and one funny off-screen cameo by Lynch. Lost Highway is good but not as terrific as this.
@@MDK2_Radio I recently did a breakdown of Inland Empire...it's not really that difficult once you pay attention to the clues, though some are a bit obscure. I'll just drop the word "reincarnation"...watch it again with that in mind.
DL has said he loves dream logic ( many dreams have no logical explanation ). And no, he does not use ideas from his dreams. For example, one day he put his hand on a warm car, and a vision of a little man in a red suit came to him ( the Arm of the Black Lodge in Twin Peaks ).
If you want to understand this movie, you have to watch David Lynch's Lost Highway, which is pretty much a precursor to Mullholland Drive and follows a similar "Mobius Strip" structure, where a story has a beginning and an end that meet in the middle, but no clear sign of where one begins and the other ends.
I watched Lost Highway years after Mulholland Drive, and both movies are definitely very, very similar. I think Mulholland Drive is a way for David Lynch to explain the same story in a more simplified way.
@@Soulsphere001 Well, Mullholland Drive was originally meant to be a television series. David Lynch originally envisioned it as a spin off of Twin Peaks, where Audrey Horne leaves Twin Peaks behind and goes to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. That version of Mullholland Drive never happened due to Twin Peaks' cancellation and Lynch went on to do Lost Highway, inspired by the O.J. Simpson murder trial. Lynch attempted to resurrect the Mullholland Drive television project in the late 1990s and actually got to film the series pilot, but network interference caused the show to get scrapped, and Lynch ended up taking what he filmed from the pilot and expanding it into this movie.
@@44excalibur I did not know any of that. Thank you for the information. I keep thinking I should watch Twin Peaks, but I have never gotten around to watching neither the old nor the new series. I have only seen the very end of the original show.
@@Soulsphere001 It's one of the greatest TV shows of all time. It's one whole series. The Return just picks up the story 25 years later. So you can't watch the Return without having seen the original series. It's really the 3rd season.
@@Soulsphere001 You're welcome. The first season of Twin Peaks is the best. Network interference caused the second season to go off the rails. That, and Lara Flynn Boyle insisting that David Lynch tank the Cooper/Audrey Horne storyline, as she felt the popularity of that pairing detracted from her character, Donna Hayward.
A lot of critics felt Naomi Watts deserved an Oscar nomination if not the award itself for that audition scene alone. So you are in good company with that opinion.
Omg. This is one of my favorite movies ever. And I still don't FULLY understand what happened, no one really is supposed to. But it's just so dreamlike and surreal and good.
And let us not forget the stunningly emotional rendition of _Crying_ (Llorando) by the incomparable Rebekah Del Rio (whose performance, as the magician explained, is not real after all)! As she's singing it, the ladies are doing it, both realizing Diane's betrayal. She touches her tear-stained face, reaches into her purse for a tissue, and finds the lock box that the blue key opens. Inside it later, she finds reality, the end of the Betty and Rita Dream Existence and the cruel transport to the real world of Diane's madness. Her love life has not worked out, her career has not worked out, and as her hold on sanity becomes increasingly tenuous, even the nice old couple she met on the plane when she first breezed into town are now like attacking monsters, or tiny maggots, their well-wishes of a bright existence threatening, terrifyingly, to eat her soul, because it has not been very bright at all. The wonderful dream at last ended, Diane finally gives herself no alternative, turning herself into the darkest part of the dream, the corpse girl on the bed. An overwhelming reality, over which the task of mastering she found herself entirely inadequate -- quite a lot indeed to be crying about....
Absolute masterpiece, and perhaps the best movie of the 21st century. Yes, it's confusing, and yes it needs multiple viewings...and yes it actually DOES make narrative sense. But the most important thing I can tell you is to don't worry about the story so much - this movie is about EMOTION with a capital E. Let the colors and music and gorgeousness of everything just wash over you and FEEL what you feel. That's the movie.
Someone explained this movie to me once as ‘like watching a dream’ the way a dream can jump around and how parts of dreams seem real and random bits are just bizarre. I liked that way of looking at it
Major kudos to you guys for tackling difficult films with an open mind. I appreciate the diversity in the kinds of films you guys have chosen to react to. I’m sure you have a patreon system or something for requests, but I just want to plant a seed for the future: maybe you’d enjoy doing some Coen Bros reactions? I can’t remember off the top of my head if you have already done any of theirs.
David Lynch was asked, 'what does it mean? I don't know what's happening." He answers something along the lines of, "You know what's happening." I think he's talking about your subconscious working on your and your rational mind not being able to integrate those ideas to what we experience. Something along the lines of it looking beneath the surface, but in a sort of terrifying way. Yeah, the ending scared the s**t out of me, and was sooo sad. The music kills me. Inland Empire has a bit of horror as well.
Lynch is greatly inspired by the movie The Wizard of Oz. So for him, dreams aren't nonsense, they reveal a great deal about a character's hopes and fears.
The day after watching this film, the actor that played The Cowboy approached me at the store where I work and asked me where he could find something. It was very surreal. He ended up shopping at our store for several years. Very nice guy. He gave me a boxed set of Lynch short films.
Can you guys watch Eraserhead, it's another David Lynch movie, not only just a few movie reaction who make a reaction to the movie, i really really curious to see you guys reaction on how weird yet amazing the movie was.
David Lynch is basically the American Frederico Fellini (who was Lynch's biggest influence as a director), a painter and a musician. His movies are heavy on emotional response and "visual poetry" and super abstract. At the same time a lot of his stuff, like Twin Peaks for example, is also really funny and charming at times while simultaneously being scary as hell. He's just extremely talented and unique. I hope you guys dig further into his filmography.
the blonde girl in the headshot "Camilla Rhodes" who was also at Adam's party, is played by Melissa George, who's also Australian, like Naomi Watts, and was in a good horror film in 2009 called "Triangle", and was before that in Home and Away (an Australian soap opera) and had a brief role in Alex Proyas's 1998 sci-fi neo-noir film "Dark City".
“Carol”, the brunette who was singing before Melissa George in the “This is the Girl” scene is played by Lisa Lackey, also Australian and of Home and Away fame.
Kinda funny that your patrons just tossed you guys into the deep end with old David Lynch here. He definitely has things that are a lot more accessible to unprepared audiences. "Wild at Heart" is a lot of fun and "Twin Peaks" has a ton of charm and humor to take the edge off the surreality. Plus, "Mulholland Drive" gains a lot through context of other Lynch projects, so it's not really the best jumping in place, either way. Although, a lot of it is just interpretive, so there can only be so much context. I'm pretty sure that your patrons just wanted to freak ya'll out.
I thought the same thing!!! I have seen two reactors scared off Lynch because they were thrown into the deep end. One guy went in blind to "Lost Highway", all psyched he was going to see his first Lynch movie......and 9 months later, he hasn't revisited a single one! lol. Ditto this movie with another reactor, and another one who did "Eraserhead". I'd say start with "Wild At Heart" or "The Elephant Man". "Blue Velvet" is a good entry point for some people, but for TBR and Sam, I would have chosen one of those two. I love the "Twin Peaks" movie, but I feel like that's the missing link between "Wild At Heart" and "Lost Highway"....I think it belongs more in the "deep end" camp, myself. But definitely I agree about "Wild At Heart" being the first Lynch movie I would have recommended to TBR and Sam and, actually, most reactors. And "The Elephant Man" is the one Lynch movie EVERY reactor could and should do.
@@johnnyskinwalker4095 Lol. Fair enough. I meant it in comparison to the other Lynch movies. Cage and Laura Dern are so funny (and cute) together, it's a wacky movie, with a lot of humor.
@@TTM9691 If you want accessible and great, The Straight Story. Its in the title. It is the straightest you can get Lynch this side of Elephant man. At least they did not start with Inland Empire.
If I were recommending a starting place for Lynch I would go with Twin Peaks, but you run the risk of being sucked into the series and then slogging through season two until its brilliant conclusion. Still, that’s his most accessible body of work.
Before the movie: "I have no idea what this could possibly be about." Nailed it! I think, it is a little bit like "Vertigo" with the character changing.
Also, back on July 4, 2013, I tried to drive to every location I know Lynch filmed this movie at, especially the diner where the monster is at. That place is abandoned; I waited for 3 hours to get a hotdog from Pinks; and I even tried to drive the length of Mulholland Drive...I fell short haha there was a motorcycle (not car) accident, forcing people the opposite way.
Holy wow, you guys really went stright into the deep end of the David Lynch pool! May I suggest you do Twin Peaks? It's got all of the dread and weirdness of Lynch's work but it's a much more viewer-friendly project.
Lynch is pretty much the opposite of Kubrick, Kubrick's ability and knowledge allows him to make extremely calculated masterpieces. Lynch's ability and knowledge allows him to make extremely improvised masterpieces not fall apart. Probably the craziest thing is that all Lynch movies feel like they're in the same universe even if they arent.
Took me literal YEARS before I came to a good understanding of this film. YEARS. But your analyses were pretty spot on, especially for a first viewing! My first viewing was when I was young and I just...was completely confused. This has been my favorite film for many many years now and I've seen it so many times. It never gets old! Btw - Mulholland Drive is actually a road in LA that runs parallel to (and above) Sunset Blvd. - obviously another famous noir film with similar themes. It's just as much a story about Diane/Camila as it is David Lynch's love letter to LA/Hollywood/and Cinema. It deals with dreams, illusions, fears, etc. and how films can REALLY blur the line between illusion and reality. The first indication of the dream is after the opening credits - the shot where the camera descends onto the pillow. Then throughout the dream, there are numerous indications that we aren't quite witnessing reality - the super cheesy (overdubbed) LAX arrival scene which is literally nothing like what LAX is like, the fact that Rita (Camila) so conveniently just falls into Diane's lap and wanders into her aunt's house (and is helpless like a victim), and how life constantly sh*ts all over the film director's life (because the real Diane hated him). In real life, our dreams repurpose people we've already seen. As such, Diane repurposes everyone she's seen into her dream/delusion too, including the Cowboy and the espresso man (both at the engagement party). The guys from the diner scene near the beginning? She sees them AT the diner when she's ordering the hit on Camila. And notice how both "Betty and Rita" seem super paranoid and suspicious throughout the dream? It's because Diane's subconscious mind is still aware that none of this is real, that she's making it all up to shield herself from the guilt and shame of killing Camila. The hit man left the blue key - the symbol that "the deed was done" - behind the dumpster of Winkie's diner. So that diner scene is actually one of Diane's dream "characters" realizing that he's in the dream and he just feels that something terrible is going on. The hobo is sort of like Diane's terrible realization about what she's done and who she's become - she can't stand to look it in the face. But ultimately she has to either come to terms with what she's done, or kill herself. And those "detectives" that keep popping up? There are real detectives after Diane, presumably, once they trace her to the disappearance of Camila. I think they are the ones knocking at the end. So it's Diane's subconscious fear that she's actually being followed, which she repurposes to be shady "men in suits" who are looking for Camila instead during the dream. The way when "Betty" calls the number for "Diane Selwyn" whose apartment they later find her dead body in, the voice message says, "Hey, it's me!" And that's not to mention the whole shady "Hollywood Mafia" that seems to be running everything from behind the scenes - because that's how Hollywood really works right?? Wink wink. And remember - it's the blue key (the one from Rita's purse) that UNLOCKS the blue box, which is like a portal that takes us from the dream part of the film back into reality. It's literally the key to understanding how the film is constructed.There are just tons of details that I've discovered over the years. But yes - obviously you need to watch this film tons of times to really get a sense of the thing as a whole and what's going on. But it's worth it, promise...be careful, you may not want to stop watching it! BTW - that espresso man is the David Lynch's composer lol.
This is such a weird movie, but I enjoyed it for it's neo noir style where you meet all these various characters that are somehow connected to each, up until the shocking twist ending.
Thank you for reacting to this film! I learned a long time ago that, at least for me, watching a David Lynch film is more like experiencing a dream than watching a conventional movie where everything is supposed to clearly make sense and add up in a linear way in your head. Some of it will, maybe some of it won't. That's not what he's interested in. What he really likes is ideas, notions, moods, impressions and feelings, especially primal ones like fear, dread, love, or uncertainty. He likes to appeal to the subconscious and the imagination. It's one of the reasons why he can set a mood like very few people can.
I've always found David Lynch to be very intriguing and interesting and creative, and very difficult. I might suggest two films by him that aren't so challenging: "The Straight Story" and "Wild at Heart." The former has none of the weirdness and is really a basic, Hollywood, sweet story. The latter stars Nic Cage and a repulsive character by Willem Dafoe, and a great performance by Laura Dern and I believe her real-life mother as her character's mom. Two other big classics of his are "The Elephant Man" and "Dune." If you like weird and challenging, then I'd suggest two by Lynch called "Lost Highway" and "Inland Empire." And he may have attracted much critical attention with his direction of the TV series "Twin Peaks"--for me, the first season is the best, as it gets weirder and weirder as things go on. His first film "Eraserhead" is visually and thematically interesting, but honestly made me feel nauseated when I watched it.
SPOILERS One of the many interpretations (and I’ll comment with the link if I find the video again) had to with the insidious casting couch nature of Hollywood. Notice that during Betty’s audition, she not only lets the old casting guy have his way with her in front of a bunch of witnesses who do nothing, but even plays along, just to get the part. It’s also heavily implied that Camille stole the part out from Diane by seducing (or being seduced by) Adam, meaning Diane was rejected by both Adam (ie the Hollywood system) and betrayed/rejected by Camille, who knew how to play the game better than the hopelessly naive Betty/Diane. So you can see why the fantasy of Adam getting punished and Rita\Camille losing her memory, and being the love interest of heroine Betty in a grand Hollywood mystery would appeal to Diane so much more than the reality she was stuck with.
Whenever I return to this fascinating film I again become so aware of the lovely score by Angelo Badalamenti (who passed away in December of 2022 at age 85). His music compliments the movie tremendously, although there is not a ton of it .... but what there _is_ of it is wonderful. The opening theme, and the love theme ... they work on my emotions. Plus, sometimes I listen to those themes by themselves on RU-vid so there are no distractions visually. Mulholland Drive reminds me that movie scores can really take a cinematic experience to another level.
22:31 "This is Oscar worthy!" That's what I thought, just for that scene alone Naomi Watts should have gotten an Oscar! No matter what a person thinks of this movie, you have to hand it to Naomi Watts. This movie called for her to do all kinds of acting gymnastics, especially in that audition scene! You got the theme, which was Hollywood. The Cowboy is dressed like Tom Mix and William H. Hart, the earliest Hollywood western stars, from the early 1900s. So there's a clue, he represents the history of Hollywood. Anyways......just when you think "A Clockwork Orange" and "2001" were weird! :D (Lynch loves Kubrick ;))
What made her performance even more effective was the fact that Watts was not a very well-known actress at the time. Most people watching the movie had no idea how good she could be, so that moment in the audition where she suddenly puts on this completely different persona was even more amazing and jarring.
@@catterwall9595 Naomi Watts completely blew me away as broken Diane! And that audition scene is, interestingly, the most natural, realistic acting in the whole of the first section of the film. I studied M Drive at Uni and my tutor pointed out that because the most realistic acting (in the first section) takes place during an audition (where we know she IS only acting), this can be seen as a comment on the nature of reality and illusion in Hollywood. Hollywood is a world which creates/is based on illusion but has become more real/believable than reality. The best line in that scene is: "Don't play it for real until it gets real". And of course, we are already watching a film anyway, so it's all very meta.
Mulholland Drive is one of my absolute favourite movies. TV shows and movies by David Lynch are not meant to be understood, they're meant to be experienced and felt. Back when this came out a friend and I went to see it. We're both long time Lynch fans, and the last movie he made before this was The Straight Story (for Disney!!) which, literally, was a straight story. The reviews for Mulholland Drive were raving that Lynch had gone weird again. When the movie ended (we both cried laughing over the shitty hitman, by the way) we looked at each other and almost simultaneously said, "That wasn't weird". We both loved it. Right after, we went to a disco and I went to the bar to buy a beer, and as I stood there, watching people dancing I literally felt I had stepped out of the reality that was Mulholland Drive and into the illusion that was this disco. Strangest feeling I've ever had. I hope you'll continue with more Lynch. No, he's not a horror director but everything he does - maybe apart from The Straight Story, The Elephant Man, On The Air, and Dune - is terrifying, especially on an existential level.
The Straight Story is probably his most accessible hence the title lol which seems typically Lynch. Also The Elephant Man which is a weirdly touching story. Lost Highway is his best film imo that shit is trippy asf lmao
I agree that's a great starting point . "Wild At Heart" is a great one too. And "The Elephant Man" is the one Lynch movie EVERY reactor could and should do at some point. And it definitely is Lynchian, at least to those of us who are original fans from the "Eraserhead" days! "Blue Velvet" though, definitely, and one of his most famous, and most iconic. All four of those movies I"d start with before the later ones, now that I think about it, even "Eraserhead" (which might be the best "super weird" Lynch movie to start with)
Dude - - for somebody who claimed not to understand what he just watched (as soon as the movie ended), you did an excellent job of summing up the plot! You totally got it!
You mention the sound design a lot in this reaction. Not sure if anyone else mentioned, but David Lynch was the chief sound designer as well as director.
Lynch would have LOVED that they were pointing out the sound design in this movie, right? That's his favorite part of the film-making process, I believe, adding the sound.
David Lynch is a genius. You really have to watch his stuff several times to understand what's going on. Even then, you're not always going to get everything. You guys understood a lot more than I did on the first viewing.
I absolutely loved your faces at the end of the film; I was the exact same way when I saw it the first time. And I really love how much you guys are smiling by the end after you break it down for a bit, that’s what makes this film so rewarding.
I like how this movie makes you guys talk about it so much afterwards. I watched this movie so many times with friends and we ended up talking about it all night. There's so many ways to perceive this movie.
i think the dude summed it up pretty well for a first time watch and react. thats commendable. of course there are concepts and ideas that can easily be looked over. despite acting confused, he did a good job of coming up with a coherent interpretation of the movie. gg. 10/10
Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, and Inland Empire are like a triptych painting work. Different interpretations of the same feelings, conflicts and trauma.
I love how Lycnh translated real life people into Diane's dream. For example, at dinner scene old man looking at Diane judgmental. In Diane's dream this guy is very hard to please, he even spits out the espresso. The cowboy dude passing in shadows. Diane finds it mysterious and in her dream cowboy dude is dark, mysterious figure. In diner, guy looking at her horrified. In her dream thay guy scared to death. Man I love how Lynch potrays the subconscious
"Did she take a bunch of pills ... oooh." LOL. This video was so much fun, and it's pretty incredible what Lynch managed to do with what was originally a rejected pilot episode for a tv series. I think mixing up timelines and different realities makes the simple story seem more complex/profound than it really is, but I enjoy MD a lot as an audiovisual experience. Oh, and expect lots of childish hostility in the comment section with many people saying either "those who love the film are pretentious fanboys" or "those who hate the film just aren't smart enough to get it." (Lynch films bring out the best in people! ;))
The ABC suits ( where TP ran originally ) rejected it after watching initial raw footage and seeing what DL wanted to do. Also, they said Naomi & Laura were "too old for the parts." SMH
I’m amazed how in one viewing you pieced together the story as I finally understood it: the first 2/3 being Diane’s dream (full of wishful thinking and tortured regret) and the last 1/3 being the synopsis of Diane’s descent into murder and then suicide. All that said, the genius of this movie just grows on me with each repeated viewing, and all the odd characters start sliding into place the way real-life fears and glimpses appear in a feverish dream.
As with every David Lynch film, you got a big puzzle of characters switching personalities, intertwined storylines, symbolism, and hidden subtext to solve. You definitly can't get evererything in just one viewing. But you're on the right path there, you got a lot of clues right and are asking yourself all the right questions. Such a fun film to disect.
Great reaction! Such a crazy movie. I've seen it a few times and it still mystifies me. What's funny, too, is on the Blu-ray, David Lynch has no chapter marks. Another one you might enjoy is Christopher Nolan's early movie, Memento.
Edgy 18 year old me watching this in Creative Writing class thought this two and a half hour panic attack was the greatest thing to ever exist lol, I’ve grown fond of some other works of Lynch a little bit more since but I still really like this. If Lynch’s movies were being released now, RU-vid and social media would have a field day with conspiracy theories and analysis videos while the movies were in theaters.
As you say in the review, I think you're mostly spot-on in that the point of it is the surreal trip. Lynch is an emotionally-driven filmmaker. In the video, you talk about how it felt like a horror movie, and I think what he really wants to do is tap into those emotions -- the unsettling unreality of a dream, both the nice stuff (the elevated aw-shucks innocence of Betty in the first half of the movie) as well as the nightmarish stuff (the tiny old people crawling out of the bag at the end). Lynch is also obsessive about sound design, so that's another good instinct from Sam. Now, I would say that Lynch films have straightforward construction to some degree (I would probably place this sixth behind The Straight Story, The Elephant Man, Dune, Blue Velvet, and maybe tied with Lost Highway in terms of how straightforward the movie is, with stuff like Wild at Heart and the later parts of "Twin Peaks" being even stranger and more surreal than this one), and I think you guys basically have a hold on it. It's just that Lynch is not nearly as interested in whether or not you figure it out (although, you basically did, despite believing the movie is confusing, which a testament to his storytelling skills), and far more interested in how you FEEL about what you saw, and how you FEEL during the journey.
Another fantastic David Lynch film you actually enjoy and be moved by is The Straight Story. It's a G rated Disney film. Definitely out of the norm for Lynch but it's a beautifully acted film
I've heard a theory that all of the events of this film are memories or thoughts going through Diane's mind from the time she shoots herself until she actually dies.
Wow guys talk about jumping into the deep end. I am a huge Lynch fan and I can see why people would recommend this, it is my favorite Lynch film too, but it's probably one of his most cryptic and difficult, so I wouldn't have recommended this one as an entry point into Lynch's work. Hopefully this doesn't scare you off doing more, and if it helps, the key to getting in to Lynch's work is to think of how dreams are, not so much objective reality like most movies are
You got it, except think dream rather than hallucination for the Betty part of the movie, and how in dreams we often incorporate many people & that we've seen in waking life and that their dream identities aren't always who they really are, including the dreamer who can be other people as well. Also events that happen to us can be dreamed as something emotionally similar (in Diane's dream the car wreck in the beginning symbolizes a different catastrophic event - her finding out that Camilla and Adam are engaged). This is Lynch's companion piece to Sunset Boulevard (one of his favorite films), both are about the death of the "Hollywood Dream"
I agree with that (that's how I saw them, anyways....as they were released!). One can skip "Dune", in my opinion. Just go "Eraserhead", "Elephant Man", "Blue Velvet", and so on....
@@TTM9691 IMHO one of the good things about Dune is that Lynch realized how much he hated the studio system and went back to surrealism with his next film Blue Velvet
@@macheesmo3 I definitely think it's worth watching, but not essential. And since there are hardly any Lynch reaction videos, I'd rather not waste a bullet on "Dune", if you know what I mean! Next thing you know everyone's doing "Dune" and there's zero "Wild At Heart" videos, lol. By the way, this channel linked below is going to be doing "Blue Velvet" in a couple of weeks, you may want to subscribe or keep your eye out. ru-vid.com/show-UCX4vbGTeMfh8qm2gV7ycWNgvideos
Lynch and dreams are a dynamic duo. Definitely one of my favourites ever. Dive in, it actually makes perfect sense, but you gotta understand the first half is Diane having a dream. Dreams don't make sense, but her conscience gets to her.
