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Mulholland Drive
Universal Focus


7.8

based on 34 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 148 votes
Read user comments
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for violence, language and some strong sexuality

Starring Justin Theroux, Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Ann Miller, Dan Hedaya, Mark Pellegrino, Brian Beacock, and Robert Forster

In this complex tale of suspense, set in the unreal universe of Los Angeles, writer/director David Lynch explores the city's schizophrenic nature, an uneasy blend of innocence and corruption, love and loneliness, beauty and depravity. (Universal Focus)

GENRE(S):	Mystery
WRITTEN BY:	David Lynch
DIRECTED BY:	David Lynch
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 9, 2002 Video: April 9, 2002 Theatrical: October 12, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	147 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA / France

David Lynch received a 2002 Oscar nomination for Best Director. Named Best Picture of 2001 by the New York Film Critics Circle and the Boston Society of Film Critics. The film's four Golden Globe nominations included Best Picture (Drama), Best Director (Lynch), and Best Screenplay (Lynch). Lynch was named Best Director (tie with "The Man Who Wasn't There") at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Lynch's Hollywood is a grand old girl, but she's one with some very treacherous curves. To trace the contours of her sensuality, you need a camera as sensitive as a set of fingertips. Lynch's is.

100

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Like "Memento," Mulholland Drive is an amnesiac noir in the tradition that goes back to "Spellbound" and "Somewhere in the Night."

100

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

For film buffs and Lynch fans, this is a glorious high.

100

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

Amid the chaos of this marvelous, uncategorizable film squirms one of the year's best performances.

100

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

Not just everything you want in a David Lynch movie, but damn near everything else you want in ANY movie.

100

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Likely as not, these things mean nothing in a conventional plot sense, but as powerful images, as pictures from a dreamlike world, they are unforgettable. And that, David Lynch would probably say, is exactly the point.

100

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Watts and Harring even turn out to be the hottest Hollywood couple of 2001. The plot slides along agreeably as a tantalizing mystery before becoming almost completely inexplicable, though no less thrilling, in the closing stretches--but that's what Lynch is famous for. It looks great too.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

This is a movie to surrender yourself to. If you require logic, see something else. Mulholland Drive works directly on the emotions, like music.

100

The New York Times Stephen Holden

By surrendering any semblance of rationality to create a post-Freudian, pulp-fiction fever dream of a movie, Mr. Lynch ends up shooting the moon with Mulholland Drive.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

It's surreal, erotic, creepy, frustrating, absorbing, transporting and torturous in the way only a Lynch film can be.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Thrilling and ludicrous. The movie feels entirely instinctual. The rest is silencio.

New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf

While this road may contain too many potholes -- and plotholes -- to sustain an even ride, there are moments of greatness scattered throughout to remind us why Lynch is vital and why the French think he's so nifty.

Time Richard Corliss

Viewers will feel as though they've just finished a great meal but aren't sure what they've been served. Behind them, the chef smiles wickedly.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The challenge is exhilarating. You can discover a lot about yourself by getting lost in Mulholland Drive. It grips you like a dream that won't let go.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

It just requires an open mind, a love of film and a willingness to dream.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

A dizzying - sometimes frustrating - marvel of moviemaking instinct and ingenuity.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Rapt and beautiful and absorbing.

Slate David Edelstein

Mulholland Drive isn't a "puzzle" like "Memento," in which the pieces (sort of) fit together. There are some pieces here that will never fit -- except maybe in Lynch's unconscious. And yet -- and yet -- this distinctly Hollywood nightmare makes a deeper kind of sense.

Variety Todd McCarthy

A genuinely ominous and suspenseful thriller.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Lynch's new movie, Mulholland Drive, is a trip and a half: It's like playing Twister and Scrabble simultaneously while high on LSD. Oh, and it's dark out.

TV Guide Ken Fox

An intriguingly mysterious, self-reflexive ode to the dream factory, it's one of Lynch's most satisfying films.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

It's a lush, lovely dreamscape of a movie, steeped in familiar vernacular (film noir), yet capable of shooting off in totally unfamiliar, surreal directions.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Lynch does "explain" what's happening via a plot twist two-thirds of the way through "Drive," which will satisfy you (as it did me) or leave you asking, "Is that all there is?"

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

Exhilarating not only for its dreamlike images and fierce, frequently reckless imagination but also for the fact that it got made (and released) at all.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

It will frustrate viewers who like stories to make instant sense, but fans of provocative puzzles will have mind-teasing fun.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

No classic like "The Big Sleep," another famously impossible-to-follow Los Angeles thriller. But for those willing to hang on for dear life, Lynch makes it worth their while.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

It's flawed, but it's also rich. And how many films make you feel that you and the filmmaker are following the course of a dream?

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

The movie, at two and a half hours, retains much of the unhurried suspense -- the careful cultivating of our patience, of our narrative loyalty -- that is bred by the best TV.

Film Threat Chris Gore

There’s a lot to enjoy, and plenty of potential, but none of it pays off. So we’re left with what amounts to some very clever experimental cinema in the Lynch vein. Which, if you think about it, isn’t all that bad.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

As riveting as it may be, his film is a total shaggy-dog story.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Watching this surrealist silliness, I would have welcomed the sight of a geezer on a riding mower.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Relax, sit tight, and enjoy the ride.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Lynch needs to renew himself with an influx of the deep feeling he has for people, for outcasts, and lay off the cretins and hobgoblins and zombies for a while. Mulholland Drive is the product of David Lynch, Inc.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Mulholland Drive is an extended mood opera, if you want to put an arty label on incoherence.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 148 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

N V gave it a0:
This is the worst movie I've ever seen bar none. There is no plot; the film jumps all over, making absolutely no sense whatsoever. It's like watching what might go on inside your head while you're on an acid trip. Mulholland Drive, you owe me 2.5 hours of my life back!

Kharlos gave it a10:
My brother didn't like this movie, but he is the kind of moviegoer that leaves his brain in the ashtray of his car before going into the theater. His kind of movie is along the lines of Independence Day, Austin Powers, Transformers, etc... Now I enjoy wholesome tearjerkers like "Wild horses can't be broken" and action/dramas like "Flyboys" as well, but "Mulholland Drive" would not fall into a category that would be so easily labeled. As others have stated already, it's more akin to art than anything else. I have trouble simply describing the effect this movie had on me when I watched it, but I really, really liked it. After 2 viewings, I agree with the popular view on the plot: This film is an invasive look into the depths of the human mind, and it's ability to control perceived reality. A large portion of the movie (first 2 hours or so) are a fabrication of Diane's mind...a favorable re-creation of accounts and personas. If you have ever seen "The Matrix" then you will have some idea of the concept of living "as a boat in a bottle" so to speak. When the theater scene arrives, I think it is symbolic of Diane's inability to maintain the mental farce and avoid the inevitable, brutal, punishing truth of actual reality. If your friend said to you "ok, sit down silently in that chair and for the next 10 minutes, do NOT have a thought about cars" would you be able to do it? Maintaining focus on (or away from) things requires energy, and Diane finally ran out of it. After the theater scene, Diane's "matrix" comes crashing down, and she is unable to re-create it, even though she trantically tries again (when Camilla revisits her in the kitchen and at the couch). With Diane's imagination unable to get her back to her nirvana, she sees no other recourse than suicide for her miserable life. In my opinion, Mulholland Drive is one of the 5 greatest movies that I have ever seen. I'm sorry that there are those that will not enjoy it simply because it is not like 99% of the "made for tv" or "made for Hollywood" movies that are out there.

JW. gave it an8:
(8.5) Naomi Watts has been, in the last six years or so, the greatest gift to American film. She was no rookie at the time, obviously, but this was basically her coming-out party. Her performance here is cited by people like David O. Russell (I Heart Huckabees) as a casting director's equivalent of love at first sight. Already evident are the strengths that would make her shine brightest in everything from 21 Grams to We Don't Live Here Anymore. You can't NOT watch her. In this film - amid all the surreal emotional touchstones she hits -it is her flinch at the fateful dinner party that says everything about how far into a character she can go. Without her, Mulholland would fly totally off its rocker halfway through. As it is, you keep watching to the last freakish second. It's sure to scare the bejeezus out of you at least once.

Mike gave it a10:
I loved this movie! I walked out of the movie theater and I was amazed in what I seen. The most impressive was in how the movie was directed. Simply amazing! no wonder the director was nominated for an oscar for best director. In my opinion he should of won! After watching it 3 times I still didnt understand it, but after the 4th time everything just clicks in and it make PERFECT sense! The movie is so intresting. you keep on watching it again and again! Can't wait to see what David Lynch makes next!

Andrew C gave it a0:
I'm sorry, but this is possibly the largest piece of celluloid turd I've ever seen. I loved Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Eraserhead, Wild at Heart, Dune, The Straight Story, but I thought this was so disjointed and screwed-up for the sake of it. Don't bother wasting 2 hours.

Kenny M gave it a10:
Martin K., I feel sorry for you ... Have fun flipping burgers at McDonald's for the rest of your life. Oh yeah, and next time you're going to criticize one of the greatest films in the history of cinema, at least don't use the words/phrases "dude", "cracked out", "eyebrows fatter than eugene levy's" , and "jerking off prophetic metaphors." At least disguise the fact that you don't even know how to speak, because then maybe someone could actually read your comment without vomitting all over themselves in disgust. This film is a masterpiece, and if you cannot at least appreciate the fact that it is genius (even if you don't necessarily enjoy it) than you deserve to be tied to a chair and forced to watch the film for the rest of your life, or at least until you can truly appreciate it. I'll be sure to come by McDonald's for some apple pies.

Joshua R. gave it a10:
All of Lynch's ideas have come to fruition. I saw the film first at the Playcircle Theatre on the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison. Like many, I left the theatre completely puzzled but also intrigued. This is the kind of film you watch again and again, appreciating it's genius ever more with each viewing. Now I'm with steve b. and s. roberts. . .One could analyze this film on so many levels: a jab at hollywood genres, freudian themes, Shakespearian sleep vs wake. Let me just say, I love how the characters' dialogue really does dispell some of the mystery very early on (eg. "it's wierd calling yourself on the phone" and the mystic's "that's not Diane")

Mulholland Drive Universal Focus

Mulholland Drive
Universal Focus