Oh, I'm never watching it again.

I didn't mean that. There was a long piece on Salon when it came out laying out the storyline which made it more coherent for me.

Twin Peaks pissed me off and I thought I hated David Lynch until I saw he directed The Straight Story. I guess I love everything with Richard Farnsworth in it.

I read the imdb synopses to work what had happened, but then was left with the why. The Salon piece would probably be better info.

Imdb had a list of Lynch's ten clues, and even they didn't help. On my phone so I can't link, but if someone could explain those to me, I'd be grateful.

Also watched the remake of The Manchurian Candidate (love both versions) and Serendipity which I enjoy in sparse doses.

Next up is to make a dent in my netflix queue by watching online. I'll die before that list gets shorter than 100.

::phone doublepost::

I really don't care for clever twists and stories I have to figure out by reading clues and explanations online somewhere. I don't want everything just handed to me, but Mulholland Dr wallows in a ridiculous level of obfuscation (or laziness?) in its storytelling. If I don't care whether a single character in your movie lives or dies, all the lovely cinematography and Hidden Layers Of Stuff won't save you.

I guess that means I'm not Lynch's advocate here...

I really don't care for clever twists and stories I have to figure out by reading clues and explanations online somewhere.

In fairness to Lynch, the twists aren't there just to give you a gotcha moment, but are completely justified by the narrative.

The story achieves a fair amount of emotional heft when you realize what's happening and it's not a place you can get to narratively if it was told in a straightforward fashion.

Salon's Mullholland Drive analysis

Can someone who liked Mulholland Drive sell it to me?

I liked it. I thought it was the closest movie equivalent I've seen to watching a dream. Other than that, I am at a loss to explain it further.

Thanks for the link, Hec. It doesn't help me like it, because I don't think that movies should be that much work (and the article seems to imply that it's even more work than I found it--is it really supposed to be hard to tell it's Naomi throughout?). It mentions Memento as being similarly arduous, but instead I found Memento rewarding once you click with it, which is eminently possible while you're still in the theatre.

Now to poke through the letters in response to the analysis.

I loved Mulholland Drive - even the first time i saw it and had no idea what I had just seen. Lynch stuff is always so creepy and intense. And this one had hot lesbians, too! I was meh on Memento.

It doesn't help me like it, because I don't think that movies should be that much work

I granted it some leeway because Lynch had to rescue what had originally been a TV pilot and some episodes and make a movie out of it. I think this is more successful than the similar re-edit of the Twin Peaks pilot into its european movie version.