Mulholland Drive

There’s plenty to criticize about “Mulholland Drive” if you’re so inclined—countless scenes feel like (and are probably) artifacts from its roots as a television pilot that would’ve been expanded on in future episodes but basically go nowhere here, and we can’t pretend as though the erotic elements don’t feel forced. That said, it’s a fascinating picture, a metatextual moving target about Hollywood and our fascination with it and our own self-aggrandizing tendencies, all of it gorgeously shot and wonderfully acted. I can see how someone could dismiss it as pretentious fluff, but I was entranced by its 140 minutes.

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