The Ultimate Disappointment That Is Star Wars: The Last Jedi

The Good: The animals, The final third is watchable
The Bad: Direction/Editing, Painfully forced humor, Problematic time aspect, Whiny Luke Skywalker, Evil is stupid, Ridiculous set-up, Plot contrivances
The Basics: Star Wars: The Last Jedi might well be the worst of the Star Wars films.


Like most Alpha Geeks, tonight I rushed right out to the first possible showing of Star Wars: The Last Jedi that I could find. The best possible way I can describe how truly disappointing Star Wars: The Last Jedi was is by saying this; on the drive home, I prioritized what I was excited about doing upon returning home and the list came out: 1. See my wife, 2. Reheat the nachos from last night, 3. Clean out the cats' litter boxes, and 4. Consider and review The Last Jedi. Without any spoilers, the simplest explanation for my antipathy toward Star Wars: The Last Jedi would be summarized with the idea that it took an hour and a half into the two and a half hour film for there to be a scene that was exciting and watchable. I know this because the local theater I went to has glowing clocks near the exits near the screen and as I waited for something good to happen in The Last Jedi, my eyes frequently drifted there.

Right now, it seems impolitic to criticize Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but I feel like I am on pretty solid ground with this one (outside just how I feel). Remember how people's initial reaction to Attack Of The Clones (reviewed here!) was overwhelmingly positive at the time? Have you ever gone back to A New Hope (reviewed here!) and caught just how whiny and annoying Luke Skywalker actually is in the film? Remember the feeling you had at the end of The Empire Strikes Back (reviewed here!) where it seemed like there were a ton of compelling directions in which the franchise could go? Have you ever watched a Star Wars trailer and just gotten excited by how it presented information? Well, The Last Jedi is getting praise that is likely to collapse when people actually let the hype fade and consider the actual work, Luke Skywalker reverts to his pathetic and whiny adolescent-sounding self, the film concludes at a place that is almost entirely impossible to create a compelling continuation to the franchise, and director Rian Johnson and editor Bob Ducsay created a film that spends its first hour and a half (at least) cutting as if it were one long trailer. The comparatively quick cuts - especially for reaction shots - feel more like a commercial or a trailer than it does a cohesive film.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi begins with an absolutely ridiculous premise and it sets up a film that has such a muddied view of time that it is almost impossible to take the film seriously. Following the destruction of the Starkiller Base in The Force Awakens (reviewed here!), the First Order has become more powerful and consolidated its power throughout the galaxy in such a way that the Resistance is on the verge of utter destruction. All this in the time it took for Rey to get to Luke Skywalker's planet where he has been hiding for the past thirty years. And, much like George Lucas beat to death the "there's always a bigger fish" idea in The Phantom Menace, Johnson is obsessed with illustrating "there's always a bigger ship." I can completely get why Supreme Leader Snoke would not bring his massive ship into the field with any frequency, but when the Rebel base is being bombarded, it is by a dreadnaught and Poe Dameron notes that it is not the only one. So, one has to wonder why the hell the First Order didn't have a dreadnaught near the vastly less-mobile Starkiller base to prevent their super weapon from being menaced.

So, the First Order is on the verge of wiping out the Resistance and Poe Dameron makes a daring, unauthorized, attack on the First Order dreadnaught that has come to finish off the rebelling force. Dameron is able to cut down the heavy weapons on the dreadnaught, but the Resistance bombers are effectively attacked. While a daring sacrifice allows the Resistance to take out the dreadnaught, the Resistance fleet is all but wiped out and when it comes out of hyperspace, the leaders are horrified that the First Order fleet - including Supreme Leader Snoke's massive command ship - are right behind them, picking off their vessels and harassing their final remaining command ship. Finn comes out of his coma and immediately asks after Rey. Rey, of course, is with Luke Skywalker, who refuses to teach the young woman the ways of the Force.

With Leia wounded, Poe Dameron demoted, Rey watching Luke wander through his days, and the last three Resistance ships running out of fuel and unable to make the jump to hyperspace because the command ship can track them, Finn and the Resistance engineer Rose go on a mission to find a codebreaker who can get them onto the command ship to disable the First Order tracking device. And Rey and Kylo Ren suddenly find they have a psychic connection and communicate and they debate with one another the nature of the Force.

Much like Thor: Ragnarok (reviewed here!), where the plot set-up is that the end of an entire world is imminent, but the film throws out joke after joke after joke, Star Wars: The Last Jedi belabors the humor and most of the characters - save Poe Dameron - sound nothing like they did in prior installments of the Star Wars franchise because they are joking so much. So, the Resistance in the galaxy is almost wiped out, but people sure are taking it with an amazing sense of humor. Except Luke Skywalker. Skywalker has become introspective, sad, a liar, and whiny . . . so whiny.

And while the first major joke of Star Wars: The Last Jedi lands, it completely recharacterizes the First Order as a bunch of idiotic buffoons. Evil is seriously stupid in The Last Jedi. Every major villain in The Last Jedi is tragically wrong at key moments of the film and it guts their credibility; how they have created an empire based upon dominance and slavery is beyond the suspension of disbelief.

And the time aspect of The Last Jedi is painful. With only hours of fuel left in their capital ship and the Resistance on the verge of utter collapse, Rey spends days and nights training, leaves a planet so remote that Skywalker successfully hid there for years, boards Supreme Leader Snoke's ship, gets captured and has a climactic battle with Kylo Ren; how the hell does that work?! And, on the subject of Rey, Daisy Ridley plays Rey as angry in almost every scene, so it's hard to believe she would not be an agent of the Dark Side.

What works in The Last Jedi are the themes. While Rose is abruptly saddled with a ridiculous romantic subplot, she is given a decent amount of character. She loathes the rich who profit off weapons sales and she has a real love of animals. The Last Jedi takes a nice divergence to illustrate that cruelty toward people and animal cruelty are directly analogous.

But for most of Star Wars: The Last Jedi the film oscillates between being painfully boring and an utter mess. One character speaks normal until his last scene where he suddenly develops a stutter, Leia does an impressive impression of Mary Poppins, and the physics of how Paige gets the control pad needed to activate the bomber's doors are troubling. How the Resistance gets trapped in a building with only one exit and entrance and, after they are sealed in, manage to get an entire force of soldiers out into the trenches in front of that door is a mystery.

Ultimately, The Last Jedi is a film that even the appearance of new, super-armored AT-ATs cannot save.

For other works in the Star Wars franchise, please check out my reviews of:
Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace
The Clone Wars
Star Wars: The Clone Wars Volume 1
Star Wars: The Clone Wars Volume 2
Star Wars - Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith
Rogue One
Star Wars - Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi
Caravan Of Courage - An Ewok Adventure

3/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

An Amazing Cast And Well-Executed Concept Make The Ten Worth Watching!

The Good: Interesting concept, well executed, Decent performances, Very funny.
The Bad: No real character development, Somewhat limited concept, Does not replay as well.
The Basics: A cleverly-executed comedy, The Ten explores a series of situations that remind viewers (ironically) of the importance of the Ten Commandments.


Given how limited many horror movies can be, it is unsurprising that the antithesis – comedies – can be similarly basic in their concept. If Seven was a horror film focused on a killer who is motivated by the seven deadly sins, it is equally ambitious or simple to have a comedy like The Ten. The Ten has the very simple concept of creating vignettes on the Ten Commandments that overlap in minimal ways. Several of the characters recur from sequence to sequence, with “character development” taking the form of them experiencing more variations of violations of the Ten Commandments.

In other words, The Ten has far less in the way of memorable characters and much more in the way of memorable gags or plot twists that disturb while they amuse. More than the characters, much of the joy for viewers comes from how the actors are utilized and how they pop back into the narrative in initially clever ways. After watching the film twice, I can honestly say there are none of the characters I particularly care about, but I enjoyed the movie and enjoyed how the actors were utilized to serve the fairly clever plot concept.

After a beleaguered narrator (who is on the fast track to have an affair himself) explains the concept of the film, the story begins with Stephen Montgomery. Stephen accidentally jumps out of a plane and miraculously survives the fall. However, Stephen is embedded in the ground where he becomes an overnight star. Even though his fiancé Kelly sticks by him, the superstardom that he achieves for the television show based around him goes to his head. Others begin treating him like a god and he arrogantly lets it go to his head, until he loses everything. This is followed by the story of Gloria, who goes to Mexico, meets Jesus there and has a torrid affair with him. When she returns home and has sex with her boyfriend, she calls out “Jesus!” and ruins their relationship, illustrating the importance of not taking the lord’s name in vain. Dr. Glenn Richie (who essentially had a cameo in the first vignette) pops back up in the “Thou Shall Not Murder” sequence where he kills a woman by leaving medical scissors in her body after surgery. While he did the medical malpractice “as a goof,” he is quickly prosecuted, found guilty and goes to prison where he is pretty constantly ass-raped.

After a woman who has two black children who denies (for decades) that they have a father other than the white man who raised them comes clean about her affair with Arnold Schwarzenegger, her children realize that the actor she hired to impersonate Schwarzenegger is more a father than they ever had before, illustrating that it is important to honor one’s father and mother. A convoluted series of events leads to the death of a whole fieldtrip worth of children when they cannot get CAT scans they need when competing neighbors buy truckloads of scanners and go out together to bury the hatchet. In prison, Duane Rosenblum covets Dr. Richie leading to a very dark exchange that results in Richie being horribly violated by Rosenblum (instead of his regular prison rapist!). The story of the drug-dealing Lying Rhino becomes the less for not bearing false witness and men getting together for naked Sundays is the premise for honoring the Sabbath and keeping it holy.

The Tenreally goes out of its way to create convoluted situations to make its points. The prison ass rape concept for not coveting your neighbor’s wife is so over-the-top that it avoids the minor discomfort of rape jokes and leaps into the area of taste that actually addresses what bad taste simple rape jokes have. It’s risqué, but the film makes it work. In explaining “Thou Shall Not Steal,” The Ten reaches its highest level of meta-conscious humor: it is Winona Ryder’s Kelly who steals a ventriloquist dummy to have an affair with who illustrates that commandment! In other words, The Ten is not for the comically faint of heart. The humor is ballsy and pushes the envelope, but the movie makes its point well.

And The Ten has a pretty amazing cast, especially for a movie I had never heard of. Led by Paul Rudd, The Ten features established talents like Oliver Platt, Ron Silver, Winona Ryder, Famke Janssen, Jason Sudeikis, Live Schreiber, Justin Theroux, and Jessica Alba. Some have little more than a brief cameo, like Janeane Garofalo (who is in a single sequence for a single scene). Newer talents like Rob Corddry, Rashida Jones, Joe Lo Truglio, Gretchen Mol, and Adam Brody all have good outings in their respective segments.

But more than a cohesive movie, The Ten is a concept film and the concept is quickly established and then beaten to death. It is not unpleasant – though the film has somewhat low replayability – and the star power overshadows the characters many of the performers play , but The Ten is well worth watching for anyone who wants a comedy that is beyond the ordinary.

For other works with Jo Lo Truglio, please visit my reviews of:
Wreck-It Ralph
Pitch Perfect
Wanderlust
Paul
I Love You, Man
Pineapple Express

6.5/10

Check out how this movie stacks up against other movies I have reviewed by visiting my Movie Review Index Page for a listing of those reviews from best to worst!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Is Wanderlust More Than Hall Pass 2012? Eh . . . Maybe . . . ?

The Good: Moments of humor, Decent acting, Good DVD Bonus features
The Bad: Exceptionally predictable plot and character arcs, Some of the “fish out of water” humor wears devastatingly thin.
The Basics: Wanderlust is funny, but lacks any real enduring qualities to make it considered a comedy classic.


My wife and I have very different tastes when it comes to comedies. Even so, when she enthusiastically recommends a movie to me, I usually do what I can to get it in to watch it as soon as possible. In the case of Wanderlust, I was unsurprised when she saw it and recommended it to me; it was a film that she had been wanting to see when it was in the theaters, but we just never got around to it. So, the moment it dropped on DVD, she saw it and told me in emphatic terms that I had to see it. Having done that, my verdict is that Wanderlust is fun, but not the classic she made it sound like it would be.

In fact, the more I considered the plot, structure and themes in Wanderlust, the more surprised I am that she enjoyed it so much. Wanderlust bears a number of striking similarities to Hall Pass (reviewed here!) and neither of us was as fond of that film as we had anticipated we would be. More than that, aspects of Wanderlust that are fun often fall flat because director David Wain and his co-writer, Ken Marino, play the jokes that are based on deeply uncomfortable humor out far too long. That said, Wanderlust is not bad and it is a far smarter “fish out of water” comedy than, for an example in recent memory, Did You Hear About The Morgans? (reviewed here!).

Linda Gergenblatt and her husband George buy a studio apartment in New York City and days later discover that their employment situations have taken a pretty devastating turn for the worse. When Linda fails to sell her edgy show to HBO and George loses his job when the company gets shut down by the federal government, the two rapidly discover they are in a hopeless financial situation. Taking George’s obnoxious brother up on his offer to house them in Atlanta while they get their lives together, Linda and George head South. Desperate to get out of the car, though, the pair stops at a bed and breakfast, called Elysium. Elysium, as the nudist they run into almost immediately foreshadows, is a commune-style community that sells fruit at a stand on the side of the road and spends the rest of their time engaged in art, drugs and free love back down the road.

At Elysium, George and Linda discover a freedom they are unaccustomed to and after a night of staying there, they continue on to Atlanta. Once at Rick’s house, though, they discover his attitude unbearable and the job he offers George unworthy. So, George and Linda return to Elysium for a trial two weeks wherein they will decide if they truly want to live the rest of their life in a commune. Despite the commune’s de facto leader, Seth, making almost immediate overtures to Linda, George resists the temptations embodied by Eva, despite free love being part of the code of conduct at Elysium. As the novelty of Elysium begins to wear off for George, Linda begins to embrace life there and the two find themselves increasingly at odds.

Wanderlust has quite a bit going for it in the way it dispenses its humor. The movie seems to try less to be a fish out of water style comedy – though there are those elements – and focus instead on a culture clash between reason and emotion. George most frequently represents reason, which might be why he quickly experiments with what Elysium has to offer before deciding (reasonably) that it is not a sustainable life strategy for him and, he suspects, Linda. This leads to some hilarious exchanges between George and residents of Elysium. When George’s car ends up in the middle of the pond at Elysium, he tries to get information out of Rodney, who was driving it. Rodney’s spaced-out explanation that includes far too many truncations to actually inform George is actually hilarious. Unfortunately, a similar exchange where George continues to get interrupted by an Elysium woman who thinks she is being supportive while he tries to tell Linda how he feels drags; the viewer gets the joke almost immediately and the longer it goes on, not only does it become uncomfortable (which it is supposed to, given that it is that type of humor), but it stops being funny altogether.

On the flip side is Linda. Linda represents emotions much more purely than George does and as a result, she is initially wary of Elysium (fear!). But, when she sheds that, she actually warms up to the whole community aspect and even explores outside her comfort zone, which leads to the main conflict between her and George. It also triggers another painful sequence wherein George tries to talk his way up to having sex with Eva and that is just a horribly awkward bit that works because it is so clear that George isn’t emotionally able to handle infidelity.

Throughout Wanderlust, there is a subplot involving a corporation that wants to take over Elysium’s land and build a casino on it. That plot is frequently serviced by the appearances of Carvin, played by Alan Alda. Alda is hilarious as the community elder who founded Elysium with his friends in 1971 and now goes off listing their names each and every time the subject comes up. He has hidden the deed to the property somewhere and forgotten about it, which makes it virtually impossible for him to substantiate his claim that he owns the property. That subplot becomes a mechanism by which Seth shows his true colors and that bit works solely for the amount of money for which he betrays the community.

Wanderlust admittedly has a decent cast and it is used remarkably well. Paul Rudd, who is hit or miss, is on in Wanderlust as George. Sure, it is not much of a stretch from his performance in I Love You, Man (reviewed here!), but while I was watching Wanderlust, nothing in his performance jumped out as similar to that one (though, with a critical eye for character similarities, the roles are very close). Jennifer Aniston gives a solid, but unremarkable, performance as Linda. Linda is very similar to several other roles Aniston has played since Friends ended and she seems to be put in a rut, er, niche by too many directors who get her on their projects.

The supporting cast of Wanderlust actually manages to steal the show more often than the main cast. In addition to Alan Alda’s infrequent appearances on screen, Wanderlust utilizes Lauren Ambrose amazingly well. She was not given much humor to play on Six Feet Under (reviewed here!), the work from which I still recognize her best. In Wanderlust, she plays the delightfully crazed Almond, who is very pregnant and plays the earnest deadpan jokes incredibly well. She steals every scene she is in. Unfortunately, Malin Ackerman is relegated to yet another generic “hot chick” role in Wanderlust. Her character Eva is not given much in the way of a personality and it is only the relentless string of terrible attempt lines that George spits out that make it plausible that Eva would reject his advance when the time comes. Ackerman is, unfortunately, given very little to do, save react and look good on screen. In a similar vein, while Kathryn Hahn’s Karen initially feels like a different role for her, the moment Karen jumps in following Eva’s discomfort, the role is pure Hahn. In other words, it’s exactly what one expects from one of her performances.

Wanderlust has a vibrant soundtrack dominated by a recurring drum-driven piece that punctuates the movements well. Director David Wain has a decent sense of comic timing that makes Wanderlust move along well for the bulk of the movie. Wain and his co-writer ought to use any one of the many internet mapping programs that exist to fact-check before their next endeavor. The lighting in the travel montage indicates that Linda and George are driving for days. The drive from New York City to Atlanta is 14 – 15 hours, not multiple days. As someone who traveled a lot, that sequence stood out at sloppy.

Now on DVD and Blu-Ray, Wanderlust is engorged with bonus features. The deleted scenes, ironically, do not include all of the bits that were featured in the trailers for the movie. In addition to featurettes, the DVD has deleted and alternate scenes. The disc is pretty well packed with goodies for the fans. My wife might be one of those fans, but I ultimately found Wanderlust to be a solidly average film in too many ways to enthusiastically recommend it.

For other works with Malin Ackerman, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Couples Retreat
The Proposal
Watchmen

5.5/10

For other film reviews, be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the films I have reviewed!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

David Lynch's Lesbian Love Dream Masterpiece Mulholland Drive Suffers When Viewed Rationally . . . Or On DVD.

The Good: Great weird for the sake of weird movie, Direction, Sexual graphicness, Acting, Moments of character.
The Bad: Lack of DVD bonus features
The Basics: If there was ever a film that deserved slews of DVD bonus features, Mulholland Dr. is it; unfortunately, we don't get them on this DVD presentation!


Recently, I made a tradeoff in my reviews and I was pretty straightforward about it. On my yearly cross-country trip, I was given a copy of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. Having watched and reviewed the entire Twin Peaks series, I was psyched. And when I was done, I was just shaking my head and I was pretty peeved. The problem with Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was that it was weird for the sake of weird, without any respect for the already known story of Twin Peaks. As a result, I allowed myself to pan that film, with the caveat: I would re-view and (finally) review Mulholland Dr. a later and better film by writer and director David Lynch and give it a positive review.

The reason I was willing to do this - and be so straightforward about it - was that I enjoyed Mulholland Dr. when I saw it and I appreciated what David Lynch was trying to do with the film, which was to create a dream on film. I could dig it and with its non-linear sense of time and creepy conceits (my ex called it "The Best Of David Lynch") it is a pretty astounding film, nine out of ten, maybe a little more. On DVD, though, it is starkly presented and for such an ambitious film, viewers deserve more. Much more.

This is the point at which I usually leap into a plot description of the film. I will, but it's important to note this: the film is not linear in its storytelling, is not supposed to make perfect sense, and includes deep philosophical ideas some of which are not brought in until the last half hour of the film. Moreover, in that last half hour, characters swap identities (so actors we have been watching for the prior hour and a half are suddenly running around with different names and characters, but not all of the characters are swapped out). Sound confusing? It's supposed to be, just like a dream. To David Lynch's credit, he does a bang-up job with making something creepy, deep, erotic and visually stunning with Mulholland Dr. I cannot recall another movie I could actually recommend sitting through with the film muted just for the creepy presentation.

A brunette is riding in a limousine up Mulholland Dr. late one night when she is ordered at gunpoint out of the car, which is immediately crashed into by young kids speeding down the canyon. She survives, memory lost and she stumbles down the hill and falls asleep under some bushes in front of an apartment complex. The next morning, she sneaks into an apartment there. This happens to be the apartment Betty Elms is housesitting for her aunt at and she discovers the woman there, who names herself Rita off a poster in the house. Betty is an eager young woman fresh in Hollywood waiting for her big break in films and preparing herself for auditions. Still, she is intrigued by Rita and her lack of memories.

At the same time, director Adam Kesher's film is being taken out of his hands. The female lead is being recast and the local mob - led by a very particular espresso-drinker - is demanding that their actress be given the lead. Kesher resists, but upon finding his wife in bed with the pool man and visited by a strange, prophetic cowboy, he gives in and hires actress Camilla Rhodes for the part. By this time, Betty and Rita are tracking down Rita's true identity and are falling in love, which puts them on a collision course with a mysterious artifact that alters reality itself.

The artifact is a blue box, which Rita has the key for. I liken Lynch's blue box to the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. From that interpretation, the color scheme during the opening scene dance contest presumes that the entire film takes place within the confines of this supernatural plane and it pleasantly voids the need for any strong, linear connection to the film.

This works better for the viewer as well because there is no real mystery to Mulholland Dr. It is a thriller where mood is heightened, colors are brightened and the stories are more contrived than real. The characters are largely archetypes, making their interchangability more understandable and acceptable. It also excuses the actors for some of their presentations.

For example, anyone watching Mulholland Dr. and looking at it rationally must conclude instantly that either Naomi Watts cannot act or David Lynch cannot write and direct. Why? Betty's first scenes in the film are strings of cliches of the young woman come to Hollywood to make it big, hammed up with an unbelievable earnest quality that makes her into the complete rube. Her appearance follows two detectives arriving on the scene of the limo crash and speaking dull lines that simply repeat the same observation over and over again. The lack of inflection in that scene plays off the over-the-top performance of Betty as an archetype screen virgin who truly is out of her element.

When one accepts that she is supposed to be this way and simply goes with it, the film becomes much more enjoyable. Lynch is incorporating a camp quality into Mulholland Dr. that only enhances the overall weirdness of the film.

And that is what Mulholland Dr. is truly about: style as an expression of genuine surrealism. Is there substance? I'm not sure. There is relevance as this is easily one of the most artistic films ever conceived and executed. Visually, it is stunning. Lynch plays reds and pinks off opposition blues throughout the film, creating character colors that resonate (bad things happen in the blue). As characters shift and change, so too does their color scheme. It's clever and subtle and artistic.

As for substance, it's hard to argue there is little or no substance in Mulholland Dr. when the acting is this good. Whether they come easy or not (Watts was recently interviewed saying she preferred her love scenes in this film because there was no sexual tension with her costar, Laura Harring), Watts and Harring fearlessly leap into some of the most passionate lesbian love scenes shown on the big screen. The film is sexy and it's only after one actually sits and considers it that they might realize that the most passionate moments are actually the kissing scenes. Arguably the sexiest moment comes when Harring as Camilla Rhodes kisses Melissa George as Camilla Rhodes and one is able to see that George walks away with her pink lipstick smudged over with Harring's deeper red.

The reason I belabor this is that Mulholland Dr. is largely about mood and surrealism and it manages to be both sexy and scary, tense and confusing. Adam might be the most sensible and realistic character as he has the most straightforward struggle in the film and the most believable presentation. Adam fights the fight of an artist against the mob and a studio that is strange and manifests itself only to attempt to thwart his artistic expression and one feels this is Lynch channeling his frustration at Hollywood itself.

Adam is played with subtle brilliance by Justin Theroux. Theroux is required to play Adam with quiet anger that erupts with an efficient sense of controlled ruthlessness, like when he discovers his wife's infidelity, he takes her jewelry and pours pink paint over it all. Theroux is joined by an amazing cast, which includes Lynch regular Michael J. Anderson. Fans of Alias will appreciate seeing a very different side of actress Melissa George. George erupts onto the screen in Mulholland Dr. as a pink-clad singing actress who smiles and swoons, something no one who became captivated by her in the third season of Alias would have bet she could do!

Naomi Watts might well give the performance of her career as Betty. She is absolutely convincing in every scene she is in as she goes from the eager and naive, cliche-speaking rube to the amateur detective determined to save the woman she loves. Watts makes us believe that she is a terrible actress, but by the end of the film it is so clearly a script contrivance we are forced to concede that she was amazing in her presentation.

But it is Laura Harring who rocks Mulholland Drive, not for anything as simplistic as her nudity (Lynch airbrushed out much of that). She immediately establishes the tone with her clear performance of an amnesiac without any lines of dialogue. As the film continues, she is utterly convincing as a lost woman whose identity has been robbed from her. Harring plays the vacant stares as compelling and the moments of stronger dialogue as unforced.

David Lynch writes and directs the film in such a way that it accomplishes exactly what it set out to do. This is a dream on film and it is often a nightmare, one that is confused and sweaty and an eccentric combination of darkness and bright colors. Lynch's use of music is impressive (the Spanish version of "Crying" in the Club Silencio is amazing) and one forgives him most of his conceits, even the ones he used in prior cinematic endeavors.

On DVD, Mulholland Dr. suffers from a lack of DVD bonus features. There is no commentary track (the film desperately needs one) and only a theatrical trailer for the movie. More than that, the paper slip within the DVD case gives viewers ten "clues" to solving the mystery of the movie, as if there were an actual point to it. This feels particularly low to a cinephile who loves surrealism and has stuck with Lynch through some of his more questionable works.

And this brings us back to the comparison between Mulholland Dr. and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. The reason this was a "no compromise" compromise is simple. Mulholland Dr. has no cannon to betray and can do whatever it wants (and does!). Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was in some ways confined to what had been presented in that universe before and the film version made some problematic contradictions. So, for weird for the sake of weird, there is one clear choice and that is to take a trip down Mulholland Dr.!

For other works Justin Theroux is involved in, check out my reviews of:
Megamind
Iron Man 2
Six Feet Under - Season Four
Zoolander

9/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |