Reviews

Maybe if I liked Ring 2 better I'd have been more willing to forgive this one. It feels like the series is just repeating itself...as if the script said "so what I've been trying to tell you is...blah blah blah". SOME SPOILER-TYPE ITEMS FOLLOW!

Part of the reason why the whole Sadako mystery was effective is that we had to imagine the events that lead up to her fate. This film tries to paint a complex picture behind those events and for that it succeeds on some level. By the time the movie ends, I have learned nothing really, except maybe that nobody could blame people for eventually wanting to kill her. Her fault or not, running around killing will eventually make more people want you arrested - or in the case of an out of control psychic, dead. We are supposed to feel these events lead to a tragedy that Sadako wasn't really in control of - it being her rage that is behind the violence she deals out (as witnessed in Ring 2). To be honest, I did not feel too sympathetic...well, I did - to a point. In the same way that I feel many people in prison for murder could have avoided that fate if they were only treated right, Sadako deserves the same. She doesn't deserve death as much as the next person. Of course, does this tell us anything about how we should feel concerning her 'out of control rage' dishing out vengeance from the bottom of a well for years to come? Maybe...or not.

None of this says that Ring 0: Birthday is a terrible film. I just think that far too much was asked of this viewer to have a film degenerate into a hybrid of Carrie and Frankenstein while giving very little to the story. Everything important was learned from the previous two films...even if (or especially if) they were only sketched out or hinted at those times. 5 out of 10.

This film is one of Lynch's best...maybe his very best, though only time will tell if I like it better than Lost Highway. Most people know that this was made from a television pilot and that makes it more impressive to me. It is definitely not a film for everyone.

SPOILER!

SPOILER!

SPOILER!

There are possibly any amount of solutions to a David Lynch movie, he brings a to his films a painter's power, where everyone can lend themselves to his films and pull from them something that makes complete sense...though maybe not the same sense that another has experienced.

I look at Mulholland Drive in two sections, told out of order. The second section tells the reality of the story: A woman (Diane)comes to Hollywood to be a star and is beaten out of a part by a sexually manipulative woman named Camilla. After being discarded by Camilla at a party, where she appears to be in the process of sleeping her way even further to the top, Diane hires a hitman to have her killed. Driven mad with guilt she ends her life with a gunshot.

Section one is her dying dream (possibly dreamt just before her own death, or during), where everything is trying to go right, until she is forced to start making connections, leading to full realization, and vanishing into death. It is interesting to see her reaction to various events in this section when we are aware of what occurs in the final parts. Like when Camilla is cast in the movie (the same movie we find out she was beaten for in "real life")...that nervous look and panic seems to say "this is not how it is supposed to go" - the whole time the director is focused more on Diane than Camilla. These little recognitions of what really happened reminds me of the film Jacob's Ladder, though they work much better here in Lynch's world.

As in many Lynch films the "circle is closed" - here by the old couple. Who or what they represent is unknown to me but they are in the film at both ends...they appear with her during the jitterbug opening, they usher her into the first section smiling, and usher her out of the second section far less cheerful.

This probably (most likely) isn't the only explanation of Mulholland Drive but it is one that works and makes for utterly fascinating viewing! (10 out of 10 - hard to imagine it done better)

---Jeffery Q