There are many reasons why I love Mulholland Dr. (and please don't point out the obvious, those of you who have actually seen it). The film is so many things at once it's hard to keep track. It's a thriller. It's a noir. It's a triangulated love story. It's a tale of vengeance. David Lynch has spun all of these things together to create his masterpiece. He is the true master of the WTF.
The film is about many things. I could go into detail about them, not because I'm afraid of spoiling the plot, but because it will sound complicated. Just sounds, not that it really is complicated. The film basically follows Betty (Naomi Watts) and Rita (Laura Harring) as they try to piece together who Rita really is due to amnesia. Betty is a small town girl in Hollywood to make it big in movies. Throw in director Adam Kesher (Justin Theroux) and his ultimate bad day and you round out the main plot of the film.
Or so you think because this isn't your typical Hollywood fare. This is a David Lynch film and what appears to be simple is not. But it really is. Are you getting this so far? There are so many layers to Mulholland Dr., you will have to watch it twice to get to the core of the film. Nothing is what it seems, not because of sci-fi or Doc Brown. It's the basic human condition that makes people see what they want to see and be what they want to be. It's a film about lost dreams. It's Sunset Blvd. for the kids that grew up on Star Wars. It's a movie that doesn't just sit there on the screen. It gets your mind going. You make it what you want it to be.
In a sense, David Lynch's career has been pushing forward to this point. Starting with the extreme avant garde of Eraserhead, to the very approachable Blue Velvet (kudos to Dennis Hopper), proceeding down the Lost Highway, he has finally ended up with his finest work. A film that tells a Hollywood story without us even knowing it.
As I said, David Lynch is the King of WTF. You will say WTF a lot during the first three quarters of this film, but you'll still stay interested up until the final sense when it all comes together. Mulholland Dr. is a film that keeps the mind racing, daring you to figure out what the hell's going on before the credits roll. This is one of the most cerebral films ever. This is a true masterpiece.
If Alfred Hitchcock was still alive he would have made No Country For Old Men. The classic story of a man that, in the midst of the daily grind, ends up walking into a situation beyond what he thought he would experience that morning. Then he has to face the consequences of all of it. In No Country For Old Men Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbles on the remains of a shootout while hunting. As curiosity gets the better of him and he begins to examine the scene he discovers a briefcase full of money. Being the human being that he is, he takes the money and a pistol home and causes the dominoes to fall as he begins to be stalked by the psychotic Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), the epitomy of unstoppable hit men who kills his way to Llewelyn and the money. Throw into this Tommy Lee Jones as the sheriff that's trying to piece it all together and save Llewelyn's skin and you get a cat and mouse game between a guy that was just out hunting and a vengeful drug cartel.
Adapted from the novel by Cormac McCarthy and dircted by Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country For Old Men is a great thriller that follows that classic Hitchcock formula ala North By Northwest- the guy that stumbles into trouble and has to get out of it while running from the bad guys. Llewelyn thinks he knows how to get out of this mess, but is really just drowning in the situation he's gotten into. Brolin plays him as totally optimistic, even when bleeding and hiding in a Mexican hospital. Bardem is the philosophical killing machine, debating the significance on whether a coin is heads or tails while on his killing spree to get back his money. He's like the Terminator- he will not stop until his goal, and his own sense of duty, are fulfilled.
The Coen's have filled the film with suspense. Most thrillers such as this run around in circles, but they have kept this film on a linear path that doesn't repeat itself over and over again. Between the game between Moss and Chiguhr, Tommy Lee Jones' character tries to sort everything out and save Llewelyn's ass. The problem that all of the characters have to face is the Killer's Morality- he is described as being on a higher standard than most and satisfies everything he promises, right up until the end.
As I said, No Country For Old Men is a Hitchcock film for the new millennium. A film filled with a thrilling plot that delivers a great ride for the audience. A real classic.
There Will Be Blood follows the exploits of Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis), an early 20th century oil man going through California communities and exploiting not only the land but the people above it. After meeting a mysterious young man that directs him toward his families land that rests above a large amount of oil. Plainview travels there with his adoptive son and encounters the young man's twin brother Eli (Paul Dano), who is considered a local prophet and figure head of his own local church. The film basically follows the trials and tribulations on both sides and how these things tear apart and break down people and families.
Paul Thomas Anderson shoots There Will Be Blood with a majesty that is reminiscent of John Ford, using nature as a magnificent back drop for the conflicts being laid out before the audience. There is such an eye for detail that many shots appear as if taken from a turn of the century newspaper or scrap book. It's the dirty details that real make this film stand out as something special.
Of course you can't talk about There Will Be Blood without mentioning Daniel Day Lewis. He is one of the best actors of this generation and also ranks among some of the all time greatest players. Just as he did with Bill The Butcher in Gangs of New York, Lewis has totally become the role of Daniel Plainview. He is a realistic portrayal of evil. Not the kind of evil that shoots lightning bolts or something that was born with him. The evil that is Daniel Plainview comes from what he has faced- the trials of being a miner and oil man and the greed that he not only holds in his heart but the greed contained in everyone around him. You can see him change throughout the film as he becomes older, crankier, and bitter. Daniel Day Lewis fills the role with a soul that you can't find on paper. Anyone can write a character, but it takes an actor to breath life into it. He gives Plainview a pulse. It was a formality to give him the Oscar.
The funny thing is that in any other year this would have been Best Picture. It is a true masterpiece in a decade filled with drivel and harkens back to earlier times and epic pictures. There Will Be Blood is the heir apparent to those epics. Some films try to be epic, but this one is built as one. A classic morality tale where everyone loses in one way or another.
