Mulholland Drive
★★★★Worth watchingIs Mulholland Drive worth watching? (No spoilers)
Easily my favorite David Lynch film. The first two hours are a gripping mystery on their own, and the last 30 minutes are pure insanity that clicks into place the more you think about it. Absolutely worth watching, and then immediately rewatching.
⚠️ Spoiler warning: everything below the quick take, including the full review and ending explained, contains spoilers.
Mulholland Drive review
Wow.
So far this is easily my favorite film by David Lynch. The last 30 minutes are pure insanity, so confusing at first, and even frustrating at times, but then as you begin to piece it together (which you initially resist) you have nothing but awe.
The explanation of it all works so perfectly, even thought it was basically just a dream, a plot mechanic I often loathe. Yet here it was amazing. And even better, the first 2 hours were truly engaging, interesting, and would have been a great movie all on its own.
Is Mulholland Drive scary?
Scare level: 1/5
It's not a horror movie, but it does feature one jump scare, and a creeping, dreamlike unease throughout.
Mulholland Drive ending explained
Most of the film follows Betty, a bright young actress in LA, helping an amnesiac woman named Rita figure out who she is. When they open a mysterious blue box, the story collapses. The last half hour shows the real world: Betty is actually Diane Selwyn, a failed, bitter actress, and Rita is Camilla Rhodes, a successful star who was Diane's lover before dumping her for the director Adam.
Humiliated, Diane hired a hitman to kill Camilla. The blue key the hitman leaves is the sign the job is done. Overwhelmed with guilt and haunted by visions, Diane shoots herself in her apartment.
The first two hours were Diane's dream: a fantasy where she's talented and kind, and Camilla needs her. Real people and details from her life are reshuffled into the version she wishes were true. The ending is about Hollywood chewing people up, and about the guilt that dream was trying to bury.
My take: I usually hate 'it was a dream,' but here it works perfectly.
Does Mulholland Drive have a post-credits scene?
No. Mulholland Drive has no mid-credits or post-credits scene.
Movies like Mulholland Drive
- Eraserhead (1977) ★★★★ – more Lynch, more nightmare logic
- Lost Highway (1997) – Lynch's other identity-swapping LA mystery
- Sunset Boulevard (1950) – Hollywood dreams turning deadly
- Perfect Blue (1997) – a performer's reality and fantasy blurring together