MovieChat Forums > Under the Silver Lake (2019) Discussion > A Dumbed-down Mullholand Drive

A Dumbed-down Mullholand Drive

posted 5 years ago by jmvideo (6)
10 replies | jump to latest

Fans of Indie Rock will appreciate Silver Lake being the backdrop for the movie.... a paradise of sex, drugs, and Death Cab for Cutie in the late 90's / early 2000's. But generally, this is a "made-for-TV" version of a David Lynch film. In a typical Lynch film, the mystery is presented and the audience must figure it out. But here, everything is spelled out for the seemingly retarded Millennial audience not capable of critical thinking.

The filmmaking is conservative and predictable. Would have been so much more powerful if shot in a more creepy / creative style.

The biggest WTF moment is the old-guy song-writer who apparently wrote every pop/rock hit since 1960, and killed by Kurt Cobain's guitar? uh, ok.

The protagonist isn't even like-able. A typical privileged white guy with no life goals other than to pleasure himself. He'll fuck anything that moves, and we're supposed to sympathize with his affection for the missing girl?

Ambitious, yes. Effective? No.

[–] jmvideo (6) 5 years ago

Well, this board fucking sucks. I thought maybe this was where all the IMDB people would come to chat about films.

Guess I was wrong. Just crickets.

Sad.

[–] rustycut9 (10) 5 years ago

Unfortunately its not. I hoped the same thing too... I mean I could go into how how Mulholland Drive admittedly made no sense (and this is coming from a Millenial that seen the film a dozen times because i love it)but screw this guy. I guess i need reddit to talk about movies, but I dont fuck with reddit as I am an older millenial and dont understand it

[–] Druff (1796) 5 years ago

There's tons of activity on many of these forums. I think the real issue is that nobody gave a fuck about your opinion.

[–] R_Kane (15828) 4 years ago

^This!

[–] rustycut9 (10) 5 years ago

Have you ever watched a film noir?

[–] Martoto (5024) 4 years ago

I've deciphered your OP and basically it says you've noticed that this movie is kinda weird. Kinda like Mulholland Drive is weird, but not really like Mulholland Drive. And you like Mulholland drive so...

Congratulations for noticing.

Who said you're supposed to sympathise with the main character anyway?

[–] darkfrances (47) 4 years ago

Well, seen from that specific angle, sure, I guess.
But I don't think it wanted to be a Mulholland Drive. To me it felt a bit closer to - I don't know, Eco's Foucault's Pendullum, narrative wise. It deals with meaninglessness, which begets bastardized meanings and halfbaked truths. It's weird that in this story there does seem to be a meaning behind everyhing - but it's such a pile of hippy wacko scientological insanity that I'm quite sure it's not meant to be taken as more than a manic episode.

I'm still trying to process what happened in the final act of the film. But it most certainly is not meant to be dreamy logic. It's more like a generalized "fuck this world I'm going fishing" thing...

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

andrew garfield's having a moment right now, and deservedly so imo, so i decided to give this a re-watch this afternoon. watch #6 for me.

i think this is his best movie.

dumbed down mullholland drive is a needlessly pissy way of saying it, imo. personally, i would prefer to call it 'diet mullholland drive.' and i don't think of that as an insult. it's like that other film, but it goes down much more easily, and is a ton of hun.

and i will say that watching a ton of noir films on the criterion channel in the past two years has added to my appreciation of many of the movies this film makes.

it's great stuff.

[–] DaveBowman2001 (517) 2 years ago

I've seen it 3x. Better than most shit out these last 5 years. I think it's a little more like Inherent Vice (I consider it a masterpiece in a fun sorta way). It's not as good as that, but pretty good. Maybe some Mulholland Dr like bits. It's well-made and intriguing. I don't know that the whole is as good as the sum of the parts. Feels like a lot was left on the cutting room floor. Maybe it's making fun of the genres or analytical types like me that try to find deeper meanings or hidden codes. Sure they lead somewhere, but maybe not anywhere near what you expected.

Forgot to add the rear window influence of course.

[–] e3e34ifj (1912) 5 months ago

So you call the movie "spelled out for the seemingly retarded Millenial audience not capable of critical thinking" but also somehow miss that Sam is the dogkiller? And then you call the fact that the film didn't outright explain it a "plot hole"? Sounds like you're more retarded than the millennials you're making fun of.

And no, the protagonist is not a good person. So what? You want films to be morally ambitious but get upset when the main character himself is morally ambitious? Not sure what sense to make of you.