Director: David Lynch

Writer: David Lynch (Screenplay)

Starring: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Robert Forster, Ann Miller, Dan Hedaya

Plot: After a car wreck on the winding Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a perky Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.

Tagline – A woman in search of stardom. A woman in search of herself – in the city of dreams. A key to a mystery – lies somewhere on Mulholland Drive.

Runtime: 2 Hours 27 Minutes

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

Verdict: One Day I Will Understand This Gem

Story: Mulholland Drive starts as actress Rita (Harring) is involved in an accident but escaping the people trying to kill her. The apartment she takes shelter in is about to be taken up by aspiring actress Betty (Watts) who is staying in her Aunt’s apartment while trying to get on her feet. Director Adam (Theroux) is trying to get his next movie made but is being forced into casting Camilla Rhodes who no one can find.

Rita and Betty work together to find out the truth about who Rita is which brings them closer in an adventure across LA, while Adam is following a path to get his latest movie made and dealing with gangsters.

Thoughts on Mulholland Drive

Characters – Betty is the innocent young woman who arrives in LA hoping to making it in the acting world, but upon arriving she has an unexpected guest, she is kind natured and willing to help this stranger who ends up taking her to places she never thought she would go. Rita is the lady who has lost her memory, she is hiding out in the apartment that Betty is staying in and is helped along the way to regain her memory. Adam is a cocky director that believes he knows it all when it comes to making a film but he is pushed into making certain decisions which leaves him against what he wishes.

Performances – Naomi Watts is great in the leading role working perfectly with Laura Harring as the two have great chemistry through the film. we get to see two different sides of the performance seeing how the two different sides of everything unfolds.

Story – What starts out as a simple idea of a mystery behind one woman’s amnesia takes a very different turn in the final act of the film which ends up throwing everything we thought we knew up in the air. Like a lot of David Lynch films you will need to watch the story a few times to understand everything putting the pieces together to make a film you can understand but that is why this is one for the brain to enjoy.

Mystery – We are left to figure out what happened, it does take time and I am sure on multiple viewings you will understand what happened.

Settings – The film is set in LA which helps us understand the dreams and desires of the characters to succeed.

Special Effects – The effects are only used a couple of times but the truth is they work very well through the film.

Scene of the Movie – Hitman’s mistake adds comic moment to a serious film.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – Certain moments leave you wondering what was that.

Final Thoughts – This is a mystery movie that I enjoyed so much because it just keeps you needing to rethink nearly every scene in the movie to understand what you just saw.

Overall: True mystery brain tester.

Rating

Director: Matt Angel, Suzanne Coote

Writer: Matt Angel, Suzanne Coote (Screenplay)

Starring: Dylan Minnette, Piercey Dalton, Sharif Atkins, Patricia Bethune, Matt Angel, Suzanne Coote

Plot: A teenager (Dylan Minnette) and his mother (Piercey Dalton) find themselves besieged by threatening forces when they move into a new house.

Runtime: 1 Hour 34 Minutes

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

Verdict: Bad Decisions 101

Story: Open House starts as Logan’s (Minnette) father is killed in a traffic accident, leaving him and his mother Naomi (Dalton) in debt needing to live in a family open house to help clear debts they have. The house in question is in the middle of the woods, large and genuinely creepy.

When strange things start happening around the house, they believe it might just be people from the open house, but soon things take a sinister turn and the two must fight to survive against an unknown enemy.

Thoughts on The Open House

Characters – Logan is a star athlete high school student, setting paces that will walk him into any college and even one an Olympic hopeful, but his life is shattered when his coach and father is killed in a traffic incident, this seems Logan moving away with his mother as they try to rebuild their lives and Logan needing to learn the strain that both will be feeling with this loss. Naomi is the mother that loses a husband, trying to remain strong for her son she does the best she can to keep a roof over their heads, even if that means holding up his potential. We do only get small supporting characters through the film, which do play out like suspects in a way, but none get enough time to make you believe it will or won’t be them.

Performances – This movie on Netflix is heavily being sold on Dylan Minnette one of the stars of 13 Reasons Why, but his performance in only standard for the genre, never bring too much to his character, which could easily have been more interesting or supportive, Piercey Dalton is good without reaching the strongest mother figure role and for some reasons we watch her have three showers just to make the point that someone is messing with the water.

Story – The story follows a family that suffer a sudden tragedy who must relocate to make ends meet, which involves living in an open house, only to find themselves being a stalked around their own house by a mysterious man and needing to find a way to survive. This is a basic story that never reaches any suspenseful moments that we needed, we have lazy character development and by the end it feels like this movie was designed to create a bigger project in the future.

Horror – The horror is fine, but mostly fake jump scares which gets hugely frustrating as by the end you will be left going, well that’s it.

Settings – The film is mostly set in a home in middle of the woods, we get moments that create isolation, including lose of phone, but even with an easy location it doesn’t get used well enough.

Scene of the Movie – Couldn’t find one.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – Would you really drivee while on the phone after losing a family member in an accident.

Final Thoughts – This is a disappointing horror, it doesn’t use the suspense it had and by the end you are just left thinking ‘meh’

Overall: Forgettable horror movie

Rating

2017 Award

Worst Sci-Fi

January is here and that means award season and for the whole of January I will be looking at a range of best and worst subjects.

Winner

Alien: Covenant

Reason – This was a disaster for the alien franchise, it is a mess from start to finish, it decides to become a full prequel for alien while trying to balance a God concept and just ruins a quality character created as we follow scientists making ridiculous decisions.