spoiler alert although this be a plot almost a impossible to spoil a it be to completely explain . mulholland drive be by far the most successful expression of david lynch cinematographic style and vision since the first season of his twin peak tv series . a lynch enthusiast know and his be a style and vision uniquely blend from film noir and horror movie and surrealism and and parapsychology with a healthy dose of postmodern self consciousness and black humor thrown in for good measure . all these element be richly at work in mulholland drive and make for a riveting and hair raising and and highly satisfying film experience especially if one do not become overly obsessed with try to make all the plot piece fit into a logical and mystery unraveling whole . the film feature wonderful performance by naomi watt and laura harring in the lead role of young woman whose life intersect in various way amid a hollywood set that be itself an hallucinated blend of contemporary reality and retro 50 nostalgia and and satirical self aggrandizement . their seemingly random initial meeting occurs after the film open scene and in which harring character escape an attempt on her life thanks to a fortuitous and not to mention horrific and automobile accident . stagger down the hillside from mulholland drive to sunset boulevard ( the two most archetypal of hollywood thoroughfare ) and she find her way to the very apartment that betty ( naomi watt ) be about to sublet from her aunt ruth and a purportedly successful actress who be off to canada to begin a new movie . a we later learn and betty have herself arrive from deep river and ontario and shortly after win a jitterbug contest . a highly energetic and stylized flashback to the contest form one of two pre credit prologue sequence that frame betty descent from the clichéd would be starlet bright eye innocence to the debauched madness of spurn lover and go nowhere bite part actress . unable to remember her own name and the harring character adopt the name rita from a movie poster for the film noir classic gilda that adorn aunt ruth apartment . ( actually and it turn out aunt ruth have long since decease and whose apartment be really in be a good question to be resolve in future viewing . ) anyway and betty determines to help rita find out what happen and to discover the source of the roll of cash and a mysterious blue key that the woman find in rita purse . the two woman begin to piece together clue that would seem to lead to rita true identity . they also and by the way and become lover and at one point radiate such an incendiary chemistry that i can not recall it equal in mainstream treatment of lesbian lover affair ( if a lynch movie can ever be designate amainstream ) . at the local winkies restaurant ( a recur location fraught with dream like significance behind it grubby realistic facade ) and rita attention be catch by a waitress name tag read diane . this lead her to a recollection of someone name diane selwyn and whose apartment the two woman soon visit and and at betty insistence and break into . i would not reveal what they find within and but suffice it to say the scene be render with vintage lynchian creepiness . subsequently and rita wake in night sweat speak spanish and hurry betty to an all night magic show or theater call silencio and where the art of illusion and lip or instrumental syncing be practice with manic intensity and where the blue haired lady and a she be note in the end credit and reign a the presiding muse . frame by the blue lit and red curtain silencio theatre and the blue haired lady occupy the last shot in the film and perhaps a symbol for the control artistic imagination rather like steven man with the blue guitar a filter through bad drug surrealism . during the silencio sequence and and a rebekah del rio cameo lip sync her own powerful spanish rendition of roy orbison cry ) and a shattering epiphany occur when betty open her own purse to discover a blue box with a keyhole that obviously match the key in rita purse . even if we do not delve too deeply into the freudian sexual symbolism of purse and the moment be a singularly hitchcockian one in that the matching of the key and box lead to a complete inversion of what we think we know and into a whole new set of character relationship and meaning . not the least of these reversal be the discovery that betty be the sought for diane selwyn and the spurned lover of camilla rhodes ( i. e. rita ) . camilla in turn be a latin femme fatale movie star to whom diane be indebted for the few minor role she have manage to secure and and more significantly and to whom she be emotionally subjugate . after these and other discovery in the last third of the film and the problem of accounting for the first two third of the movie be not so straightforwardly resolve a in vertigo . while bit and piece of imagery and dialog suggest that much and if not all and of the early material be project and displace from the fevered subconscious of diane herself and other bit and piece suggest the perhaps supernatural intervention of a cast of character draw direct inspiration from twin peak and include michael j. anderson reprise his unearthly dwarfish power and a bob variant who hang out behind winkies and be the ultimate repository for the blue box and it id like association . however one fit the piece together and though and the whole of mulholland drive be much great and more mysterious than the sum of it part . lynch take u on a wonderfully inventive and provocative and and pleasurably disturb mind trip . what more and the film cinematography be stun and the soundtrack fill with evocative atmospherics and the act superb and and the directing or edit masterful . this may well have be the unacknowledged best picture of 2001 among major american release .