Mulholland Drive....what?

Bryce watched Mulholland Drive last night. Well, he finished it at least. He watched the first twenty minutes while he was eating lunch yesterday. That is beside the point. The point being: what is the big deal about this movie? He knew it was going to be weird, but he still expected a good movie.

Later today he read its Wikipedia entry, a reliable source for such investigations. It turns out that Mulholland Drive came out to critical acclaim, didn’t perform well at the box office, and now has a cult following. Bryce leaned back in his chair. This is where all the movies end up that just are too weird for their own good.

The director did his job. He was creative; creative enough to win some awards for the movie, but creative enough to make Bryce just laugh when it was all over. Bryce is sorry. He isn’t going to be amazed by the cult classic just because it is that. It still has to be a good movie. There can’t be completely random crap thrown into the movie to make it cool. Ooh. Ah. That scene was so weird. Bryce isn’t going to buy that.

What is the glue of this movie? What, if anything, keeps it from falling into a jumbled mess of storyline with no possible connection? Well, Bryce would say, “Nothing holds it together. Well, maybe the soundtrack. From the opening credits the soundtrack is gripping. I thought the subwoofer was going to shake its way through the floor.” Honestly though, after reading the Wikipedia entry Bryce was astonished. He couldn’t explain the popularity. According to many, the director pulled the oldest trick in the book. The first two thirds of the movie was a dream. Isn’t that cute? What a copout.

Finally, the copout. The copout is a failure to fulfill a commitment or responsibility or to face a difficulty squarely. The real copout is by the fans, Bryce figured out. They like the movie because they can watch it and not be accused of having a girl-on-girl porno fetish.