Year of the Month
A man's attitude goes some ways to the way his [movie interpretation] will be. Is that somethin' you might agree with?
Mulholland Drive, like Michael Moorcock’s Cornelius Quartet, is one of those works where I like going in with a different interpretation every time I go back to it. The standard read on this film is that the first two-thirds – concerning Betty (Naomi Watts) and Rita (Laura Harring) investigating the mystery of the latter’s amnesia while the former rises as a Hollywood starlet – is a dream had by a woman named Diane (also Naomi Watts) to cope with both her failing acting career and the guilt of murdering her lover Camilla (also Laura Harring); indeed, this is Watts’s own interpretation of the film. Both the take itself and the collective assumption it’s correct have always bothered me; the take because it’s both very obvious and requires simply saying “a bunch of the scenes are completely meaningless”, which is boring; the collective assumption because, ironically, it undermines director intent.
I engage with stories by trying to crunch down the intentions of the storyteller to their bare essentials; if their intentions are to make a comedy, I look for things that make me laugh, if their intentions are to play out a set of consequences, I follow the consequences, if their intentions are to detail the sociological implications of introducing a new species to an environment, well, guess what I’m doing. It’s not that I can’t ‘use’ a work for an unintended purpose (I like stripping works of ideas for making D&D campaigns), or that I’ll respect every intention; it’s that I know the world doesn’t revolve exclusively around what I want.
But it is nice, every now and again, to pick up a work where the intention is to have no apparent intention. Notice that five of the ten clues David Lynch gave to the film are questions. Lynch loudly protested any responsibility for the viewer’s interpretations of his films; the fun is supposed to be coming up with your own reaction. I think this is why Twin Peaks is generally people’s gateway into Lynch’s work; the genre elements give people at least a basis of Good and Evil as well as Solving The Mystery as a hook into wider interpretation, where people can at least see that we’re Correcting A Wrong and be satisfied with that.
I strongly dislike Ayn Rand’s notion of ‘romantic realism’ because, ya know, that’s horseshit, but I do think she tapped into the general consensus of what, if not your average person, then at least the lowest common denominator wants; characters who represent a philosophy you agree with dominating a world you’re familiar with, loudly using techniques of authority figures. I’m amused by how there’s resonance with the ‘socialist realism’ movement in the Soviet Union. What’s the real difference between Atlas Shrugged, Chapaev, and NCIS?
Mulholland Drive represents something else – a straightforward presentation of ideas and images that clearly have some kind of intention behind them but that intention is oblique. I’ve seen people refer to Lynch as ‘middlebrow’, which is hilarious and interesting to me; if he is, he’s on the weirder end of it, but I kind of get it because the imagery he’s playing with is generally familiar enough to provide some kind of grounding – in this case, the imagery of Hollywood where you can just put that Standard Interpretation on and be done, as well as pleasing the overly-clever such as myself.
You know what’s a fun interpretation? The idea that the narrative shift is punishment to Betty for trying to save Rita; a reality she’s thrown into for trying to buck the System even a little.
About the writer
Tristan J. Nankervis
Tristan J Nankervis (aka Drunk Napoleon) has been a writer, pop culture critic, dishwasher, standup comedian, waiter, potato cake factory worker, gamer, TV worker, and various other things. You can find him in Hobart, Tasmania.
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Year of the Month Spinning fictional plates, doing good, and the sainthood of an author.
The Man as caricature, straight presentation, and parody.
Department of
Conversation
What did we watch?
Happy Endings, Season Two, Episode Six, “Lying Around”
Every episode of this show feels like it starts mid-sentence.
“That is disgusting… and illegal, I think.”
“Steaktanic.”
“I need you to get those DVDs out of my garage.”
“Like when I go to the movies, I get to solve all the pre-movie trivia at my own pace.”
“Aaand you’re sweating on my bruschetta.”
Hey, this episode is directed by Fred Savage.
“You absolutely know where Michigan is. You were an extra in 8 Mile.”
The longer Brad’s contemptuous expression as he listens to Jane and her friend’s song and dance goes, the funnier it gets.
“We watched Con Air with the director’s commentary, so here I am, laughing and learning.”
Zachary Knighton has a lot of fun doing Dave’s bad acting, though my favourite part is him moving his hand the wrong way as his website comes up.
“Dave. I’m the Dave whisperer.”
“Guess you could say I’m a… knitter with attitude.”
“Relax! We didn’t make this to please the masses!”
“It’s a commercial. That’s exactly why we made it.”
Oh, Fred Savage cameo’d too.
Dave and Max realising at the same time they never said ‘steak sandwich’ or the name of the food truck made me laugh. Like it’s an obvious joke but they sell that they legitimately didn’t realise.
Brad banging his foot made me laugh because I react the exact same way.
“I don’t speak English. I mean British.”
“It was your idea, you shot it, and you locked me out of the editing room, but… it’s on me too.”
“We’re gonna get hotdogs, then play checkers with some Puerto Rican guys.”
“Yeah, I said that. Just keep moving.”
“It was nice watching The Boondocks and not having to explain it.”
Other, even more shocking credits observation: Ludwig Göransson, who has scored all of Nolan’s films since TENET as well as Sinners, did the score for this show. As well as, I have learned, Community and New Girl.
Greenland – was talking to a friend about the pleasures of Gerard Butler disaster movies and he said he enjoyed this one more than Geostorm, which piqued my interest as a huge Geostorm fan. I cannot deny that this is a BETTER movie than Geostorm, but it turns out my interest in Gerard Butler disaster movies is less about quality and has more to do with how many Geostorms can be located within. This movie has none, and hence it is inferior.
Thunderbolt – I impulse bought a Jackie Chan 4k boxset a while ago while feeling sad, this is one of the films included that I hadn’t seen before and was basically completely unaware of. This is probably because it’s one of the films where they go “I know everyone comes to Jackie Chan movies for the kung fu and comedy, but what if we made one that was overly serious and about car racing?” – that’s not to say it’s no good, it’s still quite fun and exciting and the stunt work is golden as ever. But there’s some weird cinematic choices – lots of extreme close-up and stepped-print slow motion – that take away from the simple pleasures of a guy getting hurt, so it probably deserves to remain a deep cut. Apparently Jackie had an ankle injury that resulted in more stunt doubling than usual so they were probably trying to cover for that. There are still a couple of killer action scenes and it’s better paced than some of his films, it doesn’t stick all the good stuff at the beginning and end.
Seinfeld, S9, “The Serenity Now” – one of those episodes where one of the storylines just isn’t quite as good as the others. George’s includes his parents, so it’s great. Jerry’s girlfriend-of-the-week getting him to open up his feelings, only to find he can no longer control them – very funny. Kramer installing a screen door on his apartment and immediately getting into a feud with local teens, ridiculous and hilarious. But Elaine’s stuff about Jewish men (and boys) throwing themselves at her because of her “shiksappeal” just felt a bit clunky.
“What is this salty discharge?!” has gotten a lot of mileage. Seinfeld the actor is limited but often very funny in those limits and this makes a great joke out of his affectlessness.
Yeah he’s utilising his own limitations to great effect there. And Jason Alexander’s much more impressive acting abilities are in full effect in the scene where Jerry tells George that he loves him, beautiful stuff.
Seinfeld’s reaction to George pouring out everything and shutting him down again is all too relatable as an autistic man. “…Well, good luck with all that!”
Vomas watching disaster movies and taking notes: Where…are…the…Geostorms
Watching The Perfect Storm: “eh, I’ve seen perfecter”
I started saying “serenity now” to myself as a joke when I’m getting really frustrated with my kids. So now they have started saying it. So now I have a 7 and a 4 year old shouting “serenity now” when I’m on the verge of losing it because they won’t put their shoes on to leave for school, which does make me laugh.
Haha, excellent!
Conclave — a dim palette and muttering in Latin and a couple beers with a big dinner make for a sleepy watch, this is not the movie’s fault but it sure wasn’t helping. Things pick up with more yelling and scheming, thank you John Lithgow (and while THE TUCC is great of course he is incredibly WASP-coded for a guy who is top-level Catholic). Not bad, not sure why everyone loved it but they probably weren’t as dozy as I was.
The Kid Detective — a grown-up and washed up riff on Encyclopedia Brown, who never got over his failure to solve the murder of his high school crush, is roped into investigating the murder of another high schooler. Adam Brody is excellent as the Kid (and there’s a bit of meta-awareness of seeing Seth Cohen in this position) but what’s really impressive is the tone writer-director Evan Morgan maintains — this is often very funny but it’s not a straight send-up like the delightful Mystery Team. It plays the kid detective tropes and more importantly the small town where they can exist with seriousness, and tweaks them in heightened but not wacky ways. This leads to an ending that caught me by surprise but Morgan makes work, and another teen detective might nod in recognition. Strong recommend, especially for Lauren.
Crime 101 — to call this warmed-over Heat is an insult not only to the Mann film* but the entire concept of exothermic reaction. Inexplicably well-reviewed crap crime in which Chris Helmsworth is a Good Thief robbing jewelry stores up and down the LA highway and Mark Ruffalo is Legally Not Columbo trying to stop him and Halle Berry is doing her standard terrible Halle Berry shit in the middle. Barry Keoghan is also here acting reckless and violent, the only person here behaving like they’re actually in a crime movie, so he becomes the default protagonist. Inexcusably bloated at two and a half hours and shoddily written throughout, Berry whines about being undermined by her sexist pig bosses (which they are) when the movie opens with her being openly bad at her job — maybe that’s why you don’t get promoted! And Helmsworth is such a damn dud, he is trying to be Neil McCauley and doesn’t even hit Neil Hamburger. Apparently this is based on a novel by Don Winslow, a guy I’ve been meaning to check out for a while and am now ready to continue not checking out. Do not be fooled, this is dogshit.
And I forgot to mention this last week — The Samurai And The Prisoner! Kiyoshi Kurosawa, you’ve done it again! Perhaps more to come here but this is an inverse Odyssey — a guy who can’t leave his house is trying to save civilization (while dealing with multiple murder mysteries) — and outdoes Nolan in understanding will and consequence. Great stuff.
*and there are some allusions to the Mann-written Straight Time for extra insult
Kid Detective has been on my watchlist for years and I clearly need to sort that out. But for now, I’m going to just add The Samurai and the Prisoner on there to make the situation slightly worse
Kid Detective is on U.S. Netflix now! And having a bit of a moment because of that I think. Samurai may still be in theaters but in any case, absolutely one for the watchlist.
I do indeed dig The Kid Detective! I found my mini-write-up of it because the opening amused me:
Deeply, deeply annoyed that this isn’t included in any streaming services and is thus ineligible for Streaming Shuffle when it is exactly the kind of movie I’d pick for that: tonally messy, funny, dark, surprisingly deeply felt, and sometimes getting in its own way.
100% up my alley, and both the comedy and the (sometimes quite intense) darkness work very well: I love how tonally ambitious it is. That ending rules. And now it is on a streaming service and not just a rental! I’ll have to rewatch it and give it a full article.
The killer’s reveal is very dark but man, the reveal after that was really unexpected. But it ties thematically to the larger arrested development stuff going on, so it works. And a nice aspect of the movie is how its structure is very sturdy and standard — if you look at the mechanics, you can figure out the killer based on screen time — but the film is small and Canadian so there isn’t a full Ebert’s Conservation of Characters in effect where a recognizable star is hanging around for no apparent reason, so it’s easier to conceal the villain (I certainly didn’t twig until right before the reveal). Although it was fun to see Sarah Sutherland, I kept waiting for her to bust out Catherine’s hilarious cryface from Veep.
Winslow is good, do not be fooled! You will definitely enjoy the horrific ownage of The Power of The Dog.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma- Speaking of Mulholland Drive, there’s one casting choice here that’s clearly a nod! My friend who saw it with me was excited that the entire women’s bathroom in the theater was filled with other trans women, the only time this has happened to her, and this also indicates how much this is a film not made for me – in a good way. But it also is, Schoenbrun’s tribute to problematic slashers that turns them into a form of kink/role play. This is a distinctly erotic movie, thriving in a mode where pop culture can become real and is still a game, make believe. Slacks a little in the middle, the end is a triumph, a much happier film than TV Glow from a happier artist Agent Schoenbrun has the stuff, Denise.
Holy shit, Billy Ray Cyrus is in Camp Miasma?!
…sure.
Very excited to see this–this is exactly what I was hoping for.
Once Upon A TIme In The West – Leone was given a budget that allowed him to make the best looking western ever shot filled with sets, scenic vistas and faces like paintings. It has a glacial pace that makes the story a little disjointed with Leone focusing on processes, style and rituals. There are slow buildups to the violence, slow panoramic shots with thousands and long conversations. All the deaths of the main characters are slow with a last gasp and realization before dying. But it’s all so hypnotic like staring at a static painting. Jason Robards has a rogue’s charm, Bronson has steely stoicism and Fonda is brilliant in a rare turn as a villain. But Claudia Cardinale as Jill is an amazing presence with incredible elegance with power equal to those of the male players. She’s not waiting to be saved. She’s doing what she needs to do to move forward and survive. Maybe the best female performance in a male dominated genre. Interesting how “Once upon a time…” and “The Good, The Bad And The Ugly” have entered the lexicon and used in titles since.
I came to this with very little background in Fonda and it was wild to watch the movie with the understanding that this villainous role was a departure for him — he’s so good at it! And I think it’s because it’s very easy to invert his noble qualities of determination and persistence and moral authority, they very easily become ruthless venality. I think Ed Harris is a similar actor but Harris has made better use of this dichotomy, thinking of Walker in particular.
John Ford plays with the dichotomies of Fonda’s authority, especially in FORT APACHE.
the boys, final season. I did enjoy the obvious elon musk stand in. And the end of Homelander, turning into this whiny pathetic loser. I enjoyed that way too much.
The show would have been better off as a 3 or 4 season show; the amount of effort to explain why homelander hasn’t simply killed these guys really stretches belief. And the real world keeps progressing; the most on the nose satire in 2023 is a subtle understatement in 2026, which is a challenge for the writers to keep
up with. But overall I still liked it.
The actors cameo-ing as themselves was a special highlight of the season, with the turn from talking about how they should do something to revealing that they had all named names.
tarzan, disney. The phil collins sound track slaps. One thing that has bothered me as a parent is all these disney musicals that only have actually have like 15 minutes of songs in them mean that I can’t just throw on a soundtrack for a drive with the kids in the car.
The “disney death” is well known. They like to have the bad guy die by falling from an impossible height. That way the heroes don’t have to do real violence and you don’t have to see a body. Gothel, Frollo, Gaston, the evil queen, etc. It’s a staple of the genre. Not so far tarzan. It’s surprisingly graphic for a kids movie. On the other hand, you’re never too young to learn not to wrap vines around yourself.
That scene is one of those great (and rare) moments in a Disney where they let the artists indulge their horror instincts – and it’s really scary!
Agreed that The Boys had run out of steam by the end (and as you say, there were no satirical jokes to make that life hadn’t already made first), but there were a lot of pleasures still to have in the last season. Daveed Diggs was a delight, and Ashley was just about my favourite character by the end. That final smash cut for her story had me cracking up. And what a showcase for Antony Starr – really should have got all the acting nominations.
What did we play?
Disco Elysium – finally finished this over the weekend. I had a few more frustrating crashes, annoying that I had to be on constant quicksave alert for a game on modern hardware that came out seven years ago. But it was worth it, because this is indeed a game worthy of its hefty cult following, the writing is some of the best I’ve ever experienced in a game and the characters and voice work are also superb. I love a good detective game and this one has the feel of really working through a tangled case more than most, it’s all legwork and conversation and – judging by the unclaimed achievements – there’s a ton of different ways to get through the case beyond the one I chose. I’m not sure I’ll ever return to take it on again, but it’s a fascinating enough world that I’m not ruling it out. Such a shame that the complete implosion of the development studio after its release almost certainly rules out a proper sequel, although their combustion is amusingly thematically appropriate to a lot of the stuff in the game’s universe.
Final Fantasy VIII . Disc 1 made me feel like an old man. Squall is just the sullen mopey brat the whole time. By disc 2, you’re getting more of the real Squall though, who’s introverted and frankly confused by other people being friendly towards him, and especially by Rinoa flirting with him. He might be a little bit on the spectrum. This is bringing on nostalgia but also pangs of recognition for why I liked him so much as a 13 year old boy.
The way remaster of it on on ps4/ps5 also has a feature that speeds the game to 3x, which is great for when you are in grindy segments.
“The standard read on this film is that the first two-thirds is a dream … Both the take itself and the collective assumption it’s correct have always bothered me; the take because it’s both very obvious and requires simply saying “a bunch of the scenes are completely meaningless”, which is boring; the collective assumption because, ironically, it undermines director intent.”
I think Lynch is the absolute last person who would say dreams are meaningless! The movie is certainly open to lots of interpretations, I like yours at the end here, but the reason the standard one endures instead of just being a twist is that Lynch has spent a lot of times in dreams with purpose and intent.
Lynch is middlebrow FOR A SURREALIST which is different from, say, Ed Zwick.
An even more interesting point of contrast of with Lynch is Nolan, who is pretty much Lynch’s antithesis when it comes to the structuralist/surrealist divide in modern auteur cinema. Nolan pretty much views the emotional pull of the spectacle as a language that shapes and controls associative connotations with the image, while with Lynch the power of those images dissolves universal meanings and a centered sense of values for interpretation.
If one is interested in some of the more prosaic inspirations of Lynch’s films I would highly recommend the Criterion Channel’s “Murderous Melodramas” selection. They generally hint at an expressionistic portrait of middle class psychological pressure within the confines of narrative convention that feels constantly under strain. Besides Lynch, these films, I think, have had a huge influence on post ’70s American New Wave movies, particularly with not only Lynch, but Todd Haynes and David Cronenberg (not to mention a whole slew of 2010s-20s horror).
Your essay gets to the heart of where Lynch is most successful. I’d argue that the thesis of his most cultishly popular works stems from the slippage in the translation of aurality of the imaginary into the metanarrative structure of language. This comes, I suspect, from his background in the visual arts than in screenwriting or directing, where the fusion of image and meaning is concretized. Lynch utilizes the florid style of post war melodrama but turns it inward towards the unconscious, and away from the diagnostic, in which the structure of Freud is deployed to primarily fix personal or social problems. His choices may guide us on a journey but that purpose of that encounter lies in the viewer.
Year of the Month update!
This September, you can write about any of these movies, albums, books, etc. from 1937.
Sept. 4th: Gillian Nelson: Moose Hunters
Sept. 6th: Tristan J. Nankervis: Lenin in October
Sept. 18th: Gillian Nelson: Pluto’s Quin-pup-lets
Sept. 20th: Tristan J. Nankervis: The Hobbit
Sept. 22nd: Lauren James: Stage Door
Sept. 25th: Gillian Nelson: Donald’s Ostrich
And there’s still time to write up any of these movies, albums, books, etc. from 2001 for this month!
TBD: James Williams: Millennium Actress
Aug. 7th: Gillian Nelson: Recess: School’s Out!
Aug. 14th: Gillian Nelson: The Princess Diaries
Aug. 16th: Tristan J. Nankervis: Mulholland Drive
Aug. 21st: Gillian Nelson: Disney’s California Adventure
Aug. 27th: Cori Domschot: The Mummy Returns
Aug. 28th: Gillian Nelson: Walt Disney Treasures