Masc Matale
The slow inch towards October continues, but in the interim, September has been a bounty of great content on the pod! We’ve been to Germany with Der Samurai, Detroit with It Follows and Springwood last week with Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare. Now we’re headed to Los Angeles to cover our very first David Lynch film: the beautiful, surreal and sumptuous Mulholland Drive.
In the failed TV pilot-turned-film, naive ingenue Betty (Naomi Watts) arrives in LA hoping to make it big in the movies. At her aunt’s vacant house, she finds amnesiac brunette Rita (Laura Elena Harring), who was in a car accident in the hills. Together the pair work to solve the mystery of who tried to kill Rita, all while Betty tries to make her dreams come true and has a meet up cute with up and coming director Adam (Justin Theroux) who is involved in his own trials involving mobsters and cowboys. But what is real and what is fantasy in this hallucinatory version of Hollywood?
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Episode 145 – Mulholland Drive (2001)
In advance of its 20th anniversary, we’re dipping into the beautiful, surreal world of David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive (2001).
In keeping with the film, the episode adopts a non-linear format as we track the Betty/Rita storyline, then double back to discuss Adam, before finally digging into the extra footage Lynch shot when the project switched from TV pilot to film.
Expect plenty of discussion about how great both female leads are, which Hollywood director Adam reminds Trace of, Joe’s ongoing obsession with Showgirls, and talk of how goddamn gorgeous this film is.
Plus: Speculation on a shared cinematic universe with Southland Tales and Alias S3, Trace’s dislike of Noir, and the hilarious reason why Monty Montgomery’s line delivery as the Cowboy is so unnerving.
Cross out Mulholland Drive!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re closing out September with our final Universal Monster film of the year: 1936’s Dracula’s Daughter.
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for tons of additional content! This month, we have episodes on Nia DaCosta’s Candyman, James Wan’s Malignant, Netflix’s series Brand New Cherry Flavor, as well as an audio commentary on 30 Days of Night and a minisode on weird horror films.