6. MULHOLLAND DRIVE
 
United States
dir. David Lynch
world premiere 2001
U.S. release 2001

 

 
Because as banal as it is to see picket fences, L.A. stuccoes, or a Hollywood "dream place" and suspect some malfeasance beneath, Lynch's underlayers of being and terror never work the way you expect, exerting strong, febrile claims on surface "reality" that no one can fully prepare for. Sound, image, sequence, performance, and temporality are stretched to their limits, as are we.