Most of these so-called “neo-noirs” that I’ve seen leave me unengaged, with There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men, Mystic River, Gone, Baby Gone and maybe a few others being exceptions. I just can’t wrap my head around the fascination for Mulholland Drive, which I thought was a narrative jumble mixing two stories together that don’t jell. Even Lynch cops out by not trying to explain to the viewing public what he had in mind. It’s like he just threw it all up on the screen and didn’t care. I much prefer something like the loopy 1961 Edward Cahn directed film, When The Clock Strikes, totally unpretentious, with a narrative that was like some form of free association with a script updated every morning of the shoot, starring James Brown (best known for TV’s The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin) and the curvy Merry Anders.
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