Mulholland Drive (2001) (3/25)

David Lynch transformed a failed TV pilot into one of the most celebrated films of the century with Mulholland Drive, a feverish saga of isolation and bitterness in the Hollywood Hills. Naomi Watts stars as Betty Elms, a naive aspiring actor who falls in love with Rita (Laura Harring) an amnesiac recovering from a mysterious car accident. As they pursue the truth about Rita’s past, they peel back glitzy layers from the entertainment industry, revealing horrible truths at the bottom.

Then again, what is truth in a David Lynch film? The director’s signature dream-logic keeps Mulholland Drive perpetually open to interpretation, and the film’s many fans still debate which parts were a dream, or if any of them were. Whether it’s all a paranoid fantasy of a rueful scorned lover, a literal dreamscape in which all of Hollywood inexplicably lives, or something even more sinister, all we know for sure is that Lynch keeps us in his wicked grasp, and that you should never, ever, EVER walk into the alleyway behind the Winkie’s.