Mulholland Drive (2001)

I’m sure no one really needs to be told what Twin Peaks is, but we’ll go through a speedy summary.

Twin Peaks is a mystery-horror drama TV series that premiered on April 8th, 1990, which means it’s thirty-two years old as of – *checks watch* – now. It was created by Mark Frost and David Lynch, the latter of which also directed surrealist works such as Mulholland Drive (2001) and the original Dune (1984)

Twin Peaks centers around the murder of a teenage girl in a small, rural town in Washington and the unnatural circumstances surrounding it. FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is called to the tiny town to investigate and ends up neck-deep in drug rings, prostitution, domestic abuse, and supernatural happenings.

The show is known for its dramatic, dissonant shifts between drama, horror, and comedy. It features a stellar jazz soundtrack, amazing characters, and acting, and is deeply ingrained in current pop culture as we know it.

Although today I’ll only be speaking of episodes 18, 19, and 20, because they contain Agent Denise Bryson, Twin Peaks’ trans woman FBI agent.

Madeline’s Madeline, a 2018 film directed by Josephine Decker and starring Helena Howard in the titular role, follows a young girl who is part of a professional acting troupe. As Madeline’s dedication to her work grows, and as her relationship with her mother (Miranda July) grows more and more fractured, the lines between Madeline’s real life and her stage life begin to blur. What follows is an emotional, frightening, and dreamlike story looking at the way in which actresses are exploited because of their vulnerabilities, and how often this exploitation is overlooked.

Madeline’s Madeline isn’t an easy watch, for various reasons. It’s not a movie that will appeal to everyone (though I personally found it brilliant), and it’s one that the audience needs to digest before forming a real opinion. It’s a tough movie, and all of its aspects, from the camerawork to the writing to the performances, are heavily anxiety-inducing. The film has merit as a thriller, and there are plenty of frightening moments throughout that make the audience question how dark the film will actually become.

What’s most difficult to watch is the way in which Madeline’s vulnerabilities are taken advantage of by Evangeline (Molly Parker), the director of Madeline’s acting troupe who Madeline looks up to as a mother figure, oblivious as to how Evangeline is taking Madeline’s pain and using it to heighten her own work.