A movie of its moment, Mulholland Drive proved to be Lynch’s best-reviewed film since Blue Velvet. Year-end critics’ polls in the Village Voice and Film Comment named it the best film of 2001. Despite an underwhelming domestic gross of $7 million, it earned Lynch an Academy Award nomination for Best Director, his third; as with Blue Velvet, it was the film’s only nomination. The acknowledgment spoke to Lynch’s stature as a respected Hollywood elder, albeit one who often operates on its margins, and to the power of Mulholland Drive as an industry fable — the ultimate expression of Lynch’s deep
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