Mulholland Falls (1996) LA/Desert/Western "B" style Neo Noir

[noodles_leone]

No need for the louse part, though.

You're Titolousing.

[T.H.]

If you ever wanted to know how important red herrings are to liven up mystery plots, watch this movie, because there are none to be found. And boy does it suffer because of it. Had this plot started out with Nolte's character investigating Jennifer Connelly's seedy acquaintances, the pacing would have steadily improved. But Mulholland Falls' other big problem is that the revelations just don't feel that important, much like The Two Jakes' reveals -- another very flawed neo noir that I like more than I should. Even with red herrings, there needed to be smarter ways to reveal the atomic element of the story, so to speak. You can't give the audience that much information so early on.

As for the look of the movie, it's not well directed and it greatly suffers from not being shot in scope with too many boring medium close up shots. It's borderline shocking that Haskell Wexler (Medium Cool, Days of Heaven) was the DP since it's so dated visually with some really cheesy flashbacks featuring Jennifer Connelly's character. The score is also very bland and way too upbeat. The main Hat Squad characters' outfits are all brand new and much of the world doesn't look lived in. The other three members of the Hat Squad: Michael Madsen, Chris Penn and Chazz Palminteri don't do much of anything in the movie except Palminteri's character, which is a tough guy in therapy type that was a thing in the mid to late 90's. But it feels so ridiculously out of place for a movie set in the early 50's.

With all of those flaws, it's still engaging, and flawed period noirs are better than the vast majority of movies. No grade.