This 2001 feature signaled a bracing, entertaining return to form for David Lynch. In big, bad Hollywood, cartoonishly naive would-be actress Betty meets sultry amnesiac Rita (Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring). The two seem to represent present and past, yin and yang, id and ego, innocence and experience. What’s their actual relationship? The fun to Mulholland Dr. is making like a noir detective to sort out its feverish tinsel town clichés—which hint at the latent cinematic tension between appearance and reality that threatens to engulf Betty. Mulholland Dr. is like a jumbled 146-minute glossary of Lynch types and situations, infused with giddy vitality but also an aching, underlying sadness. (R) BRIAN MILLER

Thu., Jan. 19, 7 p.m., 2012