Ellie Parker is a low-budget DV film written and directed by Scott Coffey, who appeared in Mulholland Drive as Wilkins. The film stars Naomi Watts as Ellie, a struggling Hollywood actress cycling between auditions, identity crises, and a deteriorating relationship. Mark Pellegrino (Mulholland Drive's hitman Joe) plays her boyfriend.
The cast overlap alone makes the film essential viewing for Mulholland Drive fans, but the connections run deeper than shared actors. Several scenes, images, and lines of dialogue appear to echo Mulholland Drive directly — whether as deliberate homage, in-joke between collaborators, or something more considered. The observations below were compiled from a 2005 Rotten Tomatoes forum thread. Some parallels may be coincidental features of any film set in Hollywood; others are harder to dismiss.
Connections — blu
1. Palm trees overhead
The obligatory upward palm-tree shot — a visual shorthand for Los Angeles that Mulholland Drive uses in its opening sequence.
2. The audition director
Ellie attends an audition. The director bears a striking resemblance to a familiar face — hair colour aside.
3. Jenny Syme
Ellie's audition ends with a standing ovation from the room. The casting director on the far right is Jenny Syme — the woman to whom Mulholland Drive is dedicated, and Keanu Reeves' former partner. Footage is taken from the original version of Ellie Parker which began life as a short film shot by Coffey in 2001. Reeves also has a small role in the film.
4. The gate
Later the same day, Ellie arrives for another audition. The studio gate looks familiar.
5. Lost Highway poster
Inside the studio, a Lost Highway poster is visible behind Ellie. Coffey did not put it there by accident.
6. "I don't know who I am"
Ellie tells a friend: "I don't know who I am." The film's central preoccupation with fractured identity mirrors that of Mulholland Drive.
7. Pool party
This shot — Ellie at a party, isolated despite the crowd — echoes Diane's expression at Adam Kesher's pool party in Mulholland Drive.
8. Betrayal
Ellie drives home, walks down a long corridor, and finds her boyfriend — played by Mark Pellegrino, Mulholland Drive's hitman Joe — in bed with the casting director from the earlier audition.
9. Blue ice cream
The shock sends Ellie to the bathroom, where she vomits the blue ice cream she had been eating on the drive home.
10. This is the girl
The casting director — the woman from the audition, now the cause of Ellie's collapse.
11 & 12. Radical hair change
A car crash brings Wilkins (Scott Coffey) and Ellie back together. He first appears with long hair, then reappears claiming to be his own twin brother — with short hair. A significant change of appearance for a major character, used to suggest a shift in identity. That doesn't happen too often.
Wilkins — long hairWilkins — short hair, "twin brother"
13. Blonde and brunette
Inevitably, there is a blonde-brunette kiss.
14. The poster
A poster placed in the background of a key scene. Coffey is on record as a Mulholland Drive admirer — this is not accidental set dressing.
15 & 16. Scott Coffey
Coffey himself appears in the film. After sleeping with Ellie, he tells her: "Well. I'm definitely gay." She does not take it well.
