8½ is very pretentious and a critic favourite. I found some of the conversations enjoyable, but I couldn't really sympathize with the protag.
Mulholland Drive. Like most of Lynch's works, some interesting moments, in an abstract sort of way, but I can't enjoy his works as a whole, because he prefers to be obtuse and nonsensical rather than have a naturally developing plot beginning to end.
Fellini in general is a director who I don't understood. 8 1/2 has some cool surreal imagery, but if I'm looking for a meta take on the filmmaking craft by a prestigious director, I'm going with Godard's, far superior, Le Mepris every time.
Only other Fellini film I've seen was La Dolce Vita, and it couldn't have ended soon enough! I may have been too young, or not in the proper mindset, but LDV defined tedious and boring for me. I have little desire to affirm my boredom.
Mulholland Drive is another pick where I agree with you. It's just
okay. It's not Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, or even the Elephant Man, or Wild at Heart with Nic Cage. It's sort of all over the place and feels unkempt as a result.
Lynch is an insanely talented artist. His insistence on dream logic, and treating movies like moving paintings rather than strict narratives works more often than it does not. Eraserhead rivals Texas Chain Saw Massacre as my favorite movie ever. I just feel like he lost the plot somewhere in his career overall.
Lynch is also a director who people who dont know their cunt from a hole in the ground like to latch onto when discussing film. People think tickling his balls,
as he obnoxiously wiggles his fingers in interviews, makes them seem more sophisticated than they really are. He's like an abstract Tarantino... but with a less consistent filmography: Baby's first favorite director. I dare those ball-ticklers to sit through Inland Empire and not check their phones multiple times throughout.
I'll throw another one out there...
The Seventh Seal Ingmar Bergman rules, but this film absolutely does not. People always cite the chess game on the beach but always neglect to mention all the travelling carnival bullshit which takes up the majority of the flick.
Persona, Cries and Whispers, and Summer With Monika are fucking masterful, yet The Seventh Seal earns the lion's share of praise within Bergman's filmography. Movie is borderline horse shit. Keep your existential crisis away from me if you're gonna make it so boring.