Blue Velvet Movie Review

I don't know who ever came up with the idea that the suburbs are a great place to raise kids; they're absolutely terrifying! I spent 15 of the worst years of my life in the Sacramento Valley (first Davis, then Woodland) before making my escape on a Greyhound bus on Friday, August 31, at 5:30 a.m. David Lynch understands the true horror of suburbia. It looks okay, but underneath, there's all sorts of weird stuff going on. Kyle MacLachlan (as Jeffrey Beaumont, who finds an ear), Isabella Rossellini (as Dorothy), Dean Stock-well, AND Dennis Hopper (as Frank Booth) all in the same movie! What more could any Grand Guignol devotee ask for? Laura Dern is Beaumont's sweet, innocent girlfriend. Hope Lange, Brad Dourif, Priscilla Pointer, and Lynch regular Jack (Eraserhead) Nance (who was murdered in real life after a fight in a doughnut shop in 1996) round out the cast. A deeply disturbing movie with superb cinematography by Frederick Elmes, and a great evocative score by Angelo Badalamenti, who went on to compose Lynch's Wild at Heart (also starring Dern) and the classic Twin Peaks theme. Blue Velvet revitalized the careers of Stockwell and Hopper (although not, alas, the underrated Lange), and if it encouraged pigeons NOT to move into suburban nightmares like Lumberton, so much the better, dang it!

1986 (R) 121m/C Brad Dourif, Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern, Hope Lange, Jack Nance, Dean Stockwell, George Dickerson, Priscilla Pointer; D: David Lynch; W: David Lynch; C: Frederick Elmes; M: Angelo Badalamenti. Independent Spirit Awards ‘87: Best Actress (Rossellini); Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards ‘86: Best Director (Lynch), Best Supporting Actor (Hopper); Montreal World Film Festival ‘86: Best Supporting Actor (Hopper); National Society of Film Critics Awards ‘86: Best Cinematography, Best Director (Lynch), Best Film, Best Supporting Actor (Hopper); Nominations: Academy Awards ‘86: Best Director (Lynch). VHS, LV, Letterbox, Closed Caption