Blue Velvet (Special Edition)
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Movie Reviews of Blue Velvet (Special Edition)
Movie Review: A must-see for fans of surreal offbeat film noir
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a love-it or hate-it film. Its a classic and a masterpiece to be remembered for its role in the evolution of film. Director and writer Lynch juxtaposes a white-picket-fence idyllic small town against the darkest of the freaky drug-addicted criminals. Kyle MacLachlan plays Jeffrey, the decent young man the audience can identify with, while Dennis Hopper perfectly protrays an emotionally disturbed on-the-edge criminal. The Isabella Rosselini character is stuck between the two worlds, desperately trying to stay mainstream but stuck with ties to the sadistic on-the-edge criminals.
The dark crime side of this movie is downright scary, not necessarily for any blood and guts, but because you know these people are off their rocker and can snap at any minute. Seeing the sexually ambiguous Ben (Dean Stockwell) sing a candy pop song in a dark den of gangstgers, loose women, guns, and drugs is truly startling. Lynch repeatedly pairs the goody-good with the downright evil for sharp contrast and a lasting effect.
Personally, I'm not a fan of this movie, or of Lynch as a director, but I enjoyed the film for what it is, and there is an audience out there for these types of surreal flicks. It is a must-see if you are going through all the classics.
Movie Review: The horror beneath the surface
Summary: 5 Stars
A shocker of a movie in which the innocent facade of an average American town is torn back to reveal a violent and frightening hidden world. (The opening scene with the bugs under the lawn depicts it perfectly.) One day college-aged Jeffrey Beaumont (played by Kyle MacLachlan) finds a human ear in a vacant field. He takes it to the police; the detective assigned to the case (George Dickerson) is Laura Dern's character's father. She overhears him talking about the case and passes on the information to MacLachlan, her boyfriend. He begins to investigate on his own and enters a world of perversion, kidnapping, drugs, and death. Dennis Hopper plays a character about as evil and frightening as you could imagine. Dern's high-school-girl innocence only adds to the awfulness of what's going on here. Emotions are expressed so powerfully, and they are so brutal and scary, that it becomes painful to watch at times. Although not necessarily an original idea, rarely has looking beneath the calm surface to discover a raging storm been done so engagingly and disturbingly. A David Lynch knockout. Worth a watch.Movie Review: Lynche does it again!!!
Summary: 4 Stars
Definately one of the best films to come out of the 80's. This movie definately has a very dark edge. Even those who don't "get it" have to admit that they've never seen anything quite like it. One of the most original opening sequences in movie history. Movie Review: David Lynch Rules!
Summary: 5 Stars
Simply put, one of the best films to come out of the 80's. Unique, dark and edgy. Even those who don't "get it" have to admit that they've never seen anything quite like it. One of the most original opening sequences in movie history. Thankfully this version of the DVD includes an insightful hour long documentary. The film is so good I bought it 3 times.Movie Review: It works
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a good movie, but god, some of these positive reviews are so damn pretentious. Personally, I don't buy that this film is nearly as complex as many are making it out to be. I just think that Lynch thought it would be interesting to make a film that combined an exaggerated, cliched 50's sitcom style setting with a sexually violent, noir-ish type plot. (And he was right.) And, even if the thematic stuff other people are discussing is in there, it earns few points from me. "It's like, sex and violence are combined, man, and there's darkness and death even in the beautiful bourgeoise suburbs man, and it's all crap underneath it all, man, it's like whoa. dude, whoa" I'm not saying these things aren't true to a certain degree: Bad things happen in the suburbs, bad stuff happened in the 50's, and there are sadists and masochists, people have a capacity for violence, even if they don't know it. These things are all obviously true, so you get no credit from me for pointing them out. But, again, I don't think Lynch actually cared much about that sorta thing.
Certainly, this is an extremely weird film, but I can't understand why so many people are confused by it. The plot is extremely simple: Crazy, sadistic Booth has kidnapped a singer's(Dorothy Vallens) husband and child, and uses this leverage to procure sexual favors from her. A young man, Jeffrey, stumbles upon this situation, and wants to help. There are specifics developments, but nothing very complicated. The real interest in the film is in the contrast between the banal sitcom world of Jeffrey and the sadistic, noir underworld of Booth, and how they interact, and the way that they converge and influence one another. So, this is essentially an exercise in style and form, but Lynch has the skill to pull it off. The sitcom stuff is nicely done, with a bright clean town of innocent, shallow characters and pristine lawns. It's an exaggeration, but Lynch wisely resists the temptation of straying too far from the source material. I'd say we see this stuff a bit too much, as their isn't that much to it, but it never gets too tiresome, though it definitely could've been tighter. The darker part of the picture centers on Dennis Hopper, as Booth. His performance is pretty legendary, and not without good reason. He's allowed to play it as over the top as possible with out quite verging into self-parody. Suffice to say, he's a scary dude. And while I've seen plenty of stuff that's worse than anything here, the violent, sadistic stuff in this movie is still pretty out there. The films uses the now cliche tactic of combining graphic violence with an old, non-threatening pop song. This method is used to better effect here than in any other film I can think of, particularly the great, 'In Dreams' part. Quite a few people have raved about Rossellini's performance as Dorothy, but I think she's one of the weaker links. Frankly, she's kind of annoying, and is never really developed as a realistic, full character. (Of course, I don't think she was ever intended to be all that realistic, so I suppose I can't really fault her for that.) Fortunately, Booth is crazy enough that the fact that his main victim is just kinda weird doesn't matter all that much.
Hmm, I guess I don't have too much to say. The film has an interesting visual style and a novel central concept. I don't think it's genius, but it works.
Grade: B+