Blue Velvet (Special Edition)
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Movie Reviews of Blue Velvet (Special Edition)
Movie Review: Weird, Twisted and Classic Lynch
Summary: 5 Stars
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Blue Velvet comes from my collection of Chinese bootlegs. My sister Bethany and her husband Brian are teaching English in China. Apparently you can purchase a wide assortment of DVD's there very cheaply. So I supply them with big lists of movies I'd like and when they come home they bring me a big stack. There are never any special features on the DVD's, but the picture is usually good and for $1 a piece, that's all I need.
Blue Velvet is dark, scary, freaky, and really good. Which is how you cold describe most of David Lynch's films. His films are often filled with symbolism and it is easy to finish one of his films and have no real idea of what actually happened. They usually take two or three viewings, and a little research to get a good idea what the movie is actually trying to convey. Blue Velvet has a simpler plot that can generally be understood at a basic level upon first viewing, but there is plenty of symbolism and deeper meaning to make it "enjoyable" for further viewings. I put enjoyable in quotation marks because to many watching it is not an enjoyable experience. It is a movie deep seated in horror, with scenes that make you crawl under the covers and lock the doors. For the cinephile it is a type of pleasure to watch a lurid piece of cinema with enough depth to require multiple viewings. For the weekend movie watcher it is probably too much to stomach.
The film starts with an idyllic, picturesque small town. It's a town where every day has blue skies, manicured lawns, pretty flowers, and quiet simple people. Lynch fills the screen with gorgeous pictures straight out of fifties television shows. But this is a David Lynch movie and the pretty pictures don't last long. Quickly a nice old man who is watering his lawn falls down near death. The camera pans down past the convulsing man and deep into the grass. Digging into the earth until the camera is dark with freshly wet dirt and grotesque bugs. The idyllic town is only pretty on the surface. Underneath the top layer of goodness lies a darker, seedier town hidden from the eyes of most of its citizens.
The plot of the film revolves around Kyle MacLachlan and Laura Dern delving deeper and deeper into the darker side of the small town. MacLachlan finds a dismembered ear on his walk home from the hospital one afternoon. Finding such a macabre in his hometown sparks a quest to discover who's head the ear could belong to and why it was removed. He involves the good girl Laura Dern in his quest and they sink into darker waters. To tell more of the plot is to give away too much. I'll just say that it is not for the weak of heart.
Dennis Hopper plays one of cinemas creepiest villains to date. His psychosis is even more terrifying in that it is so real. Here is no Freddy Krueger, or even a Hannibal Lector. This is not some crazed psychopath lurking in the corner. Sure he is psychotic, and maniacal, but versions of him can be found almost nightly in any major city newspaper. He is not a homicidal maniac, but a violent, evil man made even more so by his addiction to unnamed drugs.
Isabella Rossellini plays Dorothy Valens with such beauty and sadness it breaks your heart as it squirms your stomach. Her character has taken such horrible abuse over her life she has come to like and enjoy it. Mixed with heavy amounts masochism her performance is remarkable.
There were several times while watching this with my wife, Amy that she said she couldn't keep watching it. After the credits rolled she said she would never watch it again. I suspect this is the sentiments of many viewers after watching Blue Velvet. But if you can stomach the violence, masochism and overall creepiness there is a lot of pure cinema to study.
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Movie Review: Wow
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this movie. It's a masterpiece. I don't understand why people say it's bad or stupid, I think it's brilliant. Is it hard to follow the plot? It wasn't for me. This is one of those movies that HAS to be seen in widescreen (letterbox), not pan and scan (fullscreen), even if you hate "black bars", you just have to experience this movie in widescreen, that is, if you're going to watch it. The only scene that bothered me was the "Don't look at me!" sex scene between Frank and Dorothy (If you've seen this movie, you know what I'm talking about). Of course, I believe it was SUPPOSED to be disturbing. As to what the movie is about...it depends who you ask. Some people said it's the Hardy Boys on drugs, others say it's about a boy's sexual awakening, others see it as good vs. evil, each one is a valid statement. To me, Blue Velvet is a true art film, one that is multiple things all at once.Movie Review: The Citizen Kane of bad movies
Summary: 1 Stars
This movie is so bad, it deserves its own genre. I think I'll call it "film crappe". In the 80s, many gutsy directors experimented with an unconventional style as a response to the straightforward Speilberg formula we all know so well. Some directors were successful while others were just plain clumsy.
Blue Velvet falls solidly into the latter category. It is basically a Hardy Boys Nancy Drew story peppered with a lot of profanity, weird close-ups, and sexual grossness. "Sexual grossness" means that these scenes are so unglamorous and disgusting that not even John Holmes could get turned on. Trust me on this; I never thought I'd be yelling at the screen "Put your clothes on, Isabella, for all that's holy! I've seen enough beer belly for one night!"
Artistically speaking, Lynch wavers between surreal and stupid. The film begins quite well but quickly degrades as soon as the actors open their mouths. Dialogue isn't Lynch's strong point. He should stick to gore.
I'll give you one example of the film's cheesiness: In one scene, Laura Dern and Dune Boy (forgot his name) are talking in a car. She is describing her dream about God & love. The music goes to a pipe organ. They drive off, and the camera zooms in on a church for 3 full seconds. If you find this laughable, then man there's a lot more where that came from.
And just a personal pet peeve: Laura Dern's face when she cries. She does that annoying thing where it looks like she's smoking a stogie out of each side of her mouth. Fingernails on the chalkboard!!
Movie Review: A baroque thriller!
Summary: 5 Stars
The elusiveness and the mystery; the violence and the surrealist nightmares; the loneliness and the cruelty; the curiosity and the poignancy will be the crossed elements of that dreamy puzzle.
A human ear will be the first clue in the crime scene who will lead to a couple of youngsters to make a journey to a restricted land. The slow agony of lonely singer, the abominable presence of a kidnapper drug dealer, a bunch of human specters, a bit of amylic anhidride and a bitter portrait of an agonic world will make of this picture a real cult movie that grows and grows through the years.
David Lynch confessed in a interview that four crucial sequences were inspired by his personal dreams. So, that' s why I respect so much Lynch ' s aesthetics, he is one the genuine descendent of that so far German Expressionism Movement being Murnau, Fritz Lang, Robert Wiene, Paul Wengerer and King Vidor his more excel ambassadors. So in my personal opinion I recommend you to take a ride by those important and decisive years to find the visual clues, the body language and the imagination force and then back to Lynch. Otherwise you may misunderstand or worst still underrate the underground labyrinths, fundamental trademark of this original and innovative creator.
Movie Review: Fun for the whole Family!
Summary: 5 Stars
In a world of plummeting standards, mindless violence, and gratuitous sex, it's refreshing---and entirely rare---when you come across a major motion picture that the whole family can enjoy.
If you're looking for that kind of film, "Blue Velvet" is the mother lode.
"Blue Velvet" is David Lynch's masterwork, a real slice of life in small town America from the director who brought you the heartwarming, mesmerizing Disney hit "The Straight Story". Granted, for all of its heartwarming innocence, "The Straight Story" had a more deliberate tone which---to be totally honest---put little Tony and Suzie to sleep at my house. What to watch for a family sit-down that will keep the kids entertained but not drive Mom and Dad crazy, then?
Crisis averted! "Blue Velvet" is just as family-oriented as that film---only more so, and with a quicker pace that calls to mind a more finely-tuned Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew mystery.
High school senior Jeffrey Beaumont (the boyish, wholesome Kyle MacLachlan, who starred in the family flick "The Flintstones") lives with his parents and elderly Aunt Barbara (veteran actress Frances Bay, who appeared in "Twins"). With his father hospitalized after a massive heart attack, Beaumont stumbles across a mystery at the heart of sleepy little Lumberton.
Beaumont teams up with high school sweatheart Sandy Williams (Laura Dern, "Jurassic Park") and Sandy's father---a Lumberton detective---to delve into the mystery that has their little town on edge, and ultimately to snap the cuffs on a gang of dastardly baddies (headed up by Dennis Hopper in a stellar role as the villainous Frank Booth).
Isabella Rossellini serves up a particularly memorable role as singer Dorothy Valens, menaced by Booth and his rowdies, who manages to keep up a fighting spirit and lift everyone's spirits with cheerful, all-American musical standards. Grandpa and AMC-fans will particularly get a kick out the film's 1950's musical score, including golden oldies like Roy Orbison's "In Dreams" and Bobby Vinton's yesteryear hit "Blue Velvet".
Flawless cinematography by Frederick Elmes (who did the camera-work for 2003's "Hulk") shows off the green gables, rose gardens, and white picket fences of an all-American town to perfection. I don't think any director has realized the zany human cosmology of a small American town since Sam Wood's 1949 version of "Our Town".
While "Blue Velvet" heads over to the seamier side of town to plumb the more mysterious goings-on, don't fret---Lynch keeps rein over the more frightening elements of this salute to the Heartland. Like any Hardy Boys outting, things may get a little tense, but there's nothing too rough for the tots here, and good wins out in the end. Lynch proves you can put together an American classic and *still* have a happy ending.
"Blue Velvet" is a classic made for the whole family: like "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Finding Nemo", it's certain to be a favorite in your house. Be sure to watch your kiddies, and savor the gleams in their eyes as the mysteries of life become clear.