Blue Velvet
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Movie Reviews of Blue Velvet
Movie Review: Blah, blah, blah
Summary: 2 Stars
Blue Velvet, adored by all gothics, S&M enthusiasts, and geeky, self-described (i.e., uneducated) 'film buffs,' leaves you with the same exasperation and puzzlement endemic to David Lynch films. Proponents of Blue Velvet will tell you that it explores the 'dark side' of everyday life, what mainstream America doesn't really want to address...don't buy into it. Lynch's vision cannot stand in for anything that most of us will ever experience, and its absurd exaggerations drive the point home. Perhaps the problem is watching this movie with twenty years worth of perspective, or maybe it was always this mediocre; whatever the case, Dennis Hopper is more overdramatic than scary, and (again, as is the m.o. of Lynch) the plot is hardly satisfying. The characters make irrational choices, with absolutely no explanation (why does Laura Dern suddenly forget that her new boyfriend has been sleeping with the psychotic woman they have been watching?). The final scene is particularly troubling...not because it 'shakes the foundations of cinema and everyday life,' but because it plays out without any coherence (the shady detective standing in the apartment, with no explanation for why he is suddenly immobile?).
If you've seen Mulholland Drive or Lost Highway, you will not be surprised by the seemingly arbitrary confusion Lynch too often indulges. Whereas other experimental filmmakers seem to have a point to make with their choices, one has the feeling that Lynch instead constructs a pseudo-mystery without bothering to let the audience ever understand. In all fairness, at the time of Blue Velvet Lynch had not yet reached the stage of simply throwing unconnected and unexplained plot twists into his film; still, most viewers will be left wondering what the hell they just watched, and why it has been canonized in American cult-cinema.
Movie Review: Nightmarish but Real
Summary: 5 Stars
David Lynch is to be heartily congratulated for delivering a film so nightmarishly real you will wonder if you are dreaming with your eyes open. What I liked about this book was its unflinching honesty about sexual perversion. It's all in here.
One of most intriguing characters in the film is Ben (played by Dean Stockwell). He is portrayed as an autogynephilic transsexual with sadistic tendencies (he punches handsome young Jeffrey in the stomach). It's interesting that an art house film could deal with this topic years before autogynephilia even had a name.
Movie Review: One of the best of the '80s
Summary: 5 Stars
David Lynch is not a director that's easily acceptable or digestable to all. He appeals to a select few that share in a particular taste and look for something more challenging than traditional multiplex fare. His films do not allow for passive viewing or popcorn munching- they demand you to be in tune to every stimulus and many hours of thought and conversation after the experience has ended.
"Blue Velvet" is maybe the best of his films for the reason that it's more accesible than "Eraserhead", better than almost everything else (with "Mulholland Drive" in contention), and features maybe the greatest villian in movie history.
What I love about this movie is that at its core it's very much a love story, though an unconventional one. It's a waking nightmare about obsession. There is a message about heartbreak and longing that "The Notebook" and "Pretty Woman" could never come close to touching.
The movie is not as strange or inaccessible as people would have you believe. It just doesn't allow for comfortable or lazy viewing.
Movie Review: Apalling. There is no "0" Star option, SPOILERS WITHIN
Summary: 1 Stars
This film is vile. It features misogynist portrayals of women that are disturbing to say the least. It features a graphic rape scene that served to be the most uncomfortable thirty seconds of a film class ever.
Women here are either 1: Doormats: Sandy taking back Geoffery after he has an affair with a married woman. She forgives him because she loves him. Blah.
2. Masochist Nymphomaniacs who ask to be hurt, seduce young men and allow themselves to be treated as objects.
In a time and place where there is an ever increasing amount of violence towards women, this film is a disgrace.
Films like this give surrealism a bad name. Its not surreal, its perverted. If you want surreal, see a real film like Un Chien Andalou, not this very bad movie.
Yes, its bad. On top of being incredibly offensive on multiple levels, it is littered with plot holes. Once the film reaches a certain point, the plot becomes so convoluted that its absurd and many things are never explained.
Movie Review: Taut, rich, layered, and stabbing film
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is a view of the world we live in and the gigantic split that exists in society. This film challenges so many things, the violence inherent in society, romanticism, the repression of the true feminine, subjugative power and those who wield it, the weakness and fear lurking under the surface.
The imagery is quite taut and direct. If you watch the film with a clear mind theres little doubt about the imagery and its meaning. The story refuses to let you get too sentimental and too attached to the characters. It refuses the viewer the hatred they desire for the 'evil' characters, and the sappy attachment to the 'hero' that are in most films.
For example you see the brutal and deranged Frank, and of course its natural to write him off as 'insane' and move on. When this happens Lynch pulls you back by showing a wounded, unloved, child inside Frank that forces you back into communion with the character, quite disturbing.
Also the 'hero' is quite sympathetic if a bit naive early on, but before you get too attached to the character you start to get frustrated with his weakness. He has no verbal or physical defense against any attack, society has sheltered him so much that he has no defense against anything.
As someone else said when reviewing this movie, the film is working on so many levels and accessing dark parts of your subconscious that you can feel 'woozy' watching the film. I dont really know what to say about the film other than what I've said. Its an odd film, I dont enjoy it so much its more like an experience.