Blue Velvet (1986)

Blue Velvet (1986)

A surreal exploration into the seedy underbelly of an idyllic suburb.

Laura’s Rating: 1.5/5 Stars

Plot: Home from college, Jeffrey stumbles upon a severed ear in a field, which leads him down a path to a dark and disturbing mystery in his idyllic town. Soon, he’s torn between the peaceful life he knows and the intriguing underbelly that fascinates him.

Analysis: I enjoyed David Lynch’s tv series Twin Peaks, so I thought it was time to check out one of his movies. You can see some shared elements with Twin Peaks: Kyle MacLachlan solving a mystery, a diner, dark themes in a small town. Yet Blue Velvet lacks the right balance of quirky and edgy that Twin Peaks seems to achieve.

I theoretically knew this was going to be a weird one, but the movie is weird in a way that felt uncomfortable and lackluster at the same time. It starts off as a quirky mystery, but it soon devolves into an exploration of a depraved conspiracy involving dangerous people. It felt like many of the actions of the central bad guy were for shock value more than anything else. The characters weren’t very developed and any complexities they did have weren’t really explored.

Despite some wild scenes, most of the film is pretty slow paced and dialogue heavy, making the intense scenes stand out even more against the somewhat boring background. Despite its status as a cult classic, Blue Velvet was just not for me and I wouldn’t recommend the movie to most people.