Review of Blue Velvet (1986) by Brendan S — 10 May 2012

Blue velvet gets the most points from me for its atmosphere, music and fantastic visual direction. The plot sounds intriguing enough, although they mystery really stops when Jeffrey begins to interact with Mrs Vallens. The rest of the movie's focus is really about exploring these unique, but mostly sadistic characters. This is fine, but I still felt that the film merely skimmed the surface without an attempt to allow the audience to understand them or their motives. Perhaps that was the point, but in the end I generally felt frustrated with Miss Vallen (the femme fatale of the film) and was more interested in the high school relationship between Jeffrey and Sandy. The 'bully' of the film was well played, but obviously a psychopath and for me I generally did not care about the character. It's alright to have a psychotic villan, but he/she needs at least to be interesting. All he did was distance me from the film, as opposed to say the Villians in a QT film, or a the gangsters in a Scorsese film where you are drawn to the characters.

Nevertheless, it still needs to be stressed how much the film is an atmospheric and visual treat. Great motifs and amazing cinematography.