Review of Blue Velvet (1986) by Tomfleet94 — 25 Jun 2013

Having absolutely loved Mulholland Dr., I was keen to see more of Lynch's films. This predecessor, while exhibiting a lot of the filmmaking chops that in part made the former so enjoyable, is unrewarding and at times grotesque.

On paper it sounds great: an innocent young man gets tangled in the hidden criminal and erotic underworld that you'd never guess was there in his picturesque town. Some of the representations of this latent darkness are great (the shot zooming into the well-trimmed lawn to reveal a sea of gnashing bugs is inspired and very creepy), and indeed these two halves to the film are in themselves believable (Hopper's villain is nightmarish and feral, the ordinary citizens quaint and unassuming; which is unsettling in its own way).

But whereas Mulholland Dr. took me through all the emotional reactions I can think of, the scenes here where these contrasting sides met only made me feel nauseous and uncomfortable (a naked and bruised woman lingering awkwardly in a family's front room, for example).

Lynch's talents were evident here, and overall I admired it for its hard-hitting and challenging mission statement, but while I really wanted to love this movie I feel that, with its garish and even repulsive confrontations, it did its best to put me off.