Amazon.com Essentials:
David Lynch peeks behind the picket fences of small-town
America to reveal a corrupt shadow world of malevolence, sadism, and
madness. From the opening shots Lynch turns the Technicolor picture
postcard images of middle class homes and tree-lined lanes into a
dreamy vision on the edge of nightmare. After his father collapses in
a preternaturally eerie sequence, college boy Kyle MacLachlan returns
home and stumbles across a severed human ear in a vacant lot. With the
help of sweetly innocent high school girl (Laura Dern), he turns
junior detective and uncovers a frightening yet darkly compelling
world of voyeurism and sex. Drawn deeper into the brutal world of drug
dealer and blackmailer Frank, played with raving mania by an
obscenity-shouting Dennis Hopper in a career-reviving performance, he
loses his innocence and his moral bearings when confronted with pure,
unexplainable evil. Isabella Rossellini is terrifyingly desperate as
Hopper's sexual slave who becomes MacLachlan's illicit lover, and Dean
Stockwell purrs through his role as Hopper's oh-so-suave buddy. Lynch
strips his surreally mundane sets to a ghostly austerity, which
composer Angelo Badalamenti encourages with the smooth, spooky strains
of a lush
score. Blue Velvet is a disturbing film that delves into
the darkest reaches of psycho-sexual brutality and simply isn't for
everyone. But for a viewer who wants to see the cinematic world rocked
off its foundations, David Lynch delivers a nightmarish masterpiece.
--Sean Axmaker
