Blue Velvet: Still Messing With My Head After All These Years

Okay, so I finally revisited Blue Velvet last night. Man, Lynch is just... Lynch, you know? That opening with the idyllic suburban scene and then BAM! The ear. Still gets me. But what REALLY got me this time around was the sound design. That Angelo Badalamenti score is iconic, obviously, but the way he uses silence and then throws in these jarring, almost industrial noises... it's unsettling in the best way. Especially during the Jeffrey Beaumont's (Kyle MacLachlan) initial investigation. It really puts you on edge. And Dennis Hopper as Frank Booth? Seriously terrifying. The scene where he's screaming at Dorothy (Isabella Rossellini) is just brutal. I'm also paying attention to the lighting. There's a lot of the color blue (duh!) contrasting with the harsh reds and oranges, especially in Dorothy's apartment. It's a visual representation of the darkness underneath the seemingly normal surface of Lumberton. The film overall seems deliberately low budget to me although Lynch might have done this purposely. Speaking of Lumberton, that idealized small-town setting is so crucial. It's the perfect backdrop for all this depravity. You think everything's safe and wholesome, and then BOOM, you're sucked into this terrifying underworld. The movie is a bit long though (almost two hours). I feel like some of the scenes with Sandy (Laura Dern) could have been trimmed for pacing. Overall, Blue Velvet is a pretty difficult movie to "enjoy," but it's definitely a powerful one. Lynch just has this way of making you feel deeply uncomfortable and intrigued at the same time. It's definitely not for everyone, but if you're into weird, suspenseful thrillers with great sound design and visuals, give it a shot. But be prepared to be disturbed! I will say the ending felt a little too clean, but I guess its Lynch's way of saying evil exists everywhere hiding underneath a false sense of safety.