I'm Blue (Velvet) Da Ba Dee Da Ba Daa

The unusual seems to just come natural to David Lynch. His movies are world-renowned at this point for having incredibly idiosyncratic visual touches to them and extended dream-like sequences while his 1982 movie The Elephant Man (previously the only David Lynch movie I'd seen) concentrated on a man whose physical appearance was so different from society it caused him to be ostracized from the rest of the world and treated unfairly like a freak. For his 1986 feature Blue Velvet, Lynch once again embraces the unorthodox to create incredible and distinctive cinema, the kind that really feels like it could only come from the mind of Lynch himself.


While looking after his father, whose trapped in the hospital under dire conditions, Jefferey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) discovers something quite unusual in a nearby field; a human ear. With no body missing such an appendage in sight, Jeffrey alerts a local detective to this unusual event and also procures the interest of the detective's daughter, Sandy (Laura Dern). Shortly after he first tells the detective about his grisly discovery, Sandy informs him that she managed to hear that a suspect in the case surrounding the ear is local singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabelle Rossellini). Desiring to get some answers, Jeffrey decides to pull a Hardy Boys and investigate what kind of connection Dorothy could possibly have to the ear itself.

From there, Blue Velvet upends expectations a bit by having Jeffrey's search for answers for be short-lived. After hiding out in one of Dorothy's closets with the intention of spying on her, he discovers that Dorothy is being intimidated by gangster Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper), who is holding Dorothy's son hostage. There won't be easy and tidy answers to be found here, as Jeffrey manages to get himself involved quite deeply in this situation as he becomes more emotionally and physically connected to Dorothy and also soon discovers just how crazed and maniacal this Frank Booth character can be.

David Lynch's screenplay has a notable skill with creating momentous amounts of suspense, as the best mystery-based tales are wont to do, as it uses the universal yearning all early 20-year olds have of wanting to explore the world around them and get answers as a catalyst for Jefferey to get himself deeper and deeper into trouble. You can totally get why Jefferey would want to figure out more about this ear that he's randomly found even when you don't agree with his methods while Kyle MacLachaln does a fantastic job with portraying Jefferey's determination-soaked quest for answers in this mystery that gets more and more complex as the minutes go by.

Setting that mystery in the 1950's is one of those subtle details in the screenplay that makes it truly come to alive too, as the squeaky-clean picket fences and old timey outfits are brought to detailed life (major kudos to the costume and set departments of Blue Velvet for making those elements work so well) and contrast against the debauchery Jefferey encounters. It isn't just a youthful desire for closure that drives Jefferey but also his yearning to discover how something so gruesome could possibly transpire in the seemingly serene land of Lumberton, North Carolina (which, to my surprise, is indeed a real place). Of course, grisly events are bound to occur when you've got someone like Frank Booth roaming around.

Frank Booth is enters Blue Velvet by way of a scene where he rapes Dorothy all while sporadically breathing heavily into an oxygen mask and rambling creepy sexual innuendos (I hate to kink shame in this review but Frank Booth is super icky here). That's certainly quite the introductory sequence and Dennis Hopper belly-flops himself into the characters depraved nature that lends Frank Booth an extra layer of crazy on top of the nuttiness the script has already instilled into him. He's this bizarre presence that Hopper gives real menace as well as true blue lunacy that helps shows what kind of insane can of worms Jefferey has opened by probing deeper into the appearance of that ear he found in the field.

An extended sequence where Frank Booth and his accomplices take Jefferey for a little ride at night may be the apex of insanity in the movie, it's a segment of Blue Velvet that veers right into riveting unpredictability. By contrast, Laura Dern plays a character with a much softer presence in Jefferey's life and Dern does great work with the character, especially in her strong chemistry with Kyle MacLachlan. Similarly turning in great work as an actor is Isabelle Rossellini and man is Rossellini ever great at breaking your heart with her performance here, she's able to make the characters tormented life come across a the living hell it is. She's got a heavily troubled life like no else in Lumberton, North Carolina, but it's the unique characters that are outcasts and the downtrodden that David Lynch seems to excel with as seen in the tremendous Blue Velvet.