Blue Velvet
At a glance...
- Directed by David Lynch
- Released in 1986
- Watched at the Pacific Science Center IMAX
- Final feelings: My intuition says this is about why David Lynch should have just kissed Kyle MacLachlan on the mouth, wetly, with tongue.
Learning about David Lynch's pseudo-woo-woo framework of "intuition" feels like both a blessing and a curse in this one. At times, blue Velvet really does feel like it's tapping into a psychosexual genius that only Lynch could conjure up with his straight-to-subconscious method. But the comically straightforward conclusion to this makes it all feel like a loud and devastating wet dream, like the one I might as well have been having just now before the fire alarm suddenly woke up my whole house with nary a candlelight flame in sight.
Then again, insofar as this movie is about dreams, maybe here we see the crying out of a queer and transgressive life David Lynch wanted for himself only to have it be ultimately supplanted by the crushing weight of conventional modernity. Maybe this is one of the most memorable films I've seen that depict the extent that masculinity in our culture imprisons men into violent contradictions and outbursts because they feel like they aren't allowed to really express their needs. Maybe this is one of the least convincing depictions I've seen of how motherhood will save you from your deepest, most unsavory desires.
Also, real Lynchiacs will be able to tell me, I'm sure, if this movie is just the blueprint of Twin Peaks.