Blue Velvet

Blue Velvet (1986)

  • 92% of critics liked it
    (37 reviews)

  • 88% of users liked it
    (69,246 ratings)

Director David Lynch crafted this hallucinogenic mystery-thriller that probes beneath the cheerful surface of suburban America to discover sadomasochistic violence, corruption, drug abuse, crime and perversion. Kyle Maclachlan stars as Jeffrey Beaumont, a square-jawed young man who returns to his… More

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R, 2 hr. 1 min.
Directed By
David Lynch
Written By
David Lynch
Genres
Mystery & Suspense, Drama
In Theaters
Sep 19, 1986 Wide
On DVD
Feb 4, 1999
MGM

Critic Reviews

  • Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

    It made me feel pity for the actors who worked in it and anger at the director for taking liberties with them.

  • John Hartl, Film.com

    Not quite like any other thriller or erotic mystery you've ever seen.

  • Paul Attanasio, Washington Post

    The movie doesn't progress or deepen, it just gets weirder, and to no good end.

  • James Plath, Movie Metropolis

    One which David Lynch fans will want to watch over and over in HD, and which non-fans ought to see at least once.

  • Peter Canavese, Groucho Reviews

    Works brilliantly as an allegory of American repression and willful illusion of order, Lumberton's forced-smile '50s sensibility unable to keep down the anarchic, raging id that is humanity's primal drive. [Blu-ray]

Read all 14 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

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Featured Audience Ratings

  • Reid V


    Summed up perfectly by the late Gene Siskel, this film plays you like a piano. Lynch's arousing yet unsettling portrait of the underbelly of the American dream is something you won't soon forget. He successfully immerses you into a pleasantville-esque world replete with the… More

  • Melvin W


    Frank Booth: In dreams, I walk with you. In dreams, I talk to you. In dreams, you're mine, all the time. Forever.  "It's a strange world." Holy Shit! I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually liked this movie. This is shocking because I might have… More

  • First L


    A dandy fop pimp (Dean Stockwell) lip syncs Roy Orbison's "In Dreams" while a psychotic kidnapper (Dennis Hopper) stands listening, racked with emotion. That kind of scene may be standard fair for filmmaker David Lynch, but Blue Velvet is actually a more of a straight… More

  • Taylor R


    Emotionally exhausting, so intense as to almost be a horror film. The cast turns in incredible performances, but the screenplay manages to juxtapose their gratuitousness with a sense of subtlety - the sign of a true master. No film has toyed with my sense of genre like this one. David… More

  • Conner R


    It might just be the greatest criticism of the all American lifestyle. Lumberton seemed to exist in its own world, never giving up that 50s look and personality even into the 80s. Maybe that's why it's so twisted when things start to run a muck when Frank Booth roles in with… More

Read all 20 featured audience ratings

Cast

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