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Blue Velvet
Blue Velvet Image
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Metascore
75 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 14 Critics What's this?

User Score
7.8 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 85 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Starring: Dennis Hopper, Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan
  • Summary: Set in a small American town, Blue Velvet is a dark, sensuous mystery involving the intertwining lives of four very different individuals. The film's painful realism reminds us that we are not immune to the disturbing events which transpire in Blue Velvet's sleepy community. There is a darker side of life waiting for us all. (De Laurentiis Entertainment Group Inc.)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 14
  3. Negative: 2 out of 14
  1. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    100
    Blue Velvet is David Lynch in peak form, and represents (to date) his most accomplished motion picture. It is a work of fascinating scope and power that rivals any of the most subversive films to reach the screens during the '80s.
  2. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Corliss
    60
    Lynch and his film will surely be reviled, but as an experiment in expanding cinema's dramatic and technical vocabulary, Blue Velvet demands respect. [Sept. 22, 1986]
    All this critic's reviews
  3. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Paul Attanasio
    30
    Doesn't progress or deepen, it just gets weirder, and to no good end.

See all 14 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 34 out of 39
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 39
  3. Negative: 4 out of 39
  1. RickM.
    10
    Excellent, well-constructed movie. People who say this film lacks depth are completely wrong. There is so much symbolism in this film its almost exhausting.… Expand
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  2. AJ
    10
    It's hard to find the words to describe the experience of watching Blue Velvet. The film is simply a masterpiece.
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  3. SteveO.
    2
    Dull. Unpleasant. Muddled narrative. Ludicrous dialogue. Talented actors giving the worst performances of their careers. I'll never understand how this film became a critical darling. Whatever Lynch was trying to do, the result is a boring, embarrassing mess. I remember reading one review that actually claimed the bad acting was a deliberate "Brechtian distancing device". I guess you could apply that to GLITTER and GIGLI as well. I think this was one of those films which middle-class critics hyped to prove they were too sophisticated to be shocked by its gross-out elements. For some viewers, it seems to be a Rorshach test or an Emperor's New Clothes experience, allowing them to read all sorts of "postmodern irony" into its ineptitude. It's weird, certainly, VERY weird. But for some of us weird isn't enough. A film has to be good, too.… Expand
    • 0 of 2 users said yes

See all 39 User Reviews

Trailers

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