I don't know who ever came up with the idea that the suburbs are a great place to raise kids: They're absolutely terrifying! I spent fifteen of the worst years of my life in the Sacramento valley (first Davis, then Woodland) before making my escape on a Greyhound bus on Friday, August 31 at 5:30a.m.

David Lynch understands the true horror of suburbia. It looks okay, but underneath, there's all sorts of weird stuff going on. Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan who finds an ear,) Dorothy (Isabella Rossellini), Dean Stockwell AND Dennis Hopper as Frank Booth all in the same movie! What more could any Grand Guignol devotee ask for? Laura Dern is his sweet, innocent girlfriend. Hope Lange, Brad Dourif, Priscilla Pointer and Lynch regular Jack (“Eraserhead”) Nance (who was murdered in real life after a fight in a doughnut shop in 1997) round out the cast.

A deeply disturbing movie with superb cinematography by Frederick Elmes and a great evocative score by Angelo Badalamenti, who went on to compose Lynch's “Wild at Heart” (also starring Dern) and the classic “Twin Peaks” theme. “Blue Velvet” revitalized the careers of Stockwell and Hopper, (although not, alas, the underrated Lange) and if it encouraged pigeons NOT to move into suburban nightmares like Lumberville, so much the better, dang it!

© 2006 - Monica Sullivan - Air Date: 3/8/06