Sight & Sound Challenge: Blue Velvet (1986)

Film: Blue Velvet (113/250) 

First Time/Rewatch: Rewatch

Although I am unlike most of my friends in that I don't worship at the altar of David Lynch, I'm quite fond of this film and have watched it several times. This was my first time seeing it in a theater (shoutout to The Frida Cinema!), as I was busy being only 115 days old when it was first released. It's such a joyously bizarre film, despite the dark subject matter. Although the plot of a woman being kept prisoner by a dangerous man (Frank Booth, played brilliantly by a wild-eyed Dennis Hopper) who has kidnapped her family is no laughing matter, it's hard not to get the giggles when the kidnapper flies into tantrums or screams profanities. And it was definitely fun to see with an audience, hearing the what-the-fucks and oh-shits sprinkled around the theater. I love the contrast between the dark, seriously messed up world of Frank Booth and his cohorts and the golly-gee-whiz naiveté of detective wannabes Jeffrey (Kyle MacLachlan) and Sandy (Laura Dern). I know that the point is that you never know what lurks underneath the sunniest and most wholesome of towns, but I really hope there's no Frank Booth lurking in MY hometown! And if there is, I definitely won't go out looking for them. You hear that Jeffrey and Sandy, you idiots??