Blue Velvet Movie

When "Blue Velvet" was first released 20 years ago, the reviews were split and heated. Sides were taken over the question of authorial intent. Did David Lynch mean for audiences to laugh at his square-jawed, perky teenagers Jeffrey and Sandy, played by Kyle MacLachlan and Laura Dern? Or were the scales supposed to fall from our eyes along with theirs as they unearthed the unspeakable horrors lurking beneath the surface of their placid, all-American town?

When "Blue Velvet" was first released 20 years ago, the reviews were split and heated. Sides were taken over the question of authorial intent. Did David Lynch mean for audiences to laugh at his square-jawed, perky teenagers Jeffrey and Sandy, played by Kyle MacLachlan and Laura Dern? Or were the scales supposed to fall from our eyes along with theirs as they unearthed the unspeakable horrors lurking beneath the surface of their placid, all-American town?

Instead of being wild at heart, it's empty at heart. --The Washington Post You may enjoy 'Wild at Heart.' But an hour later you'll wonder why . . . It's David Lynch Lite. --The Boston Globe "Wild at Heart" reveals a master of movie style on his way to becoming a mannerist. --Time magazine One comes out of the theater feeling as if the mind had begun to melt.

Instead of being wild at heart, it's empty at heart. --The Washington Post You may enjoy 'Wild at Heart.' But an hour later you'll wonder why . . . It's David Lynch Lite. --The Boston Globe "Wild at Heart" reveals a master of movie style on his way to becoming a mannerist. --Time magazine One comes out of the theater feeling as if the mind had begun to melt.

I am a TV-generation moron. Like my peers, I am, for all practical purposes, illiterate. When I do read, I enjoy books that have lots of glittery romance (or at least sex), a little violence and, above all, aren't too hard to understand. My favorite TV show by far is "Beverly Hills 90210." There isn't much violence, true, although there are just enough cute girls in short skirts to keep my attention. The characters are all so smart. They always come up with the perfect politically correct answer for whatever problem they face within 48 minutes.

When the film "Blue Velvet" hit movie theaters three years ago, it was clear that director David Lynch was a cinematic visionary in full bloom. The story of a young man in small-town America who stumbles onto a mystery that leads him to discover forbidden sexual knowledge of himself, the modestly budgeted ($6 million) film was hailed as a masterpiece and garnered a best director Oscar nomination for Lynch.

So the deal might be that the auteur's alter ego isn't quite so strange. That the celluloid stand-in for David Lynch, America's reigning Prince of Weirdness, is like, a steady guy. Like now. On his day off, Kyle MacLachlan, the kid actor from Yakima, Wash., roams the lot looking like a J.