Virtual Seminar: Blue Velvet

Spawned from the mind of David Lynch, Blue Velvet is a deeply disturbing mixture of the heartfelt and horrific. Clean-cut Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) realizes his Mayberry-like hometown is not so normal when he discovers a human ear in a field. His investigation catapults him into an alluring, erotic murder mystery involving a disturbed nightclub singer (Isabella Rossellini) and a drug-addicted sadist (Dennis Hopper). Soon Jeffrey is led deeper into their depraved existence…to the point of no return.

Beatrice Loayza is a film and theater critic whose writing has appeared in The A.V. Club, The Guardian, Film Comment, Sight & Sound, and others.