Blue Velvet
De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG) | Release Date: September 19, 1986 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
3
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Total FilmJamie Graham
Isabella Rossellini’s singer Dorothy is a heart-rending open wound, Dennis Hopper’s Frank Booth one of cinema’s great nutjobs, and Lynch’s control a thing of nightmarish beauty. Read full review
100
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
As fascinating as it is freakish. It confirms Mr. Lynch's stature as an innovator, a superb technician, and someone best not encountered in a dark alley. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesSheila Benson
The most brilliantly disturbing film ever to have its roots in small-town American life. [19 September 1986, Calendar, p.6-1]
100
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
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. Read full review
100
Village VoiceGuy Maddin
The last real earthquake to hit cinema was David Lynch's "Blue Velvet" -- I'm sure directors throughout the film world felt the earth move beneath their feet and couldn't sleep the night of their first encounter with it back in 1986. (Review of 20th Anniversary Re-Release) Read full review
90
L.A. Weekly
What dazzles still about David Lynch's Blue Velvet is its total authority: Not a single false gesture. No shock delivered solely for its own sake. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneGene Siskel
One powerful, mesmerizing thriller, a masterful exercise in controlling an audience's attention. [19 September 1986, Friday, p.A]
80
Film.comJohn Hartl
An exhilarating piece of popular entertainment.
80
VarietyStaff (Not credited)
Hopper creates a flabbergasting portrait of unrepentent, irredeemable evil. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
You either think it's dementedly wild at heart or a lost highway to nowhere.
60
TimeRichard Corliss
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]
50
Chicago ReaderPat Graham
It's mostly fascinating, though the unconverted may be in for a rough two hours. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleGerald Nachman
Dark, menacing and sexual, with satanic overtones, like a Black Sabbath song, with many moments of genuine fright and harsh eroticism. [19 September 1986, Daily Notebook, p.76]
30
Washington PostPaul Attanasio
Doesn't progress or deepen, it just gets weirder, and to no good end. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
So strong, so shocking and yet so audacious that people walk out shaking their heads; they don't know quite what to make of it. Read full review
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