A Classic

Still quite enthralling after all these years, "Blue Velvet" is a bold statement of alternative American cinema with nods to the avant garde and his future work "Twin Peaks".

The film started with the idea of a man finding a severed ear in the grass on his way home.

Dennis Hopper plays one of the best cinema bad guys ever and the deranged world that Kyle Maclachlan gets pulled into is a hellish place ruled by drugs, violence and darkness. Luckily he has Laura Dern and Isabella Rossellini to keep him company.

It has its surreal moments but is still conventionally routed, contrasting the seemingly idyllic surface appearance of small town American Life with its dark underworld.

Essential viewing.