Among the most critically acclaimed movies of 1986, Blue Velvet was director David Lynch's commentary on small-town America, showing the sordid backside of the sunny facade. That said, the film is not strictly a condemnation of the American small-town so much as it is a kind of coming-of-age story. Lynch described the film as "a story of love and mystery." This statement may ostensibly refer to the relationship between the film's protagonist Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) and the police detective's daughter Sandy Williams (Laura Dern) and the mystery they attempt to solve in plucky Nancy Drew style, but it might also be seen as a statement about the mingling of affection and fear that arises in the movie's examination of the fictional but truthful setting, Lumbertown. One can see Blue Velvet as a coming-of-age story, not only for Jeffrey, but for the idea of the idyllic American...