Dir. George Baron (2023)
Two detectives trying to solve a murder end up in an alternate reality.
David Lynch is a difficult director to do right. There have been hundreds of films that have attempted to make a good Lynchian horror, but most of them fail either due to lack of vision or straight-up lack of ability. Writer/director/star George Baron, however, has plenty of both, and his new film The Blue Rose does a stellar job of providing both scares and freakiness, sprinkling in seemingly every Lynch work into a story about murder, mania, and mayhem. While it's likely only going to find an audience with fans of Lynch or lovers of obscure avant-garde horror, I'm both, and it hit perfectly in its goals of totally freaking its audience out.
Detectives Lilly (Olivia Scott Welch) and Dalton (Baron) are tasked with investigating the murder of Harold (Manny Liotta), and they begin to suspect that he was killed by his wife Sophie (Nikko Austen Steele). Believing that she's run off to her sister Norma's (Danielle Bisutti) house, the pair are thrust into a nightmarish alternate reality where nothing is as it seems and everything is, like, super weird you guys. When the pair enlists the help of lounge performer Catherine Christianson (Glüme Harlow), they're taken farther down the rabbit hole of madness in their attempt to solve the murder. Alternating between neon fever dream sequences and a gothic, ethereal noir, The Blue Rose takes the audience on a journey of discovery and horror, providing just enough plot to keep the story going and just enough insanity to pay proper homage to its inspiration.
The references to Lynch are overt and unmistakable, but Baron makes them in a way that is both flattering to his inspiration and wholly his own. With whispers from films like Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, and Eraserhead, along with more than a few nods to Twin Peaks, The Blue Rose is a love letter to Lynch but also a bizarre and expertly done subversive noir all its own. It's weird, off-putting, and a surrealistic nightmare, and Baron wouldn't have it any other way. There are some truly bizarre sequences in the film, and, much like Lynch's work, it begs to either be psychoanalyzed (though utterly refusing to allow it) or to be taken simply as a grotesque and outlandish fairytale of dreamlike and hellish visions. Playing with themes of Purgatory and abuse, the film never tries to be anything other than what it is, though I'm not sure that it always knows what that is.
Absolutely stunning cinematography from Blaine Dunkley creates an incredibly appealing aesthetic, as does the production, set, and art design from Arae Webner, Brittany Brenner, and Chanel Kaliski, respectively. It's rare that I highlight these four roles in my reviews, and perhaps that's an omission on my part, but The Blue Rose is well deserving. Regardless of how you feel about the rest of the film, it is breathtakingly beautiful and a feast for the eyes. It is Lynchian in all the best ways, a dazzling and remarkable reminder that film is first and foremost a visual medium. The music by Alexander Burke is fantastic, utilizing a chilling score and a selection of period-appropriate music to keep the film firmly set in a Lynchian 50's Hollywood.
The actors all do a stellar job, helping to craft a throwback noir with Old Hollywood character stylings. Baron does his best Kyle MacLachlan, and Ray Wise, who starred in the original Twin Peaks, steals the scene that he's in. Welch is fantastic as Baron's Nancy Drew sidekick, and Bisutti is chilling as the crazed sister of murder suspect Sophie. Baron is only 18 years old, and was 16 at the time of filming, and for such a young talent, he really shines as writer, director, and in the lead. It's pretty incredible that he manages a film like this at such a young age, and it leads me to believe you're going to be seeing a hell of a lot from this dude in the future. It's an incredible film, even if it won't hit home for a large part of its audience.
Who this movie is for: David Lynch superfans, Surrealist horror lovers, Suicidal parents
Bottom line: The Blue Rose is a fantastic piece of film, expertly done from beginning to end and containing as many scares as it does what-the-fuck moments. It's wholly Lynchian, purposely so, and it does a stellar job of paying homage to the master of absurdist horror. It's inane, utterly terrifying, and like an acid trip that has taken a handful of mushrooms. Truly excellent film, and one that would definitely benefit from multiple viewings. If this is what Baron can accomplish at essentially 16 years old, I can't wait to see what's next. The film is on VOD now, and I definitely recommend checking it out if you're a fan of this type of film.
