Wild at Heart

David Lynch’s erotically-charged spin on Barry Gifford’s cult novel is oversaturated with saccharine lust, rollicking in grotesquerie and surreally influenced by The Wizard of Oz. Romantic ex-con and serious Elvis fan, Sailor (Nicolas Cage, who also does his own singing!), has been released after serving time for a brutal murder in defense of the honor of his lusty teenaged girlfriend, Lula (Laura Dern). Unfortunately, Lula’s psycho mother/Wicked Witch of the West, Marietta Fortune (Dern’s real-life mother, Diane Ladd), will not tolerate the couple and sends a detective and a hitman after Sailor as he and Lula skip his parole and hit the open highway, heading West. Unfortunately, bad omens begin to fall upon the couple, and bad turns even worse as money runs short and Sailor is engaged by the demonic slimeball Bobby Peru (an unforgettable Willem Dafoe) to take part in an ill-fated robbery. Poor Sailor and Lula… can their true love conquer all in a world that’s “wild and heart and weird on top?” The controversial winner of the Palm d’Or prize at Cannes, Wild at Heart is a violent, perverse and wildly entertaining road movie/romance/film noir that displays Lynch at his very “Lynch-iest,” thanks to its bizarre humor, over-sized emotions and nightmarish parade of grotesque supporting characters played by Harry Dean Stanton, Isabella Rosselini, Crispin Glover and others. (Dir. by David Lynch, 1990, USA, 125 mins., Rated R)