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Wild at Heart

Wild at Heart

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An bizarre road trip film.
Review: When two wild couple named Sailor (Nicolas Cage) and Lola (Laura Dern) are madly in love. When the couple go on a Road Trip, so Lola is running away from her mean spirited mother (Diane Ladd in a Oscar Nominated Role). Once the couple, are on they trip, it`s become unusual and something the Both, they will never forget. While the mother sends a Hit-Man to kill Sailor.

This film is based on a novel by Barry Gifford but it`s still is David Lynch`s (Mullholland Drive, Lost Highway) Original style. As always Lynch`s films are not for all tastes. David Lynch win the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival. A Cult Classic. Panavision. Grade:A-.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Take a wild ride on the David Lynch express
Review: "Wild at Heart" is probably the last of David Lynch's truly great films. With a career that has since plummeted with "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me" and "Lost Highway," Lynch's "Wild at Heart" is a great ride on the dirty road of the human soul. For Lynch fans like myself, it's those bizarre, quirky characters who perform odd and unusual acts which have causde repeated viewings over the years. A few examples include a contractor-mafia type who does business over the phone while on the toilet with two nude girls at his side and Crispen Glover's brief appearance as a man obsessed with Christmas and Martians who vanishes after developing strange habitats for cockroaches. "Wild at Heart" has superb casting with Nicholas Cage, Laura Dern, Harry Dean Stanton, Isabella Rosselini and Oscar-nominated Diane Ladd. The most convincing performance, however, is Willem DeFoe as the haunting Bobby Peru. His presence is upsetting, grotesque and at the same time hilarious. Lynch proves, as he did with "Blue Velvet," that his stories are character driven. "Wild at Heart" is a wild ride, but not intended for the lighthearted. It's got everything to merit a hard-R rating which makes it such an unforgettable David Lynch film.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: How long do we have to wait for this on DVD?
Review: There are many reasons to see this film and most of the reviews here have covered them. I just want to mention one breath-catching scene in this film with Dern and Dafoe: Dafoe plays the utterly repellant Bobby Peru and in this particular scene he literally pulls a mind**** on Lula: it is so perfectly done, such an incredible piece of acting on the part of both actors and brilliantly directed. See it for that, if nothing else: classic Lynch.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Wild at Heart" regales with the wildest love affair ever!
Review: "Wild at Heart" opened to fantastic reviews at the Cannes Film Festival in 1990, where it won the Golden Palm Award for Best Picture of the year. Written for the screen and directed by the master of quirk David Lynch, this film tells the wild adventures of a young convict (Cage) who breaks his parole to journey across America with his beautiful gal (Dern) to escape her evil mother (Ladd.) Whilst regaling us with tales of their recent serendipity, Lynch directs Ladd as she muddles in her morass of bad joss. Along the way, Cage and Dern cross paths with an assortment of classic Lynchian characters: strange but goofy and friendly at best; strange but evil and murderous at worst. Most of the heartless half-wits are sent by the evil mother (played insanely brilliant by Ladd) in an effort to sabotage the relationship between Cage and Dern. The chase across America is played wonderfully by Lynch, in an apparant homage to Homer's "The Odyssey." Cage, as a mondern day Odysseus, has just weathered years of rough adventure in jail and now must make his way to the 'promised land' in the hopes that Dern-his Penelope-will faithfully be there still at journey's end. There is even a one-eyed cyclops along the way, and a siren or two. Also, no road trip would be complete without quite a bit of "Wizard of Oz" imagery, of which there is plenty of, and quite obviously referred to therein. All in all, it has exciting action, steaming sex scenes between Cage and Dern (and even an erotic scene between Dern and DeFoe.) Moreover, the comic wit of the dialogue will have you rewinding the movie to hear your favorite classic lines again: "We're making this porno Texas-style!" I look forward to the day it will be released on DVD, as it did in fact win Best Picture in Cannes, Cage is an Academy Award winning actor himself, and DeFoe is a two-time Academy Award nominee! Buy this film, sit back, and prepare for a whacky adventure, terrifying in parts, strange in others, comical in all parts, but yet surrealy beautiful in still others. It is one of a kind moviemaking of which Lynch is the master. I guarantee you that you have seen nothing like it before. After finishing this film, be sure to rush out and get "Blue Velvet" and "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me." Great films. "When this kind of fire starts, it is very hard to put out. The tender boughs of innocense burn first, and the wind rises, and then all goodness is in jeopardy." from TP:Fire Walk With Me. Be sure to try your hand at spotting the various and sundry assortment of characters who drift into and out of each of Lynch's films. Enjoy. I recommend this film very highly. Anyone seen my snakeskin jacket?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: i don't think we're in kansas anymore, elvis
Review: If you've seen one or more films by director David Lynch, such as BLUE VELVET or LOST HIGHWAY, you'll know what to expect in WILD AT HEART. Lynch has certain trademarks, mostly visual images, that occur in his films; Images of fire (like the house burning in LOST HIGHWAY or the numerous close-ups of cigarettes, also in LOST HIGWAY), close-ups of insects (BLUE VELVET), or shots of factory chimneys or other tower-like constructions (the sawmill in the title sequence of TWIN PEAKS and the silo in THE STRAIGHT STORY), and the continual use of provocative sexual images (like Frank Both and his oxygene mask in BLUE VELVET), plus, lastly, the numerous shots of roads and cars (LOST HIGHWAY). A film by David Lynch is not as much about the narrative, as it is about the visuals. You have to appreciate the visuals if you're going to appreciate a Lynchian experience. Take the "red room" in TWIN PEAKS; It hardly makes any sense, but it's so fascinating that you can't help being enthralled by it. I guess most directors have a story to begin with, and then they search for the visual means to illustrate it with, whilst David Lynch has the visuals but is always in search of a story to go with them.

WILD AT HEART won David Lynch the "best picture" award in Cannes (in 1990, if I'm not mistaking). It's not my favourite film of his, but a lot of Lynch fans will claim that it's certainly theirs; Critically, WILD AT HEART is often mentioned as a peak in David Lynch's career. The story is about two starstruck lovers, Sailor Ripley (Nicholas Cage as an Elvis incarnation) and Lula Fortune (Laura Dern as Dorothy Gale), and their flight from the Wicked Witch Of The West, or in this case Lula's mother, Marietta Pace Fortune (Diane Ladd; Real-life mother of Laura Dern). Lula's mother doesn't really share her daughter's affection for Sailor Ripley, and she has enlisted the aid of a private detective to track the pair down, and a hitman to kill Sailor Ripley. What follows is a Lynchian journey a long the yellow brick road, or just your average Amerian highway, in search of a wizard of Oz, that's not really there; Basically, we see Sailor and Luna jump from one deranged world into an even more psychotic one. I believe that two quotes from the film sums up what all this is about; "The whole world is wild at heart and weird on top," and "Too bad there's no wizard of Oz we can all go to for good advice".

The film is, as I've attempted to hint at, full of references to THE WIZARD OF OZ, and it's not a bad idea having seen that film before watching WILD AT HEART. You can thoroughly enjoy the latter without having seen the former, don't get me wrong, but a lot of things in the film will seem strange and ridicilous; For instance, there's a scene at the end which involves the Good Witch Of The North, and you can't really understand how wonderful that scene is if you have no knowledge of THE WIZARD OF OZ. But in any case, WILD AT HEART is a hearty recommandation, just don't expect your average Hollywood movie; This is a David Lynch film, and his films are strange and weird and deranged, and they don't always make sense, but I've never seen a film of his that hasn't fascinated me (even DUNE had its moments).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Direct, disturbing access to the mind of David Lynch.
Review: Wild at Heart is less a movie and more a psychological journey. It's hard for me to judge it the way I judge other movies; it simply can't be put under the same standards. Most movies are about entertainment and telling a story; this movie (like Blue Velvet before it) is about intense emotions, the darker side of the soul, and the warped mind of director David Lynch. David Lynch is one of the few directors left who still expresses himself through his work; he is one of the last true film artists. He indulges himself here, perhaps to an extreme. I'm not even sure I can say that this movie "entertained" me in the usual sense; but I relished the experience. His obsessions with Elvis, (impersonated or channeled by Nicholas Cage in an inspired performance) The Wizard of Oz, (the movie repeatedly references the classic both concretely and in symbolism) his desire to opress/victimize women, and the evil inside us all take center stage here; the story becomes secondary. The story itself is about a couple whose love borders on an unhealthy obsession, and seems to be founded in pleasure more than spirit. It is a "road picture" if you boil it down superficially. But this movie is about Lynch's twisted desires and his desire to twist us as well. The scene where Willem Dafoe's evil, animalistic character seduces Laura Dern verbally is one of the most powerful scenes in film. In my mind the release of this movie and the premiere of "Twin Peaks" on television were the events that started the 90's, at least in an artistic sense. Watch this movie; it is an intense roller coaster, a visual dream, and an unfiltered look into Lynch's mind and the American psyche.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Film of the Future
Review: Lynch uses cinema the way it should be used. It's a naturally surreal medium, something only Lynch has truly understood, ever since Salvador Dali made Un Chien Andalou, all those years ago. Wild at Heart is totally coherent, as many reviewers have realised, even if only partly and subconsciously. All I would like to know is this: is the American South really the raw and mindless hell on earth that it seems to be in almost every film I've seen located there?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: David Lynch's violent adaptation of the Wizard of Oz
Review: Wild at Heart is David Lynch's violent adaptation of the Wizard of Oz with mesmerizing cinematography, which offers an exceptionally artistic cinema experience. Many scenes are visually packed as they offer much to ponder since they are often surrealistic or full of symbolism. The symbolism and surreal environment enhance the fantastic adventure into love, passion, and righteousness that Lynch provides for his audience. The tale begins with Sailor (Nicolas Cage) who was sent to jail for manslaughter as he killed a man in self-defense that was sent by his girlfriends neurotic mother. Released on probation Sailor is free and loving as he can reunite with his girlfriend Lula (Laura Dern) despite Lula's mothers opposition to their relationship. Lula's defiance upsets her mother who hires another hitman to slay Sailor. However, Lula and Sailor decide to take off to California and break Sailor's probation by following the yellow line on the road to the promise land.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Emperor is Naked
Review: David Lynch is a great filmmaker, the Samuel Beckett of cinema, but he is a terrible storyteller. His images and mindscapes are some of the most fascinating visuals put on film, ever, but they never seem to add up to much, especially in this movie.

Where as "Lost Highway," leaves you with a mind-bending mystery to uncover, and "Mulholland Drive," leaves you forever creeped out by its climax, "Wild at Heart" does neither. Rather it gives a million and one teases of possible things to happen, and doesn't deliver on any of them. There are so many loose ends, and halfway developed characters and ideas, stuff that leads nowhere, or is left behind two thirds of the way through, when the film begins to focus solely on Lula trapped in a ratty motel, smelling of puke.

If you want to watch films that handle this movie's themes more properly, watch "True Romance," for the crazy, on the road love story, and "Freeway," for the surreal, reworked, and severely disturbing fairy tale.

Don't get me wrong, as a visual artist, Lynch is an unmatched genius, and his efforts to turn absolutely nothing into a movie merits acknowledgement, but ultimately, his movies never add up to much more than a showcase for his talent. They are incoherent, absurd messes that critics praise simply because they feel like it is above their heads. The truth is, nobody knows what a David Lynch movie is about except for MAYBE Lynch himself.

All in all, for a better Lynch experience, watch, "Lost Highway," and then "Mulholland Drive," they at least give you something to think about.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Stuff That [Street Ladies] are Made Of
Review: If "Sorority Boys" can get a DVD release, then why not David Lynch's Palm D'Or-winning blood-on-the-highway surrealistic opus? Does the studio feel we Americans are too imbecilic to grasp pop culture skewered like fleshy kabobs? That Elvis cannot be formidably distilled by Nic Cage, that the carnality of Laura Dern will make us question the MPAA? Or is that Bobby Peru is just too damn good with a shotgun? Regardless of whatever quasi-corporate red tape binds its leaden rocks, "Wild at Heart" is a tasty cinematic Warhol the whole family can enjoy, a savage cross-pollination of Dali, Looney Tunes, and rock n'roll.


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