Wild At Heart

Ideas truly are beautiful and abstract.

To say the death of David was a crushing blow would be an understatement, I've never really had a favorite director ever in my life but David easily was one of my favorite people on this planet. And I'm not sure if I have ever reviewed every movie from a director before but we are gonna wrap up David's theatrical films this week. Wild At Heart might honestly be my favorite movie of his, Blue Velvet was great, Mulholland Drive was interesting and complex, and even Eraserhead had strong appeal for me, but this movie for one reason or another has my love more than the others. Following a deeply passionate couple Sailor and Lula, who decide to make a trek to California while being trailed by men hired by Lula's own mom to stop them from being together is a simple but very endearing story. I buy the romance between the two, these young, foolish, sex crazed kids who truly are wild at heart and have a us against the world mentality speaks to me deeply. Of course it has all the wonderful beautiful quirks of David's writing and I was shocked to know it was a novel first, and I think I came up with a satisfactory term for his movies after all this time. David Lynch movies are weirdly engaging, this movie being no exception! The fact alone Nicolas Cage is in a David Lynch movie should be all the reason you need to watch this to begin with, with this swagger and voice almost a breathing return of Elvis Aaron Presley and a persona fit to burst with energy it's hard not to get swept up in the scenes. Same goes for Laura Dern who went against all types and personal restraints as Lula, and I'm not just saying this because she gets nekkid a bit in this movie but she has never looked more attractive and electric on the screen and I adore Tidbit! She really is solid gold in this movie and truth be honest may be my favorite performance of her career. I was a bit stunned to see so many Twin Peaks alumni present here and memory fails me which was coming out first in 1990 but it was a blast to see Sherilyn Fenn, Grace Zabriskie, Jack Nance, and Sheryl Lee pop up for a bit. Even Isabella Rossellini and Harry Dean Stanton are in the cast, you love to see continuity between productions and lord knows seeing friends make movies will never get old to me. The setting around Texas makes a native like me happy and the dust filled empty streets and sun blasted buildings almost give it a modern day western vibe at times. The editing has a lot more emphasis on flashbacks and a strong fascination with flames, which just goes to show no matter how many of David's films you have seen not a single damn one looks or even feels alike but still strangely has that aura where you couldn't mistake it for anyone else's movie. The Angelo Badalamenti score has that almost speakeasy sound to it but can clobber you with eerie punctuation to certain imagery, but it's lovely as always and the music choices are varied and unique. It was a fascinating ride to be on for this and not just because of the horrible news, I really had no clue where it was going but easily had the backs of our two leads all the way. I'm sure this probably is one of David's least talked about films, even though I knew next door to nothing about it but it's kinda leaning on my #1 spot in the filmography. But let me be clear that is a subjective stance and not an objective stance, if someone told me Blue Velvet was objectively the best David Lynch film I doubt I could argue much, but for my money Wild At Heart was just the right kind of engaging, entertaining, and funny that I needed in this time and place in the world. 4 stars, 8.5/10, and next time we touch on the movie that seems to have the most divisive rift of all David’s films with Inland Empire.

Blue Velvet

My first official David Lynch review, but not my first of his movies. That goes to The Elephant Man.

I'm actually really pleased with this movie. It was friggin' weird at times but I'm so happy to have seen it. Set in an idyllic North Carolina town a young man named Jeffery finds a severed ear and soon gets roped into a bizzare plot of kidnappings, sex, and batshit situations and characters. It's a wild trip, and I can't even imagine the audience reactions in 1986. Hell the producer Dino De Laurentiis had such faith in Lynch and the film that he repurposed a production company to distribute the film because no major studio would come near the thing, that is something you can't say about a lot of people in the film industry nowadays, that's pretty grand. The critical reception didn't really start strong until well after the film was released, but strictly on a first viewing basis I very much enjoyed it. I like the whole 50s aesthetic they present in terms of visuals and music, this isn't the first time a film has presented a perfect small town with a dark underbelly but they handle it very well and the music is very jazzy noir-ish centered which you know I'm a sucker for. I think the performances is what really sells the movie, though of course the story and direction are really dang good. Kyle MacLachlan is a very good lead and juggles the weird mix of emotions pretty much flawlessly, Isabella Rossellini has that perfect edge of vulnerability and I'll give major props to anyone who can go full nude cause I certainly wouldn't have the heart for that I mean talk about bravery, friggin' Laura Dern is in this movie which came out of left field but I'm so damn happy to see her in any movie she's a total cutie in this and I simply adore her, oh my God we get to talk about Dennis Hopper now. Dude. Dude. Whoa. There's no words to describe his performance, it's...um, wow. If ever there were a reason to see this movie, he's it. Wild. They handle the mystery good too, like you're never really sure who's in on it and who's not. Are the cops corrupt and maybe aiding the kidnappers? Maybe. Is there gonna be a heel turning character? Who knows? Will evil win the day in a downer ending? Have to see it for yourself. It's a fine movie, never trying to be more than it is but still having that unmistakeable David Lynch quality to it. 4 stars, 8/10, and I'm so getting the title theme for this movie!

Well it's that time again my friends. A new movie based on a Universal Monster hits theaters this Friday, and while my Dark Universe may be dead and buried no one's ever really gone...