Wild at Heart (1990)

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Sailor and Lula are in love in a way that seems so strong that nothing could ever corrupt it. Yet their past contains ghosts, and there are dark forces which are railed against them. As Sailor and Lula head out by road across the United States, these ghosts and these forces slowly catch up with them, putting their love to the test, and ultimately placing it in jeopardy.

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Directed By: David Lynch

Written By: David Lynch, Barry Gifford

Starring: Willem Dafoe, Nicolas Cage, Harry Dean Stanton, Isabella Rossellini, Laura Dern, Grace Zabriskie, Crispin Glover, Diane Ladd, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Sherilyn Fenn, Freddie Jones, Sheryl Lee

Genre: Suspense/Thriller

Country: USA

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Wild at Heart belongs to 68 collections

1. Palme d'Or (collaborative: moderated by mpowell - 79 stars)

2. boobs (collaborative: moderated by Pickpocket - 51 stars)

3. Certified weird (collaborative: moderated by Dreamer - 47 stars)

4. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2008 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Scottathon - 39 stars)

5. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2010 revision) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 32 stars)

6. Black Comedy (collaborative: moderated by Dorkovsky - 30 stars)

7. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2014 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Jehan - 27 stars)

8. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2012 revision) (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 25 stars)

9. Academy Award - Oscar - ALL Best Picture, Directing, Acting & Screenplay Nominees (collaborative - 22 stars)

10. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2017 revision) (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 22 stars)

11. Based on a Book (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 21 stars)

12. Edgar Wright 1000 Favorite Movies (Aug 2016) (collaborative: moderated by Aron Ericson - 17 stars)

13. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2013 revision) (collaborative: moderated by rant1229 - 16 stars)

14. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2011 revision) (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 14 stars)

15. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2020 revision) (public: djross - 14 stars)

16. Films available in HD (collaborative: moderated by kubricksucks - 13 stars)

17. Road Trip (collaborative: moderated by td888 - 12 stars)

18. Based On Novel (collaborative: moderated by tathiel - 7 stars)

19. Anamorphic Cinematography (collaborative: moderated by Bojangles - 7 stars)

20. List: Taschen (collaborative: moderated by KasperL - 6 stars)

21. Best by different standards (public: sesito71 - 6 stars)

22. Filmsite.org - Sex in the Movies, An Illustrated History (collaborative: moderated by afx237vi - 5 stars)

23. Psychotic women (collaborative: moderated by mattburgess - 5 stars)

24. 500 essential cult films (not seen) (public: cayh - 5 stars)

25. Top 3000 movies with the most votes on IMDb (public: fanfic - 5 stars)

26. Cinemag's Best 200 films Ever Created! (collaborative: moderated by hristos - 4 stars)

27. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2007 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Scottathon - 4 stars)

28. edkrak films to see (public: edkrak - 4 stars)

29. cultfilms (public: medium123 - 4 stars)

30. Djross great movies (public: djross - 4 stars)

31. Angelo Badalamenti (composer) (collaborative: moderated by djross - 3 stars)

32. Cinemascope (collaborative - 3 stars)

33. Booed at Cannes (collaborative: moderated by Ag0stoMesmer - 3 stars)

34. Djross masterpieces (public: djross - 3 stars)

35. Djross film as art (public: djross - 3 stars)

36. The Pervert's Guide To Cinema (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 2 stars)

37. Djross underrated movies (public: djross - 2 stars)

38. Cinema, dream, desire, memory (public: djross - 2 stars)

39. Parents Acting with their Offspring (collaborative: moderated by Dunstan-xxx - 1 star)

40. The Wizard of Oz (collaborative: moderated by djross - 1 star)

41. Sound Design (collaborative: moderated by paulofilmo - 1 star)

42. Tom & Bitches' Infinite Watchlist (collaborative - 1 star)

43. Djross 1990s masterpieces (public: djross - 1 star)

44. Movies I Must See (public: gagknee - 1 star)

45. Djross American masterpieces (public: djross - 1 star)

46. Cinetheque (public: allegreller - 1 star)

47. Movies to See: Horror/Suspense (public: Lord Moe - 1 star)

48. Metacosmic and sexorganological cinema (public: djross - 1 star)

49. Cannes 1990 Official Selection (collaborative)

50. Sex scene by analogy (collaborative: moderated by juandr)

51. TSPDT 2017 new additions (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr)

52. Ratings (collaborative: moderated by cheapthrills)

53. izlenmeli (collaborative: moderated by mülkiyeliSM)

54. Watched in 2020 (collaborative)

55. Djross seen at the cinema (public: djross)

56. deeveedee (public: medium123)

57. Djross 1990 top ten (public: djross)

58. My DVDs (public: Kavu)

59. Owned (BD) (public: bizarre_eye)

60. My DVD Collection (public: balseiros)

61. 1990: Year in Review (public: polanski28)

62. BF-1990 (public: caffe)

63. 90lar (public: Ozancan)

64. Tom's Movies (public: tomwalsh)

65. 5x10 Project 3 (public: kendell)

66. My Movie Collection (public: elhenzo)

67. Netflix (public: Tarnop)

68. on PLEX (public: ozdemibr)

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TCI | Percentile | Date Rated | # Stars (Reviews)

Stars	User	Rating
7	Pickpocket	9 _93rd
Possibly Lynch's most underrated film. Very strange, very funny, generally frightening and extremely well made. I'm always impressed with how Lynch uses film as a medium, utilizing its full potential while so many others don't. The music, the acting, sets, etc. is so married to the story that you really gain an appreciation of Lynch's use of film. This is also my favorite Willem Dafoe performance, he was so great.
6	Tds4a	1 _18th
Essentially Blue Velvet 2.0, with the nastiness on the surface instead of being undercurrents (Dern's "this world is wild at heart" is basically this film's "it's a strange world, isn't it?"). Nowhere near as good and often very formless, but it has its moments - Dafoe, mainly.
5	frederic_g54	10 _97th
(2nd viewing) One of, if not Lynch's most entertaining and might I add, undemanding films. A reckless, at times surreal ride of violence, sex and contiguous malevolent forces, adamant to disrupt one of the most romantic tales ever recorded on film. Love me some 90's Nicolas Cage. This movie also made me discover a great Elvis song and I'm forever thankful for it.
4	Hawkins	68 _40th
White Trash Shakespeare for the aggressively hip. Harry Dean Stanton is a fantastic actor and there's too many Wizard of Oz references. It works better as a Cage flick than a Lynch flick, whatever that means.
3	MartinTeller	54 _10th
I just wasn't into it. Too much random depravity, like a John Waters movie with a big budget. Or like Blue Velvet but without the "normal" parts for contrast. Ugh, and all those labored Wizard of Oz references, and beating you over the head with the fire motif. Normally I enjoy Lynch's worlds, but here it's too much.
3	Magb	60 _23rd
Wild at Heart doesn't work at all for me. Like every Lynch movie (yes, even Dune) it has good scenes -- many good scenes -- but in this one it just doesn't come together to form anything coherent. Plus, I didn't think Nicolas Cage, whom I actually like in movies like Adaptation and Bringing Out the Dead, was very good here at all.
3	djross	93 _99th
Pure joy from beginning to end: maximum sublimity with minimum repression. Hard to convey the effect when this was watched for the first time in a large-screen cinema with good sound at time of release (the Valhalla in Melbourne). Have never been able to comprehend the negative views at that time, which seem to have lasted longer than has been the case for some other Lynch films. Re-watched July 2022.
3	JooJoo	5 _80th
A tale that's strange and exaggerated [to an extent beyond ridiculous] in a way that only David Lynch can do. There's a lot of stupidity here in the shock value and thematic variety that just seemed irrelevant, but it's a similar nature that gives most of the entertainment as well.
3	pompousass	0 _12th
The downside of an artist attracting a crowd is that he is tempted to start playing to it, and pretty soon his Unique Creative Vision gets broadened and coarsened and cheapened, and Lynch starts looking like John Waters -- or making John Waters look like R.W. Fassbinder. Forward movement is impeded by unrhythmical cross-cutting and flashbacks, and such a high incidence of oddness and perversion as to turn it all as common and dull as dirt.
2	Moribunny	25 _12th
I was restlessly bored as I watched this. It seems to embody everything I don't like about Lynch: It's superficially quirky and goes for a lot of cheap "what the f-ck"s, but there's nothing beyond that. It's sort of airheaded and lacks any human sensitivity. Now Laura Dern I find icky, but otherwise fine actors like Stanton and Cage are really dragged down by this movie. Eraserhead and Elephant Man were really great, so how can the rest of Lynch's ouevre be so dull?
2	Alex Watkins	4 _70th
It's somehow both one of Lynch's most accessible films while also lacking the unified narrative that make his best films so compelling. But even scattershot Lynch is intriguing, and the film plays out as a series of bizarre and interesting episodes along Sailor and Lula's journey towards happiness. And just for kicks, The Wizard of Oz references were pretty amusing (though drawing direct parallels between the two each step of the way is probably futile).
2	caiman	77 _53rd
This movie didn't click with me the way most of Lynch's other movies have. It almost seemed too random, if that's possible with a Lynch movie (similar to the way I feel about Inland Empire). I did enjoy the odd assortment of characters, especially Willem Dafoe in one of the creepiest performances I've ever seen. But the movie was so all over the place that I just couldn't grasp onto it and really love it.
2	TedDedon	84 _70th
Wild at Heart is the kind of movie that isn't for the average movie fan. It's bizarre and hard to watch at times, but if you're a fan of Lynch's off the wall way of telling a story you'll probably enjoy this quite a lot.
2	Stain	100 _95th
I saw this movie when it was new. I wondered how the other theatres in town managed the nerve to show their films when my theatre was showing something that's more intense, more warped, more original... more EVERYTHING than everything else that was in release at the moment
2	BillyShears	95 _96th
Cage at his absolute ridiculous best. I just punch kick danced out this review and it took all day i kept fucking up the keyboard.
2	lumpnboy	80 _89th
A Lynch '98 yard dash' movie, with 'Blue Velvet', 'Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me' and 'Eraserhead': things get ever worse until, at the last minute and in extremely implausible fashion, there is a happy ending that nonetheless seems to work i.e. generate emotional response or even, I've observed, efface this absurdity (especially in the case of 'BV'). From good witch intervention here we moved to relieved joy in the afterlife in 'TP:FWWM'. 'BV' is a more complicated version of this pattern.
2	Neonman	83 _73rd
Opera music, heavy-metal, leather jackets, OTT violence, gratuitous sex, Jack Nance, Fellini-esque chubby nakedness, The Wizard of Oz, true love. This film is pretty awesome!
2	Tweedale	6 _42nd
I really feel that Lynch could have made this film better simply by casting it better. Nicholas cage, for example, isn't a very good actor, and Laura Dern is as always very irritating. Also, Cage's accent shits me to tears. My favourite thing about this movie was the ambiguous setting in terms of time, with the mix of 50s music and 80s metal. Other than that, a fairly average film from Lynch
2	PierreTheron	75 _39th
Along with Dune it's one of Lynch's worst efforts, but the worst Lynch is still good film by general standard. Unusual in telling its story of love and the wild human beings who bristle with life, Wild at Heart is much like The Elephant Man in that a typical story is taken and given Lynchian elements. Despite its pedigree, the film is edited somewhat poorly and moves at a janky pace. There's little to engage the viewer beyond visceral images and it lacks the depth of Lynch's other films.
2	AndreasThau	90 _92nd
New favorite Lynch film! To me, it strikes a neat, neat balance between the most weird Lynch where my frustration is based on being utterly lost, and the more understandable Lynch that can sometimes become a bit boring. Also, new favorite Lynch character: Bobby Peru. This is good proof of why Willem Dafoe is amongst the top 5 best actors still alive. Also Cage is very lovable with a lot of cheeky smiles and memorable lines, before his downfall with lousy action films.
2	Paxton	77 _82nd
Did Willem Dafoe out crazy Nic Cage? Is that possible?
2	hsncrspywl	78 _62nd
Probably the one Lynch film which could easily identify as any genre. It has everything, and every scene could be interpreted as comedy, horror, melodrama, suspense - often all of them at once. Lots of great performances - a hideously underused but very scary Willem Dafoe especially. The aesthetic of the film is interesting too - think pulp noir meets The Wizard of Oz meets a dream you had in which you hazily remember merging the two together. A lot of fun.
2	lisa-	6 _83rd
lynch's road movie-est of all his road movies; it also seems to be his most ironic, or even satirical, with quite a few lines of dialogue that are surprisingly funny. i laughed out loud at a radio broadcast involving turtles and alligators. it's also much more straightforward than most of his others, and is thematically less complicated (aside from obvious remarks on rural america), sharing similarities with blue velvet but not being as good as that one. but it's still pretty awesome.
1	DrPhibes	100 _98th
My first Lynch film, and probably the one I've watched the most. It has the ability to disturb me while making me laugh my ass off when it's usually one or the other. It struck a nerve with me because it was really like nothing I'd ever seen before and the rest is history.
1	TheDiceman	70 _82nd
Lynch classic.
1	cagedwisdom	100 _90th
Watching this for the second time I suddenly find it far better than I did before. I think having watched the Wizard of Oz in between the two viewings helped as well. It felt far, far better on second viewing though.
1	twincinema	95 _96th
Trying to explain a Lynch film is a fool's task. You can get some of the basics down, but trying to convey the overall tone without using the word "Lynchian" is an impossibility. It is something that just needs to be experienced.
1	AFlickering	6 _87th
one of those movies for which every bad review is completely accurate while also reading like a massive compliment.
1	sebby	85 _95th
Cage's acting can truly be called "fascinating." It's always great to watch a David Lynch movie for the first time because you know what you get will likely be bizarre, unrestrained, and entertaining as hell. Wild at Heart is, of course, all these things.
1	st_fly	88 _90th
Very Good
1	Mohko	55 _40th
Few good scenes don't save this movie. Willem DaFoe makes a memorable performance.
1	stepsideways	77 _20th
Too obvious too often.
1	Luna6ix	65 _23rd
David Lynch and I have an agreement, he keeps making crap and I don't watch it. I frequently break my end of the bargain and pay for it with hair loss and years off of my life. I will give him a compliment on this one, though. It was almost tolerable.
1	Vandelay1	87 _96th
Very Nice
1	psychedelicr	95 _94th
Why is this a great film? Well, because it is insane. Lynch showed that he could make a "modern fairytale" work, and it had a lot of great twists and quirks that few other films dared to screened in the same two hours. What a great duo Dern and Cage are, by the way!
1	Patton	75 _99th
Dette er ikke blot en film. Det er en genial film.
1	suz	40 _42nd
all 40 points for willem's amazing teeth nubs.
1	omgfridge	10 _97th
Lots of great production values. Plenty of superb acting (Dafoe and Cage in particular). Strange yet highly entertaining and rewarding film. My favorite from Lynch. Its nearly as good as a snake skin jacket.
1	JohnSandwich	95 _98th
hilariously over-the-top in all departments and grossly underrated. cage's best by a mile.
1	fenixdown	84 _89th
Surreal, freaky and humorous. The cast is brilliant.
1	Judo Koala	84 _87th
"This is a snakeskin jacket, and for me it's a symbol of my individuality, and my belief in personal freedom." Hilarious parody of the road film and its various tropes, while maintaining a degree of disconnectedness from reality; the result is that akin to a cartoon, as surreal as it is hysterical--but never afraid to punctuate the fun with shots of the truly grotesque. Unique.
1	billkerwin	85 _66th
Stylish, sensation, beautiful . . . but just a little too self-aware, a little too camp.
1	Coheed	80 _78th
This is a weaker David Lynch film, undermined by the fact it both meanders greatly and can be weird for the sake of weird at times, but these flaws were also what improved the film for me on another viewing. For a more mainstream Lynch film, it really has not got a conventional plot trajectory, more about mood than story, while its weirdness, excluding one or two moments, feels far more real and tangible than a lot of 'normal' road movies and all the more unsettling for it.
1	Cinema_Asia	75 _71st
We see this couple connected by deep passion and physical attraction beset by outside forces and misguided by their own emotional weaknesses. It's held together with a surreal tapestry of emotional scenes. Lula is an impressionable sexpot who is mesmerized by Sailor's charismatic presence. Sailor is a hard luck story. It also raises the question are these two really in love or only good when they are in each others presence? It's madcap and delirious like an abstract of a conventional romance.
1	TrixRabbi	82 _78th
I think this is what happens when Lynch tries to do a legitimate comedy. It's so rife with hilarity with characters and situations so over the top bizarre that even Lynch must recognize they're a joke. It's also a lot of fun as a crime/road film in general. At times it feels like it's trying to be a realistic film that's being held back by too much surrealism, and those Wizard of Oz references are painful. But it all ties together nicely, and Nic Cage is hilarious. Not a masterpiece, but great.
1	Gnalkhere	75 _59th
Nicolas Cage needs to sing more
1	susie-mauve	90 _82nd
I loved Willem Dafoe and Laura Dern in this. I also loved how restless this is, very vivid film. I love it mainly because it has the crappiest storyline, yet managing to be such a poetic lynchish masterpiece. And that Bobbie Peru scene!
1	flapjack6x	93 _96th
Wow what a experience this film was. This movie is bat shit insane, and completely over the top and ridiculous in every way possible. The characters are completely mental and eccentric and the movie itself is just hilarious. I was already laughing my ass off a minute into it. I had so much fun watching this insane film.
1	LSBCMA	97 _97th
best romance movie ever
1	feublo	75 _41st
Lynch harvested the best Nicolas Cage - The singing Nicolas Cage.
1	peyrin	75 _69th
Lynch seems really out of his element here - the script reads like it's struggling to follow the source material (ow the Wizard of Oz references), the Southern aesthetic comes off as somehow even more forced than the faux-British Elephant Man, and all the trademark Lynch scenes of the gritty evil underbelly of America aren't as powerful when they're laid out in the open as opposed to when they're thinly veiled behind the smalltown conceit (Twin Peaks). Love the anti-Blue Velvet color scheme tho.
1	k177105	96 _94th
Completely open to the necessary violence that makes the burning called love, and the fact that there's no way to separate that violence from crime: crime is a violent burning, and cosmic violence is always criminal and shameful in a sense. Every element perfectly serving that openness. Incredible also because it's hard to imagine most directors nowdays to put a love & crime story, Wizard of Oz and Elvis together without making the film a complete joke.
1	Piggylikey	98 _98th
David Lynch's BEST. Laura Dern and Nick Cage's chemistry is sizzling and most definitely, WILD.

Average Percentile 59.96% from 3426 Ratings