WILD AT HEART

Lynch’s attitude towards his material is always a little difficult to parse, and there are certainly elements of mockery in his depiction of lovers Sailor and Lula (Laura Dern.) But for me, at least for the most part, Lynch’s belief in them is as sincere as anything in his work; he loves the couple, and wants you to love them too. Yes, Sailor’s Elvis accent and snakeskin jacket (his “personal symbol of individuality”) are silly, and Lula’s enthusiastic ode to his penis and how it talks to her while it’s inside is both saccharine and gross.

But love is silly, saccharine, gross and wonderful all at once, and Cage and Dern make it unequivocally clear that they care for each other, whether they’re stopping the car to kung-fu dance to speed metal or having hard conversations about past betrayal or trauma. They overcome mother’s (hyperbolic) opposition, their own (incredibly) poor choices, violence, and prison, and unless your heart is a big old lump of rock (or you’re Roger Ebert, I suppose), you’ve got to swoon at least a little when Sailor serenades her with “Love Me Tender” at the close. Stylized absurdist cold-hearted weirdo Lynch manages to succeed where romcoms often fail—he gives you a unique couple who both obviously care for each other, and who you can imagine being happy together.
(Noah Berlatsky, Everything Is Horrible)