Well, what can you say about Wild At Heart?
It's a David Lynch movie. If that last sentence means nothing much to you, I'd recommend starting with Industrial Symphony No. 1, because it's short, and will actually make this look almost reasonable by comparison.
If you're familiar with Lynch, but haven't seen Wild At Heart, then you'll be fine. It's definitely no Eraserhead or Mulholland Dr..
It does contain this shot, and a remarkable fixation on fire, that will offer plenty of reminder that you're watching a David Lynch film...
It's got a fairly contiguous storyline, featuring the ne'er-do-well Sailor (played by Our Hero), his love interest (who spends a seriously large portion of the movie either entirely or partially disrobed, FYI) Lulu (played by Lynch favourite Laura Dern), her legitimately crazy mother and a supporting cast of people, most of whom are trying to kill Sailor. Because Lulu's mom asked/paid them to.
Seriously. Her mom's a crazy person. That's lipstick. Everywhere.
The real story picks up after Sailor gets out of jail, where he did time for beating to death a thug who Lulu's mom hired to kill him, and follows the lovers on their quest to go to California together, despite his parole conditions.
Lulu also brings Sailor his snakeskin jacket. It's a symbol of his individuality and his belief in personal freedom.
Sailor's a weird character, but he manages, in the context of this film's universe, to be fairly normal at the same time, and Cage plays him well, despite the accent.
There are some fairly... vivid... flashbacks as they catch each other up on the weirdness that's made up their lives prior to each other (Lulu's cousin, for instance, was completely nuts, made sandwiches all night and had a cockroach fetish.) that also serve to remind you that your brain and eyeballs are in the hands of the man who made Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet.
This is The Good Witch. This scene is in this movie.
It's a weird movie that swings between surreal ridiculousness to raunchy erotica to really surprising violence to black humour and back again with all the agility of a greased mongoose, but assuming you're cool with all of those things, I'd recommend it. It's an experience, if nothing else - like just about all of Lynch's movies.
Also, Willem Dafoe's in it.
Okay, it was unfair to spring that on you. Here's a shot of how Nic Cage gets out of a car when he's excited about finding some heavy metal on the radio:
You're welcome.
