list http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around Wild at Heart on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 http://www.spout.com/films/Wild_at_Heart/38386/default.aspx Title: Wild at Heart
Year: 1990
Director: David Lynch
Plot: Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern play a pair of lovers on the run in David Lynch's surrealist road movie Wild at Heart. Cage's Sailor Ripley is a violent ex-convict with an Elvis Presley fixation who falls in love with Dern's Lula Pace Fortune, the daughter of a rich, but mentally unstable, Southern belle named Marietta (Diane Ladd, Dern's real-life mother). Just after Sailor is released from prison, where he was jailed for brutally killing one of Marietta's thugs, he and Lula take off on a wild cross-country trip, pursued by his parole officer, her mother, criminals, bounty hunters, and detectives. Along the way, Sailor and Lula have a lot of sex, share their pasts, share their respective obsessions for Elvis and The Wizard of Oz, and meet a lot of bizarre characters, including a seedy ex-marine (Willem Dafoe) who persuades Sailor to participate in a bank robbery. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 16
Number of Lists: 29
Number of blog posts: 5
Number of discussion threads: 1
SpoutRating: 3
]]>Fri, 27 Mar 2009 21:00:55 GMTWild at Heart1990David Lynch<a href="/players/P____10155/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Nicolas Cage</a> and <a href="/players/P____18704/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Laura Dern</a> play a pair of lovers on the run in <a href="/players/P___100454/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>David Lynch</a>'s surrealist road movie Wild at Heart. Cage's Sailor Ripley is a violent ex-convict with an <a href="/players/P___107032/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Elvis Presley</a> fixation who falls in love with Dern's Lula Pace Fortune, the daughter of a rich, but mentally unstable, Southern belle named Marietta (<a href="/players/P____39955/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Diane Ladd</a>, Dern's real-life mother). Just after Sailor is released from prison, where he was jailed for brutally killing one of Marietta's thugs, he and Lula take off on a wild cross-country trip, pursued by his parole officer, her mother, criminals, bounty hunters, and detectives. Along the way, Sailor and Lula have a lot of sex, share their pasts, share their respective obsessions for Elvis and <a href=/films/38694/default.aspx style='text-decoration:underline'>The Wizard of Oz</a>, and meet a lot of bizarre characters, including a seedy ex-marine (<a href="/players/P____16547/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Willem Dafoe</a>) who persuades Sailor to participate in a bank robbery. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide16Tag Target (>10)29513http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t50829sgqp1.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/Wild_at_Heart/38386/default.aspxFilm http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2009/3/27/41301.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 3/27/2009 5:00:55 PM
Body: This has been quite the week for me to wish Nicolas Cage still made good movies. Besides crying over the fact that his latest sci-fi action thriller involving disaster prophesy was #1 at the box office despite being panned by critics, some of my unrelated experiences over the past seven days have coincidentally included the following: watching Wild at Heart for the first time; learning from locals that Moonstruck was partly shot in my neighborhood; discussing, at a party, not only the merits of The Rock, but also its qualifications for inclusion in the Criterion catalog. I’m now thinking I should stay home tonight and watch a marathon of Raising Arizona, Face/Off and Adaptation. Or, maybe I can just lay back and think about how Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is going to be Cage’s return to quality. I know, I know, those of you who didn’t stop reading at my profession of love for The Rock are now wondering if I’m crazy. “Certainly this movie is going to be terrible,” you’re saying to yourself (as you plan your derisive comment). And besides, Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant “remake” shall be his next good film. Well, maybe, but after seeing the new production photos from Apprentice circulating the net (originating at JustJared), I’m prophesizing that the Fantasia-inspired film will be the Moonstruck to Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans‘ Raising Arizona, or the Face/Off to Lieutenant’s Con Air, or the Adaptation to Lieutenant’s Windtalkers. Perhaps I am soiling my reputation by confessing my overextending appreciation of Cage’s career, but you have to respect a guy who allows himself to look and be so ridiculous for his art. The rest of the film blogosphere’s responses to the photos after the jump: As usual, Dan Hopper at Best Week Ever has the best jokes: “…on the set of his new movie Something Surely Worth Seing Dangerous. He’s about to change out of his normal clothes and hairpiece and into his costume (zuhhhh-zinggg!!!).” Pajiba headlines that this could be Cage’s “Most Hilarious Role Ever.” Let’s hope so. Mark at I Watch Stuff compares the look to WWE wrestler The Undertaker and Sega video game character Chakan: The Forever Man. Cinematical’s Elizabeth Rappe sees Cage instead as “apparently ripping his look off Hugh Jackman’s Gabriel Van Helsing” in the site’s “LOL of the Day” post. “The only thing that has me curious about this movie,” she adds, “is how Baruchel ends up as his apprentice. Because if I was approached by a ‘magician’ who looked like that, I’d run screaming the other way.” Rob Bricken at Topless Robot agrees with Rappe’s comparison but seems a tad more hopeful of the film: I admit, despite my utter hatred and fear of Jerry Bruckheimer movies, I did really enjoy the first Pirates of the Carribbean movie. And I love Fantasia, so I’ll — very regretfully — be giving this a shot. But the fact that Cage is dressed exactly like Hugh Jackman in Van Helsing means I probably won’t be watching sober. Jeremy at We Are Movie Geeks also agrees: “Looks like Cage is trying out for ‘Van Helsing 2.’” Mike Sampson at JoBlo.com sees Cage more as a “geriatric Criss Angel” and tells us how to respect this film: if I hear any “raping my childhood” crap, I’m gonna reach through the computer screen and smack you across the head. This movie has nothing to do with the Mickey Mouse cartoon. The story is a German poem written by Goethe. Get that in your head now and you’ll be OK. Somehow Josh Radde at Film School Rejects thinks Cage “appears to be doing his best Kris Kristofferson,” before once again concentrating on the actor’s hair: Add this hairdo to the pretty amazing collection of Cage ‘Dos so far. In fact, Rotten Tomatoes created a game linking a pic of his hair to the movie it appears in and it’ll surprise you how many twisted coifs this man has sported over the years. The typically optimistic Alex Billington of FirstShowing.net argues on Cage’s behalf: I would say, don’t be so quick to judge these and Cage’s new hairdo and leather outfit, but I’m sure you’ve already made up your mind. I don’t know if these will help Cage any more, or potentially ruin him entirely again, but honestly, I’m still looking forward to The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. And Sean at FilmDrunk also defends the powers of Cage, at least as box office gold: “In all seriousness though, you can make fun of Nicolas Cage all you want, but if the past has taught us anything it is that America loves his movies. National Treasure + Harry Potter = $$$.” In additional Nic Cage-is-nuts bloggery from today: Graeme McMillan at io9 shares the actor’s recent statements regarding his preference for science fiction, abandonment of gratuitous violence and overall desire to go more “into the abstract”: Does this mean that Cage sees science fiction as a gateway drug to take audiences into indulgently abstract movies? I hope so, if only because I’d love to see just how abstract the man behind Ghost Rider, Bangkok Dangerous and Adaptation can get when he puts his mind to it. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Fri, 27 Mar 2009 21:00:55 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com3/27/2009 5:00:55 PMThis has been quite the week for me to wish Nicolas Cage still made good movies. Besides crying over the fact that his latest sci-fi action thriller involving disaster prophesy was #1 at the box office despite being panned by critics, some of my unrelated experiences over the past seven days have coincidentally included the following: watching Wild at Heart for the first time; learning from locals that Moonstruck was partly shot in my neighborhood; discussing, at a party, not only the merits of The Rock, but also its qualifications for inclusion in the Criterion catalog. I’m now thinking I should stay home tonight and watch a marathon of Raising Arizona, Face/Off and Adaptation. Or, maybe I can just lay back and think about how Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is going to be Cage’s return to quality. I know, I know, those of you who didn’t stop reading at my profession of love for The Rock are now wondering if I’m crazy. “Certainly this movie is going to be terrible,” you’re saying to yourself (as you plan your derisive comment). And besides, Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant “remake” shall be his next good film. Well, maybe, but after seeing the new production photos from Apprentice circulating the net (originating at JustJared), I’m prophesizing that the Fantasia-inspired film will be the Moonstruck to Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans‘ Raising Arizona, or the Face/Off to Lieutenant’s Con Air, or the Adaptation to Lieutenant’s Windtalkers. Perhaps I am soiling my reputation by confessing my overextending appreciation of Cage’s career, but you have to respect a guy who allows himself to look and be so ridiculous for his art. The rest of the film blogosphere’s responses to the photos after the jump: As usual, Dan Hopper at Best Week Ever has the best jokes: “…on the set of his new movie Something Surely Worth Seing Dangerous. He’s about to change out of his normal clothes and hairpiece and into his costume (zuhhhh-zinggg!!!).” Pajiba headlines that this could be Cage’s “Most Hilarious Role Ever.” Let’s hope so. Mark at I Watch Stuff compares the look to WWE wrestler The Undertaker and Sega video game character Chakan: The Forever Man. Cinematical’s Elizabeth Rappe sees Cage instead as “apparently ripping his look off Hugh Jackman’s Gabriel Van Helsing” in the site’s “LOL of the Day” post. “The only thing that has me curious about this movie,” she adds, “is how Baruchel ends up as his apprentice. Because if I was approached by a ‘magician’ who looked like that, I’d run screaming the other way.” Rob Bricken at Topless Robot agrees with Rappe’s comparison but seems a tad more hopeful of the film: I admit, despite my utter hatred and fear of Jerry Bruckheimer movies, I did really enjoy the first Pirates of the Carribbean movie. And I love Fantasia, so I’ll — very regretfully — be giving this a shot. But the fact that Cage is dressed exactly like Hugh Jackman in Van Helsing means I probably won’t be watching sober. Jeremy at We Are Movie Geeks also agrees: “Looks like Cage is trying out for ‘Van Helsing 2.’” Mike Sampson at JoBlo.com sees Cage more as a “geriatric Criss Angel” and tells us how to respect this film: if I hear any “raping my childhood” crap, I’m gonna reach through the computer screen and smack you across the head. This movie has nothing to do with the Mickey Mouse cartoon. The story is a German poem written by Goethe. Get that in your head now and you’ll be OK. Somehow Josh Radde at Film School Rejects thinks Cage “appears to be doing his best Kris Kristofferson,” before once again concentrating on the actor’s hair: Add this hairdo to the pretty amazing collection of Cage ‘Dos so far. In fact, Rotten Tomatoes created a game linking a pic of his hair to the movie it appears in and it’ll surprise you how many twisted coifs this man has sported over the years. The typically optimistic Alex Billington of FirstShowing.net argues on Cage’s behalf: I would say, don’t be so quick to judge these and Cage’s new hairdo and leather outfit, but I’m sure you’ve already made up your mind. I don’t know if these will help Cage any more, or potentially ruin him entirely again, but honestly, I’m still looking forward to The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. And Sean at FilmDrunk also defends the powers of Cage, at least as box office gold: “In all seriousness though, you can make fun of Nicolas Cage all you want, but if the past has taught us anything it is that America loves his movies. National Treasure + Harry Potter = $$$.” In additional Nic Cage-is-nuts bloggery from today: Graeme McMillan at io9 shares the actor’s recent statements regarding his preference for science fiction, abandonment of gratuitous violence and overall desire to go more “into the abstract”: Does this mean that Cage sees science fiction as a gateway drug to take audiences into indulgently abstract movies? I hope so, if only because I’d love to see just how abstract the man behind Ghost Rider, Bangkok Dangerous and Adaptation can get when he puts his mind to it. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/11/20/37498.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 11/20/2008 3:01:46 PM
Body: The soundtrack to Twilight is currently the number one album in the U.S., and a band called Paramore is experiencing great success by association. They have two songs featured on the soundtrack, one of which, “Decode,” has been released as the album’s lead single. Though Paramore have been around for some time and were even nominated for a Grammy earlier this year, they have never charted quite as well on the Billboard Hot 100 as they currently are through this Twilight connection. And chances are they’ll never have quite as big a hit again. Countless other artists have had their biggest break with a song prominently featured on or released through a movie soundtrack, and many of these artists disappeared into obscurity afterwards. Or, at best, they maintained a modest career, never achieving the kind of chart-topping high they once received courtesy of a hit film. SpoutBlog has compiled a list of ten such “one-hit wonders,” though we made some rules and exceptions in order to both narrow things down (no themes or plot songs) and include a few significant tracks that aren’t technically the only hits from their respective performers. Basically, we’re presenting ten artists who would be a lot less famous had they not licensed a single to a soundtrack and who shall forever be best known for that one song from that one movie. Song: “Lookin’ for Love” Artist: Johnny Lee Movie: Urban Cowboy (1980) Soundtracks have a way of making crossover hits for artists who otherwise have decent careers in specific genres. Johnny Lee is hardly a one-hit wonder when it comes to the country music charts, but it was only thanks to the popular film Urban Cowboy that he reached #5 on the Billboard Top 100. And it was likely only thanks to that achievement that Eddie Murphy would later pay homage with his Buckwheat version, “Wookin’ Pa Nub” Song: “Iko Iko” Artist: The Belle Stars Movie: Rain Man (1988) Fans of 2-Tone ska may have already been hip to this reformation of members from The Bodysnatchers, but most of the world paid them notice only once, when their 1982 version of an old New Orleans folk song called “Jock-a-Mo” accompanied Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman (who was a fan of the tune) on the big screen. Finally, in 1989, the band and the song reached #14 on the Top 100. Unfortunately, The Belle Stars had already been broken up for nearly four years when it happened. Song: “King of Wishful Thinking” Artist: Go West Movie: Pretty Woman (1990) Not only did this blockbuster romantic comedy make a revival hit out of the Roy Orbison classic that lent its name to the film’s title, it also made a huge success out of the English pop duo known as Go West. Technically they aren’t a one-hit wonder, though, because they’d already been in the Top 40 three years earlier and they’d chart fairly high again two years later. However, when you’re best remembered for a Top 10 single from a film as big as Pretty Woman, every other achievement (even a menial #14) looks like a failure in comparison. Song: “Wicked Game” Artist: Chris Isaak Movie: Wild at Heart (1990) Initially released in 1989 as a single off Isaak’s third album, Heart Shaped World, this song didn’t become a hit until it was featured on the soundtrack to Wild at Heart. Apparently, the success is all thanks to one David Lynch fan at a radio station in Atlanta, who started a trend that eventually got the song to reach #6 on the Hot 100. Isaak hasn’t exactly disappeared since, and he’s even found additional fame acting in movies, but he’s never hit as big musically as he did with this twangy, Orbison-esque number. Song: “It’s Gonna Be a Lovely Day” Artist: The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M. Movie: The Bodyguard (1992) It’s still one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time, primarily thanks to Whitney Houston and her cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” But this rap version of Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day” was another hit single from the film, and it made a definite one-hit wonder out of the annoying-to-type group The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M. In their defense, though, this was merely a side project of members of C&C Music Factory, who continued to be successful throughout the early ‘90s. [Aside: did anyone else think this song was actually performed by P.M. Dawn?] Song: “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” Artist: The Proclaimers Movie: Benny & Joon (1993) This song was five years old when it was featured in the movie Benny & Joon, having been originally released on The Proclaimers’ 1988 album Sunshine on Leith. It had even previously been a big deal in the UK. Yet it took a movie starring Johnny Depp as a loony fan of Chaplin and Keaton to rocket the song through the roof in the U.S. Benny & Joon didn’t even do very well at the box office, and its soundtrack, which included only the one non-score track, didn’t have much appeal on its own, either. But somehow thanks to the movie, The Proclaimers will continually be most celebrated and mocked for this tune. Song: “New Age Girl” Artist: Deadeye Dick Movie: Dumb and Dumber (1994) Is it better to have charted and broken up than to never have charted at all? That might be a question for this Vonnegut-inspired band, which only broke out after this tune, originally off their debut album, was included on the Dumb & Dumber soundtrack. A year later, when their follow-up album produced no similar high, Deadye Dick disbanded. Yet the group’s singer and lead guitarist, Caleb Guillotte has found other film-related success working in the art department for such recent films as Déjà vu and Bug. Song: “Stay (I Missed You)” Artist: Lisa Loeb (& Nine Stories) Movie: Reality Bites (1994) The story of Loeb’s big break is possibly better remembered than the plot to the movie that made her a star. She lived across the street from Ethan Hawke, who became a fan. He slipped a tape of this song to Ben Stiller, who directed Reality Bites and was permitted to choose its music. When the film’s aggressively marketed soundtrack became a success, also making a one-hit wonder out of reggae group Big Mountain and a revival hit out of The Knack’s “My Sharona,” Loeb became the first artist to have a number one single before being signed to a major label. Since then, she’s had some significant chart placement, but she’ll always be best remembered as that girl with the cat-eye glasses who was the epitome of the cliché about showbiz success being all about who you know. And she’ll also be remembered for failing to ever prove herself deserving of that advantageous shot. Len - New Music - More Music Videos Song: “Steal My Sunshine” Artist: Len Movie: Go (1999) Thanks to Len’s inclusion on the soundtrack to Go, this song was a surprise hit in the Spring of 1999, prompting the band’s label to push up the release of their third album, You Can’t Stop the Bum Rush, by a few weeks. In November of that year, the single peaked at #9 on the Top 100, and the band has never had similar success since. Song: “Because I Got High” Artist: Afroman Movie: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) It’s not uncommon for a silly novelty song to be the sole success of an artist. So, it’s not surprising that Afroman hasn’t achieved much notice since 2001, when this goofy song reached #13 on the Hot 100. He’s been around since, sure, and he’s probably got some kind of cult fame within the stoner community, but it would take another music video shot by Kevin Smith to garner him the same level of mainstream attention he got seven years ago. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:01:46 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com11/20/2008 3:01:46 PMThe soundtrack to Twilight is currently the number one album in the U.S., and a band called Paramore is experiencing great success by association. They have two songs featured on the soundtrack, one of which, “Decode,” has been released as the album’s lead single. Though Paramore have been around for some time and were even nominated for a Grammy earlier this year, they have never charted quite as well on the Billboard Hot 100 as they currently are through this Twilight connection. And chances are they’ll never have quite as big a hit again. Countless other artists have had their biggest break with a song prominently featured on or released through a movie soundtrack, and many of these artists disappeared into obscurity afterwards. Or, at best, they maintained a modest career, never achieving the kind of chart-topping high they once received courtesy of a hit film. SpoutBlog has compiled a list of ten such “one-hit wonders,” though we made some rules and exceptions in order to both narrow things down (no themes or plot songs) and include a few significant tracks that aren’t technically the only hits from their respective performers. Basically, we’re presenting ten artists who would be a lot less famous had they not licensed a single to a soundtrack and who shall forever be best known for that one song from that one movie. Song: “Lookin’ for Love” Artist: Johnny Lee Movie: Urban Cowboy (1980) Soundtracks have a way of making crossover hits for artists who otherwise have decent careers in specific genres. Johnny Lee is hardly a one-hit wonder when it comes to the country music charts, but it was only thanks to the popular film Urban Cowboy that he reached #5 on the Billboard Top 100. And it was likely only thanks to that achievement that Eddie Murphy would later pay homage with his Buckwheat version, “Wookin’ Pa Nub” Song: “Iko Iko” Artist: The Belle Stars Movie: Rain Man (1988) Fans of 2-Tone ska may have already been hip to this reformation of members from The Bodysnatchers, but most of the world paid them notice only once, when their 1982 version of an old New Orleans folk song called “Jock-a-Mo” accompanied Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman (who was a fan of the tune) on the big screen. Finally, in 1989, the band and the song reached #14 on the Top 100. Unfortunately, The Belle Stars had already been broken up for nearly four years when it happened. Song: “King of Wishful Thinking” Artist: Go West Movie: Pretty Woman (1990) Not only did this blockbuster romantic comedy make a revival hit out of the Roy Orbison classic that lent its name to the film’s title, it also made a huge success out of the English pop duo known as Go West. Technically they aren’t a one-hit wonder, though, because they’d already been in the Top 40 three years earlier and they’d chart fairly high again two years later. However, when you’re best remembered for a Top 10 single from a film as big as Pretty Woman, every other achievement (even a menial #14) looks like a failure in comparison. Song: “Wicked Game” Artist: Chris Isaak Movie: Wild at Heart (1990) Initially released in 1989 as a single off Isaak’s third album, Heart Shaped World, this song didn’t become a hit until it was featured on the soundtrack to Wild at Heart. Apparently, the success is all thanks to one David Lynch fan at a radio station in Atlanta, who started a trend that eventually got the song to reach #6 on the Hot 100. Isaak hasn’t exactly disappeared since, and he’s even found additional fame acting in movies, but he’s never hit as big musically as he did with this twangy, Orbison-esque number. Song: “It’s Gonna Be a Lovely Day” Artist: The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M. Movie: The Bodyguard (1992) It’s still one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time, primarily thanks to Whitney Houston and her cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” But this rap version of Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day” was another hit single from the film, and it made a definite one-hit wonder out of the annoying-to-type group The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M. In their defense, though, this was merely a side project of members of C&C Music Factory, who continued to be successful throughout the early ‘90s. [Aside: did anyone else think this song was actually performed by P.M. Dawn?] Song: “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” Artist: The Proclaimers Movie: Benny & Joon (1993) This song was five years old when it was featured in the movie Benny & Joon, having been originally released on The Proclaimers’ 1988 album Sunshine on Leith. It had even previously been a big deal in the UK. Yet it took a movie starring Johnny Depp as a loony fan of Chaplin and Keaton to rocket the song through the roof in the U.S. Benny & Joon didn’t even do very well at the box office, and its soundtrack, which included only the one non-score track, didn’t have much appeal on its own, either. But somehow thanks to the movie, The Proclaimers will continually be most celebrated and mocked for this tune. Song: “New Age Girl” Artist: Deadeye Dick Movie: Dumb and Dumber (1994) Is it better to have charted and broken up than to never have charted at all? That might be a question for this Vonnegut-inspired band, which only broke out after this tune, originally off their debut album, was included on the Dumb & Dumber soundtrack. A year later, when their follow-up album produced no similar high, Deadye Dick disbanded. Yet the group’s singer and lead guitarist, Caleb Guillotte has found other film-related success working in the art department for such recent films as Déjà vu and Bug. Song: “Stay (I Missed You)” Artist: Lisa Loeb (& Nine Stories) Movie: Reality Bites (1994) The story of Loeb’s big break is possibly better remembered than the plot to the movie that made her a star. She lived across the street from Ethan Hawke, who became a fan. He slipped a tape of this song to Ben Stiller, who directed Reality Bites and was permitted to choose its music. When the film’s aggressively marketed soundtrack became a success, also making a one-hit wonder out of reggae group Big Mountain and a revival hit out of The Knack’s “My Sharona,” Loeb became the first artist to have a number one single before being signed to a major label. Since then, she’s had some significant chart placement, but she’ll always be best remembered as that girl with the cat-eye glasses who was the epitome of the cliché about showbiz success being all about who you know. And she’ll also be remembered for failing to ever prove herself deserving of that advantageous shot. Len - New Music - More Music Videos Song: “Steal My Sunshine” Artist: Len Movie: Go (1999) Thanks to Len’s inclusion on the soundtrack to Go, this song was a surprise hit in the Spring of 1999, prompting the band’s label to push up the release of their third album, You Can’t Stop the Bum Rush, by a few weeks. In November of that year, the single peaked at #9 on the Top 100, and the band has never had similar success since. Song: “Because I Got High” Artist: Afroman Movie: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) It’s not uncommon for a silly novelty song to be the sole success of an artist. So, it’s not surprising that Afroman hasn’t achieved much notice since 2001, when this goofy song reached #13 on the Hot 100. He’s been around since, sure, and he’s probably got some kind of cult fame within the stoner community, but it would take another music video shot by Kevin Smith to garner him the same level of mainstream attention he got seven years ago. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/groups/Weekly_Theme/Re_Weekly_Theme_for_July_21_Road_Trip/625/32848/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: theunemployedshortstop
Post To: Weekly Theme
Post Date: 7/21/2008 2:46:06 PM
Body: Kiss or Kill - An often forgotten favorite of mine. The real stand outs for me are the spastic editing and the absence of score. A unique and fun flick. Wild at Heart - David Lynch's original "Natural Born Killers." Just when you thought things were weird in New Orleans... they get to Texas. "They're gonna make a pornographic movie... Texas style." Yeesh.
]]>Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:46:06 GMTtheunemployedshortstopWeekly Theme7/21/2008 2:46:06 PMKiss or Kill - An often forgotten favorite of mine. The real stand outs for me are the spastic editing and the absence of score. A unique and fun flick. Wild at Heart - David Lynch's original "Natural Born Killers." Just when you thought things were weird in New Orleans... they get to Texas. "They're gonna make a pornographic movie... Texas style." Yeesh. http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/7/2/32015.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 7/2/2008 11:02:12 AM
Body: How often do you get Barbet Schroeder, Gerard Depardieu and Nestor Almendros together to shoot a film about a burglar who ends up falling in love with the dominatrix whose dungeon he’s unwittingly tried to rob? In a scene at the very beginning of Schroeder’s exquisitely paced, beautifully executed Maitresse the tone is brilliantly set for the relationship – and thus the film itself – through Almendros’ meticulously composed images. His camera captures Depardieu’s fair Olivier and his dark-haired partner-in-crime (whose bad idea it was to burglarize the “downstairs apartment”) in a hornet’s nest of their own making, caught in the act by Bulle Ogier’s “Maitresse” Ariane, and subsequently handcuffed to her radiator and guarded by a vicious Doberman named Texas. But wait––if this doesn’t sound like a setup straight from the twisted mind of David Lynch I don’t know what does. Indeed, what’s most striking about the erotically charged scene that follows is how closely the psychological power dynamics of Schroeder’s Maitresse parallel the infamous “Bobby Peru seduces Lula” scene from Wild at Heart. In both cases no actual sex takes place. Instead there’s a steamy sadist/predator (Bobby Peru, Ariane) sinking his/her teeth into a piece of lost prey (Lula, Olivier). Both Lula and Olivier are turned on against their will, psychologically “raped,” so stunned at losing control that they’re not even fully aware of the situation they’re in, let alone how to escape it. The difference lies in the relationship between the characters. Lula is rendered helpless until Bobby releases her when he’s “gotta get going.” She’s just a toy for Bobby to kill time with in the afternoon, whereas Ariane plays for keeps – a spider whose web encompasses. Ariane takes over her “victims” wholly, completely and unapologetically. And like Bobby knowing enough to drop in on Lula unannounced – ensuring her defenses will be down – Ariane takes advantage of the element of surprise (burglars dropping in unannounced – how convenient!), wielding it like a stun gun before the attack. For this very element of surprise that has caused Oliver and his criminal buddy’s undoing is what Ariane will use to take ownership of Olivier heart and mind. The petty thieves weren’t expecting the apartment to contain whips and chains and they most certainly weren’t anticipating a petite blonde pixie to wield a pair of cuffs like a beat cop. Ariane knows this – and uses it against Olivier who she immediately fancies, desires to control. (She reads him like Bobby can read Lula, recognizes his type from a mile away.) Unceremoniously she escorts a shaggy-haired client into the next room, soon returning to deftly release Olivier – from the radiator, his partner and soon-to-be-former life. She needs to borrow him for three minutes – at two hundred francs, she adds, like a madam to one of her working girls. There is no negotiating with the mistress – this is simply what he’ll do. Though Olivier radiates rough trade, thuggish in his black jacket and tight rugged jeans he’s so astonished as to be swept away, every bit as mind-fucked as Lula, reduced to an obedient schoolboy by Ariane’s unyielding command. As if to emphasize this point Schroeder’s camera cuts to the heel of the mistress’ thigh-high boot pumping in and out of her makeup-wearing slave’s mouth like a stiletto dildo, a shot that runs in unbearable silence for a squeamishly long time. Ariane then uses her riding crop and the leash of the slave’s collar to keep him in line as she orders him onto his knees, a trannie slut wearing his own corset and form-fitting leather skirt. The frame is wide enough to encompass Olivier standing still off to the side, watching and waiting as if he’s stumbled into an otherworldly dream, the mistress and slave at her throne reflected in a mirror, performing for both the novice voyeur and us as much as for their own pleasure Like Bobby, who has trapped Lula before ever laying a finger on her, Ariane has put an invisible collar around Olivier who immediately sleepwalks over when called. He stands directly in front of her as she rides her slave like a horse, controlling the submissive below and the one towering above with equal ease, an S&M ménage a trois. (Unlike Bobby she’s a professional; she can handle more than one sub at a time.) Without hesitation Ariane unzips Olivier’s jeans, stares him straight in the eye as she tells him to piss on the slut’s face, daring him to disobey (her own “Say it, say fuck me” moment) then, just to keep him off balance, abruptly forces his lips to hers for a deep kiss. Once again the element of surprise heightens the senses, turning the extraordinary into the erotic, Olivier’s head and cock – and bodily fluids! – at her mercy. Once Olivier, as shaken as Lula even if he doesn’t burst into tears, returns to his unaware partner, the client sticks a wad of bills in his jeans pocket on his way out the door, putting an exclamation point on the fact that he’s become the mistress’ bitch as well. (Even Bobby Peru didn’t sink that low!) When Ariane returns to flaunt more pay in his face Olivier unconvincingly hesitates before taking it. (She never doubts that he will – for he’s a hustler just like she.) Still on automatic pilot Olivier sheepishly grabs the bills, only to use them to pay off his friend so he can get rid of him, take Ariane to dinner in an effort to turn the power dynamic right side up, to regain control. Ariane acquiesces like a cat toying with a mouse. Once at the restaurant she wonders if his partner will tell, to which Olivier replies that he didn’t know what was going on. “What about you?” she asks rhetorically, knowing he hasn’t got a clue. Naïvely, Olivier inquires if she’d been afraid to go to dinner with him to which she purrs, “I’m not the cautious type,” basking in the accomplishment of turning him both on and out like a whore, her own personal beau de jour. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:02:12 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com7/2/2008 11:02:12 AM How often do you get Barbet Schroeder, Gerard Depardieu and Nestor Almendros together to shoot a film about a burglar who ends up falling in love with the dominatrix whose dungeon he’s unwittingly tried to rob? In a scene at the very beginning of Schroeder’s exquisitely paced, beautifully executed Maitresse the tone is brilliantly set for the relationship – and thus the film itself – through Almendros’ meticulously composed images. His camera captures Depardieu’s fair Olivier and his dark-haired partner-in-crime (whose bad idea it was to burglarize the “downstairs apartment”) in a hornet’s nest of their own making, caught in the act by Bulle Ogier’s “Maitresse” Ariane, and subsequently handcuffed to her radiator and guarded by a vicious Doberman named Texas. But wait––if this doesn’t sound like a setup straight from the twisted mind of David Lynch I don’t know what does. Indeed, what’s most striking about the erotically charged scene that follows is how closely the psychological power dynamics of Schroeder’s Maitresse parallel the infamous “Bobby Peru seduces Lula” scene from Wild at Heart. In both cases no actual sex takes place. Instead there’s a steamy sadist/predator (Bobby Peru, Ariane) sinking his/her teeth into a piece of lost prey (Lula, Olivier). Both Lula and Olivier are turned on against their will, psychologically “raped,” so stunned at losing control that they’re not even fully aware of the situation they’re in, let alone how to escape it. The difference lies in the relationship between the characters. Lula is rendered helpless until Bobby releases her when he’s “gotta get going.” She’s just a toy for Bobby to kill time with in the afternoon, whereas Ariane plays for keeps – a spider whose web encompasses. Ariane takes over her “victims” wholly, completely and unapologetically. And like Bobby knowing enough to drop in on Lula unannounced – ensuring her defenses will be down – Ariane takes advantage of the element of surprise (burglars dropping in unannounced – how convenient!), wielding it like a stun gun before the attack. For this very element of surprise that has caused Oliver and his criminal buddy’s undoing is what Ariane will use to take ownership of Olivier heart and mind. The petty thieves weren’t expecting the apartment to contain whips and chains and they most certainly weren’t anticipating a petite blonde pixie to wield a pair of cuffs like a beat cop. Ariane knows this – and uses it against Olivier who she immediately fancies, desires to control. (She reads him like Bobby can read Lula, recognizes his type from a mile away.) Unceremoniously she escorts a shaggy-haired client into the next room, soon returning to deftly release Olivier – from the radiator, his partner and soon-to-be-former life. She needs to borrow him for three minutes – at two hundred francs, she adds, like a madam to one of her working girls. There is no negotiating with the mistress – this is simply what he’ll do. Though Olivier radiates rough trade, thuggish in his black jacket and tight rugged jeans he’s so astonished as to be swept away, every bit as mind-fucked as Lula, reduced to an obedient schoolboy by Ariane’s unyielding command. As if to emphasize this point Schroeder’s camera cuts to the heel of the mistress’ thigh-high boot pumping in and out of her makeup-wearing slave’s mouth like a stiletto dildo, a shot that runs in unbearable silence for a squeamishly long time. Ariane then uses her riding crop and the leash of the slave’s collar to keep him in line as she orders him onto his knees, a trannie slut wearing his own corset and form-fitting leather skirt. The frame is wide enough to encompass Olivier standing still off to the side, watching and waiting as if he’s stumbled into an otherworldly dream, the mistress and slave at her throne reflected in a mirror, performing for both the novice voyeur and us as much as for their own pleasure Like Bobby, who has trapped Lula before ever laying a finger on her, Ariane has put an invisible collar around Olivier who immediately sleepwalks over when called. He stands directly in front of her as she rides her slave like a horse, controlling the submissive below and the one towering above with equal ease, an S&M ménage a trois. (Unlike Bobby she’s a professional; she can handle more than one sub at a time.) Without hesitation Ariane unzips Olivier’s jeans, stares him straight in the eye as she tells him to piss on the slut’s face, daring him to disobey (her own “Say it, say fuck me” moment) then, just to keep him off balance, abruptly forces his lips to hers for a deep kiss. Once again the element of surprise heightens the senses, turning the extraordinary into the erotic, Olivier’s head and cock – and bodily fluids! – at her mercy. Once Olivier, as shaken as Lula even if he doesn’t burst into tears, returns to his unaware partner, the client sticks a wad of bills in his jeans pocket on his way out the door, putting an exclamation point on the fact that he’s become the mistress’ bitch as well. (Even Bobby Peru didn’t sink that low!) When Ariane returns to flaunt more pay in his face Olivier unconvincingly hesitates before taking it. (She never doubts that he will – for he’s a hustler just like she.) Still on automatic pilot Olivier sheepishly grabs the bills, only to use them to pay off his friend so he can get rid of him, take Ariane to dinner in an effort to turn the power dynamic right side up, to regain control. Ariane acquiesces like a cat toying with a mouse. Once at the restaurant she wonders if his partner will tell, to which Olivier replies that he didn’t know what was going on. “What about you?” she asks rhetorically, knowing he hasn’t got a clue. Naïvely, Olivier inquires if she’d been afraid to go to dinner with him to which she purrs, “I’m not the cautious type,” basking in the accomplishment of turning him both on and out like a whore, her own personal beau de jour. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/6/12/31157.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 6/12/2008 12:00:34 PM
Body: “No tongue – my lipstick,” Diane Ladd’s conniving Marietta Fortune admonishes at the beginning of Wild at Heart, flirting with Harry Dean Stanton’s Johnnie Farragut, while perfectly setting the tone for the tantalizing sexual games to follow. Lynch’s typically bizarre noir contains one of the steamiest foreplay scenes ever to grace the indie screen. Strangely, this kinky non-sex scene involves not Laura Dern’s Lula and Nicolas Cage’s Sailor Ripley (whose love scenes are saturated with such hyper-real color and artistic angles as to overshadow the screwing), but the childlike Lula and Willem Dafoe’s greasy, so-creepy-he’s-charismatic Bobby Peru (”Just like the country,” he drawls, introducing himself to Lula and Sailor outside the hotel they’re all staying at, sliding snakelike into Wild at Heart nearly an hour and twenty minutes fashionably late). Dressed in black, sporting a Clark Gable moustache, Bobby’s the ultimate contrast to Dern’s big blonde hairdo, red lipstick painted, 20-year-old piece of mentally damaged white trash. That the episode doesn’t culminate in predictable fornication only proves that the iconoclastic director truly understands how to harness the power of the erotic chase––that is, that it’s hotter than the catch. I first saw Wild at Heart on the big screen at a more innocent time in my life, when S&M conjured up only images of women wearing corsets and stilettos, bearing whips and canes. But seeing the above scene between Bobby and Lula hit a nerve in me, in fact several. It was the only time I can remember actually feeling embarrassed at the movies, voyeuristically observing this charged encounter onscreen. The characters were both fully dressed, no fucking was taking place – so why did I feel like I was witnessing the dirtiest hardcore porn? Probably because I was. Bobby and Lula engage in a power play game which renders Lula stripped psychologically naked. Instead of tearing off each other’s clothes they’re clawing at each other’s psyches. The sexual act pales in comparison. Cage’s Sailor is an Elvis wannabe (that the actor would later marry Lisa Marie Presley shows that sometimes truth is as strange as David Lynch’s fiction) and con on the run from the assorted hit men hired by femme fatale Marietta, Lula’s mama. He’s conveniently out changing the oil in the car when Bobby knocks on the door to the lovebirds’ hotel room, which is answered by Lula in black lingerie and red heels. Bobby explains he has to take a piss. When Lula orders him to leave he takes this as an invitation to toy with her. Bobby can spot Lula’s kind a mile away – the type that employs her sexuality as both weapon and shield, learned far too young how to wield it in a jujitsu move, to gain power over the men who use her for it. Since Sailor truly loves Lula he doesn’t know how to play the game, whereas Bobby is a pro just like she. Crude and obnoxious, Bobby is also as hyperaware as an animal, always on the alert for ways to get inside his opponents’ heads. (He figures out Lula’s pregnant by the smell of puke in the room – then uses that information to convince Sailor to come along on a robbery so he’ll be able to provide for his new family.) Like every sadist Bobby takes delight in his ability to control, hold power, over others. He knows that power is sexy, and he uses his own sexuality to control situations as much as Lula does. They are two sides of the same coin, both fighting to stay on top, the heat lying in the friction this creates. Bobby responds that he likes a woman with nice tits who talks tough “and looks like she can fuck like a bunny. Do you fuck like that, huh?” he whispers from the doorway all the way on the other side of the room. Of course, the question is rhetorical. He knows as well as we do that Lula is the one forever initiating sex with Sailor, her body draped languidly around him when Bobby first saw her. He glides in closer, bragging he can fuck like a jackrabbit, backing her ever nearer to the wall. “Am I scaring you?” Bobby inquires with a smile, looking downwards. “Is it wet?” Lynch’s camera cuts to a medium shot so we see Bobby’s hand reach for Lula’s crotch as he reprimands her for leaping back so slow. “I thought you was a bunny – bunny jump fast!” he taunts as Lula, arms crossed in protection, backs over to the sunlit window. She’s not as mentally nimble as Bobby, still trying to assess the situation to figure out her best move. Bobby is getting too close for comfort – psychologically and physically. In the sparsely furnished room with industrial carpeting, a drab bed and a small mirror over a chest of cheap drawers, Bobby offers that her pacing “means something,” that she wants him to fuck her hard. “Open you up like a Christmas present,” he laughs. Is that right? All he needs is a simple yes or no answer. When the petrified Lula finally recovers her voice and shoves Bobby away, he grabs her tightly by the head. “Say fuck me and I’ll leave,” he orders softly. She refuses so he screams, “I’ll tear your hair out, girl!” The over-the-top outburst seems less loss of control on Bobby’s part than it does effort to jumpstart Lula’s brain, to keep her both in the game and off balance so he can stay on top, for he promptly resumes the whispers, one hand still gripped in her blond curls. “Say it, say fuck me,” he purrs like a lover, Lynch’s camera in close-up to their lips, to Bobby’s USMC tattooed hand running leisurely down Lula’s revealing lace bra. He’s starting to break Lula down, like turning her own knife against her, force her to beg the way she’s made so many men into dogs. “Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me,” Bobby repeats like a mantra, each command eliciting heavy sighs from Lula that morph into the sounds of an oncoming orgasm. When Bobby’s fingers finally arrive between Lula’s thighs Lynch cuts to a close up of their faces in profile, agony turning to ecstasy and back again. Lula’s red-painted nails spread to grope the air behind her like a wrestling tap-out, an “I give.” Bobby knows he’s won, sends her flying backwards with one push. She wasn’t a formidable adversary after all. “Someday, honey, I will, but I gotta get going!” he announces gleefully. The game is officially over. Warning her not to cry (i.e., don’t be a bad loser) he simply turns and walks out the door to the light strumming of an acoustic guitar, leaving Lula to click her red heels three times before breaking into a fit of bewildered tears, a different sort of “release” but one nonetheless. While leaving us still bound up in our unquenched desire, or as Lula would say, as hot and bothered as “Georgia asphalt.” Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:00:34 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com6/12/2008 12:00:34 PM “No tongue – my lipstick,” Diane Ladd’s conniving Marietta Fortune admonishes at the beginning of Wild at Heart, flirting with Harry Dean Stanton’s Johnnie Farragut, while perfectly setting the tone for the tantalizing sexual games to follow. Lynch’s typically bizarre noir contains one of the steamiest foreplay scenes ever to grace the indie screen. Strangely, this kinky non-sex scene involves not Laura Dern’s Lula and Nicolas Cage’s Sailor Ripley (whose love scenes are saturated with such hyper-real color and artistic angles as to overshadow the screwing), but the childlike Lula and Willem Dafoe’s greasy, so-creepy-he’s-charismatic Bobby Peru (”Just like the country,” he drawls, introducing himself to Lula and Sailor outside the hotel they’re all staying at, sliding snakelike into Wild at Heart nearly an hour and twenty minutes fashionably late). Dressed in black, sporting a Clark Gable moustache, Bobby’s the ultimate contrast to Dern’s big blonde hairdo, red lipstick painted, 20-year-old piece of mentally damaged white trash. That the episode doesn’t culminate in predictable fornication only proves that the iconoclastic director truly understands how to harness the power of the erotic chase––that is, that it’s hotter than the catch. I first saw Wild at Heart on the big screen at a more innocent time in my life, when S&M conjured up only images of women wearing corsets and stilettos, bearing whips and canes. But seeing the above scene between Bobby and Lula hit a nerve in me, in fact several. It was the only time I can remember actually feeling embarrassed at the movies, voyeuristically observing this charged encounter onscreen. The characters were both fully dressed, no fucking was taking place – so why did I feel like I was witnessing the dirtiest hardcore porn? Probably because I was. Bobby and Lula engage in a power play game which renders Lula stripped psychologically naked. Instead of tearing off each other’s clothes they’re clawing at each other’s psyches. The sexual act pales in comparison. Cage’s Sailor is an Elvis wannabe (that the actor would later marry Lisa Marie Presley shows that sometimes truth is as strange as David Lynch’s fiction) and con on the run from the assorted hit men hired by femme fatale Marietta, Lula’s mama. He’s conveniently out changing the oil in the car when Bobby knocks on the door to the lovebirds’ hotel room, which is answered by Lula in black lingerie and red heels. Bobby explains he has to take a piss. When Lula orders him to leave he takes this as an invitation to toy with her. Bobby can spot Lula’s kind a mile away – the type that employs her sexuality as both weapon and shield, learned far too young how to wield it in a jujitsu move, to gain power over the men who use her for it. Since Sailor truly loves Lula he doesn’t know how to play the game, whereas Bobby is a pro just like she. Crude and obnoxious, Bobby is also as hyperaware as an animal, always on the alert for ways to get inside his opponents’ heads. (He figures out Lula’s pregnant by the smell of puke in the room – then uses that information to convince Sailor to come along on a robbery so he’ll be able to provide for his new family.) Like every sadist Bobby takes delight in his ability to control, hold power, over others. He knows that power is sexy, and he uses his own sexuality to control situations as much as Lula does. They are two sides of the same coin, both fighting to stay on top, the heat lying in the friction this creates. Bobby responds that he likes a woman with nice tits who talks tough “and looks like she can fuck like a bunny. Do you fuck like that, huh?” he whispers from the doorway all the way on the other side of the room. Of course, the question is rhetorical. He knows as well as we do that Lula is the one forever initiating sex with Sailor, her body draped languidly around him when Bobby first saw her. He glides in closer, bragging he can fuck like a jackrabbit, backing her ever nearer to the wall. “Am I scaring you?” Bobby inquires with a smile, looking downwards. “Is it wet?” Lynch’s camera cuts to a medium shot so we see Bobby’s hand reach for Lula’s crotch as he reprimands her for leaping back so slow. “I thought you was a bunny – bunny jump fast!” he taunts as Lula, arms crossed in protection, backs over to the sunlit window. She’s not as mentally nimble as Bobby, still trying to assess the situation to figure out her best move. Bobby is getting too close for comfort – psychologically and physically. In the sparsely furnished room with industrial carpeting, a drab bed and a small mirror over a chest of cheap drawers, Bobby offers that her pacing “means something,” that she wants him to fuck her hard. “Open you up like a Christmas present,” he laughs. Is that right? All he needs is a simple yes or no answer. When the petrified Lula finally recovers her voice and shoves Bobby away, he grabs her tightly by the head. “Say fuck me and I’ll leave,” he orders softly. She refuses so he screams, “I’ll tear your hair out, girl!” The over-the-top outburst seems less loss of control on Bobby’s part than it does effort to jumpstart Lula’s brain, to keep her both in the game and off balance so he can stay on top, for he promptly resumes the whispers, one hand still gripped in her blond curls. “Say it, say fuck me,” he purrs like a lover, Lynch’s camera in close-up to their lips, to Bobby’s USMC tattooed hand running leisurely down Lula’s revealing lace bra. He’s starting to break Lula down, like turning her own knife against her, force her to beg the way she’s made so many men into dogs. “Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me,” Bobby repeats like a mantra, each command eliciting heavy sighs from Lula that morph into the sounds of an oncoming orgasm. When Bobby’s fingers finally arrive between Lula’s thighs Lynch cuts to a close up of their faces in profile, agony turning to ecstasy and back again. Lula’s red-painted nails spread to grope the air behind her like a wrestling tap-out, an “I give.” Bobby knows he’s won, sends her flying backwards with one push. She wasn’t a formidable adversary after all. “Someday, honey, I will, but I gotta get going!” he announces gleefully. The game is officially over. Warning her not to cry (i.e., don’t be a bad loser) he simply turns and walks out the door to the light strumming of an acoustic guitar, leaving Lula to click her red heels three times before breaking into a fit of bewildered tears, a different sort of “release” but one nonetheless. While leaving us still bound up in our unquenched desire, or as Lula would say, as hot and bothered as “Georgia asphalt.” Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/blogs/cinemarian/archive/2008/5/12/28705.aspx Post By: CinemaRian
Post To: CinemaRian Blog
Post Date: 5/12/2008 9:41:16 PM
Body: Wild at Heart is that guy at the party that has a joke that is genuinely funny, hilarious, in fact, but then repeats that joke over and over to everyone, until you just with he would go home. This movie would excellent at 70 or 80 minuets, but there's just not enough material here to stretch it out to two hours. The movie is a comedy, which is surprising considering the fact that it's directed by David Lynch, who is not generally known as being a wocka wocka kind of guy. But it's very funny indeed, which is why it's a shame it runs out of petrol in the second half. It's based on a novel by Barry Gifford, which I have not read, but assume to be an earnest telling of the odyssey of two rouge outlaws through the American west. Actually, I should say one rouge outlaw- the woman hasn't done anything illegal, but is being pursued by agents from her mother (Diane Ladd), who doesn't want her hanging around her ruffian boyfriend. The lovers are Sailor (Nicolas Cage), who acts like he's Elvis, and Lula (Laura Dern), a waif-like damsel who attracts creepy guys who get beat up by Sailor. Anyway, Lynch takes standard material that we've seen in shitty road movies and Elvis vehicles (sorry about the pun) and mocks then taking their ridiculousness to the natural conclusion. My favorite scene in the film involves the two looking for a song one the radio and after finding a station playing "their song" jumping out of the car and yelling with ecstatic glee. Maybe you had to be there. Because this is a Lynch film we also get some really weird violence (much of it delivered by an unrecognizable Willem Dafoe), and plenty of violence, some of which (a flashback where a teenage Lula is raped by uncle) is played for real. There is an odd dichotomy in the film between the intentional artifice of the rest of the material and the real pain that Lula has to endure that is interesting but doesn't really go anywhere. There are also too many scenes with Ladd as Lula's mother that come off as repetitious and unnecessary. But the movie's biggest problem is a very slow stretch that starts around the 60 minute mark. The movie's humor has basically run its course by this point- the one joke is not funny anymore. But the movie slows way down and continues through some endless scenes. By the time the movie starts to pick up again (when Cage and Dafoe team up) I had been really, really bored for some time. Although it has its strong points, Wild at Heart is no Blue Velvet or The Elephant Man. It is an example of what editing can do for a movie- this would be a nutritious film if the fat could be trimmed. Wild at Heart (1990)
]]>Tue, 13 May 2008 01:41:16 GMTCinemaRianCinemaRian Blog5/12/2008 9:41:16 PMWild at Heart is that guy at the party that has a joke that is genuinely funny, hilarious, in fact, but then repeats that joke over and over to everyone, until you just with he would go home. This movie would excellent at 70 or 80 minuets, but there's just not enough material here to stretch it out to two hours. The movie is a comedy, which is surprising considering the fact that it's directed by David Lynch, who is not generally known as being a wocka wocka kind of guy. But it's very funny indeed, which is why it's a shame it runs out of petrol in the second half. It's based on a novel by Barry Gifford, which I have not read, but assume to be an earnest telling of the odyssey of two rouge outlaws through the American west. Actually, I should say one rouge outlaw- the woman hasn't done anything illegal, but is being pursued by agents from her mother (Diane Ladd), who doesn't want her hanging around her ruffian boyfriend. The lovers are Sailor (Nicolas Cage), who acts like he's Elvis, and Lula (Laura Dern), a waif-like damsel who attracts creepy guys who get beat up by Sailor. Anyway, Lynch takes standard material that we've seen in shitty road movies and Elvis vehicles (sorry about the pun) and mocks then taking their ridiculousness to the natural conclusion. My favorite scene in the film involves the two looking for a song one the radio and after finding a station playing "their song" jumping out of the car and yelling with ecstatic glee. Maybe you had to be there. Because this is a Lynch film we also get some really weird violence (much of it delivered by an unrecognizable Willem Dafoe), and plenty of violence, some of which (a flashback where a teenage Lula is raped by uncle) is played for real. There is an odd dichotomy in the film between the intentional artifice of the rest of the material and the real pain that Lula has to endure that is interesting but doesn't really go anywhere. There are also too many scenes with Ladd as Lula's mother that come off as repetitious and unnecessary. But the movie's biggest problem is a very slow stretch that starts around the 60 minute mark. The movie's humor has basically run its course by this point- the one joke is not funny anymore. But the movie slows way down and continues through some endless scenes. By the time the movie starts to pick up again (when Cage and Dafoe team up) I had been really, really bored for some time. Although it has its strong points, Wild at Heart is no Blue Velvet or The Elephant Man. It is an example of what editing can do for a movie- this would be a nutritious film if the fat could be trimmed. Wild at Heart (1990) http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/sex/MemberTagFilms.aspxsex
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]]>Sat, 12 Dec 2009 13:56:52 GMT3431420Tag http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/ontheroad/MemberTagFilms.aspxontheroad
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]]>Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:02:03 GMT3691015Tag http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/cage/MemberTagFilms.aspxcage
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]]>Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:06:31 GMT3899Tag http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/danger/MemberTagFilms.aspxdanger
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]]>Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:12:44 GMT934918Tag