"Everything's bigger in Texas!"
-Former Texas Governor Rick Perry
Okay. Wild at Heart works a little better for me this time. It's basically a hallucinatory redneck soap opera pervert version of The Wizard of Oz. Or something like that.
David Lynch isn't exactly a redneck himself . . . so is this cultural appropriation? Redneck-sploitation? I'd be lying if I told you I actually gave a fuck one way or another. I've known some rednecks. They inspire little to no pity in my heart. Hey, they got their Fake President trump, right? I'm sure they're all wealthy and healthy and free of opioid addictions and have secure employment and all those bigly income tax refunds are no doubt buyin' every last one of their dreams and aspirations.
No Spoilers . . . so I'll just describe my favorite scene:
Two lovers
Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern
on the run into the night
riding in their super-cool convertible
headlights barely pushing back the darkness
they see clothes scattered across the highway
and a car run off the road, headlights on
so our lovers pull off to investigate
to find the corpse of a man lying beneath the bestilled car's headlights
a young woman comes staggering out of the dark
gibbering semi-coherently about losing her pocket
due to a massive head wound-presumably incurred in the crash
Cage and Dern follow the young woman around some trees
trying to coax her to get into their car,
drive into town,
drop her off at an emergency room,
somethin'
but the scene is also about two of the living
trying to call a dying soul back
fighting against the gravity of the abyss
in a film filled with goofy grotesques, rape, sexual violence, incest, and hysterical overacting
this is an unexpectedly poignant moment.
Oh, and that bit about shooting a porno Texas Style-that was funny. I dug that.
NEXT: 4/8/18: Twin Peaks Episode 8 (1990)
