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David Lynch’s surreal cinematic mash-up of love and depravity won the Cannes Film Festival’s prestigious Palme d’Or. It’s a surprisingly simple story about two fierce lovers, Sailor and Lula (Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern) who try to keep their heads above water in a world gone, almost literally, to Hell. The overt Wizard of Oz references serve as a constant reminder that you’re watching a morality tale — think Grimms’, but with doggy-style and exploding heads.

Wild at Heart is as stylish as Lynch’s earlier Blue Velvet, even if it’s not quite as deep or affecting. The lack of subtlety can be goofy, but it’s interesting to see adult themes like redemption and sexual desire forced into operatic fable form. Cage and Dern do great jobs anchoring the piece. In fact, I’d say this is ‘the’ quintessential Nicolas Cage performance. But Diane Ladd (Dern’s real-life mama) steals the show as Lula’s insane mother, Marietta Fortune. It’s a manic, mesmerizing, and frightening performance which earned Ladd an Oscar nomination. Willem Dafoe is memorable as Bobby Peru, a creepy character with nubby teeth who coerces Lula and Sailor to indulge in their darkest desires. And in what may be the most bizarre scene in the film, Crispin Glover plays Lula’s cousin Dell, a deranged young man who can’t stop making sandwiches or putting cockroaches in his underwear. The film also features Lynch’s remarkably distinct attention to art direction, music, and sound design.

With Harry Dean Stanton, Isabella Rossellini, and cameos from several other Lynch ‘regulars’: Sherilyn Fenn, Jack Nance, Freddie Jones, Grace Zabriskie, David Patrick Kelly, and Sheryl Lee.

Oscar Nomination: Best Supporting Actress (Diane Ladd)