|

New This Week
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search
Upcoming Release Calendar
Awards & Bests By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

97
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
xx
Beer for My Horses
75
Boy A
xx
Christmas on Mars: A Fantastical Film Freakout Featuring the Flaming Lips
48
Death Defying Acts
85
Edge of Heaven, The
33
Elite Squad
80
Encounters at the End of the World
20
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
86
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
54
Get Smart
73
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
34
Happening, The
25
Hell Ride
78
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
44
Henry Poole is Here
61
Incredible Hulk, The
65
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
46
Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
57
Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
xx
Kiss the Bride
63
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
73
Kung Fu Panda
52
Milarepa
62
Mister Foe
53
Mister Lonely
74
Mongol
61
On the Rumba River
83
Paranoid Park
32
Perfect Holiday, The
49
Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie, The
63
Planet B-Boy
72
Priceless
63
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, The
70
Standard Operating Procedure
35
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
57
Stone Angel, The
47
Strangers, The
61
Stuck
55
Sukiyaki Western Django
63
This Christmas
71
To the Limit
72
Transsiberian
71
Tropic Thunder
79
Visitor, The
93
WALL-E
37
War, Inc.
xx
Whaledreamers
54
What We Do Is Secret
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
39
Young People F**king
45
Zombie Strippers
97
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
93
WALL-E
86
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
85
Edge of Heaven, The
83
Paranoid Park
80
Encounters at the End of the World
79
Visitor, The
78
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
75
Boy A
74
Mongol
73
Kung Fu Panda
73
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
72
Priceless
72
Transsiberian
71
To the Limit
71
Tropic Thunder
70
Standard Operating Procedure
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
65
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
63
Planet B-Boy
63
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, The
63
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
63
This Christmas
62
Mister Foe
61
Stuck
61
On the Rumba River
61
Incredible Hulk, The
57
Stone Angel, The
57
Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
55
Sukiyaki Western Django
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
54
Get Smart
54
What We Do Is Secret
53
Mister Lonely
52
Milarepa
49
Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie, The
48
Death Defying Acts
47
Strangers, The
46
Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
45
Zombie Strippers
44
Henry Poole is Here
39
Young People F**king
37
War, Inc.
35
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
34
Happening, The
33
Elite Squad
32
Perfect Holiday, The
25
Hell Ride
20
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
xx
Whaledreamers
xx
Christmas on Mars: A Fantastical Film Freakout Featuring the Flaming Lips
xx
Kiss the Bride
xx
Beer for My Horses
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Wild at Heart
Samuel Goldwyn Company
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R
Starring
Nicolas Cage,
Laura Dern,
Willem Dafoe,
J.E. Freeman,
Crispin Glover,
Diane Ladd,
Isabella Rossellini,
and
Harry Dean Stanton
David Lynch explores old theme: the story of two people (Cage and Dern) who thoroughly love each other, of two people whose love seems so strong that nothing can corrupt it. Yet, the evil forces of murder, corruption and perversion, which lurk beneath the seemingly clean surface of modern day America transform their journey into a ghost train ride and challenge their love to the extremes. (Von Marc Eberle)
| GENRE(S): |
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Barry Gifford (novel)
David Lynch
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
David Lynch
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: December 7, 2004
Video: March 21, 1991
Theatrical: August 12, 1990
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
124 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival.

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Starting with the outrageous and building from there, he ignites a slight love-on-the-run novel, creating a bonfire of a movie that confirms his reputation as the most exciting and innovative filmmaker of his generation.

90
Variety
Staff (Not Credited)
Joltingly violent, wickedly funny and rivetingly erotic, David Lynch's Wild at Heart [based on the novel by Barry Gifford] is a rollercoaster ride to redemption through an American gothic heart of darkness.

88
Chicago Tribune
Dave Kehr
And yet there is enough of a core of sincerity to turn even the most preposterous moments-such as the film's dream-sequence finale-into something moving and true: You buy the feelings, even as the situations degenerate into the ludicrous and absurd. [17 Aug 1990, Friday, p.C]
80
Los Angeles Times
Peter Rainer
The drawback to Lynch's pile-it-on method is that it is reductive. One reason Wild at Heart, for all its amazements, isn't quite as stunning as "Blue Velvet" is because it seems less the working out of a single fixed obsession than an entire smear of obsessions. [12 Aug 1990, Calendar, p.29]
80
Empire
Staff (Not Credited)
Misfit cameos, apparently random asides and an almost continuous onslaught of unsettling sex and violence mean theres no mistaking David Lynchs hand behind the camera -- but theres enough of a narrative to make this work as a straightforward road movie, too.

78
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
David Lynch doesn't tell stories as much as he shows hallucinations. Wierd, wild, excessive, obsessive, idiosyncratic visions.

63
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
There is something repulsive and manipulative about it, and even its best scenes have the flavor of a kid in the school yard, trying to show you pictures you don't feel like looking at.

50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
As a story, Wild at Heart is even less coherent than Blue Velvet,'' to the point where whole characters and subplots disappear into a murky haze at the end. [17 Aug 1990, Arts, p.11]
50
TV Guide
Staff (Non Credited)
A wacky, occasionally inventive road movie that fails to display the vision or the dark intensity of director Lynch's earlier work.

50
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
The movie's initial intensity is so great, it consumes itself. By the time we reach the final scene, which is clearly supposed to exude glorious rapture between offbeat lovers Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern, it has all the warming effect of cold ash.

42
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
A lurid hodgepodge of the ''subversive'' and the secondhand, the movie lacks the primal pop pleasures of Lynch's best work.

40
The New Republic
Stanley Kauffmann
The best performance, the only one that can really be called acting, is Diane Ladd's as the mother. Ladd gives us a woman full of self-pity and shrewdness, full of sexual experience and guile, who has now reached the age when, if she wants to, she can turn off sexual heat in favor of cold power drive. [24 Sept 1990, p.32]
40
The New York Times
Vincent Canby
This time, though, Mr. Lynch's conceits are less often pleasurably disorienting than out of focus.

38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Jay Scott
The problem with the taboo-busters is that they feel calculated - in the past, Lynch's creepiness seemed casual and natural - and they take Wild at Heart so high it can't come down; the picture repeatedly jacks itself into frenzy only to crash into lethargy.

38
USA Today
Mike Clark
One of the most violent opening scenes in screen history
Yet given such a visually adept exercise, the rest seems transparently off-the-cuff. There are obese trailer-camp porn stars, heavenly visions, a climactic rendition of Love Me Tender and no-point references to The Wizard of Oz - all of which top this two-hour farrago like a soggy tarp. [17 Aug 1990, Life, 4D]
30
Time
Richard Corliss
The first Lynch film in which his motives -- to hang a haberdashery of bizarre incidents on the merest hook of plot -- are apparent... What's lacking is the old sense of delicious, disturbing mystery. [20 Aug 1990, p.63]
20
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
At least (John) Waters cares about most of his freaks; for Lynch they're basically exploitation fodder for a puritanical "dark vision of the universe" that seems to come straight out of junior high, complete with giggles.

20
Washington Post
Hal Hinson
What "Wild at Heart" feels like is a kind of housecleaning -- a disjointed collection of images and odd snatches of ideas that the director couldn't make room for anyplace else. They have no context, and as a result, no power to thrill or disturb.


The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Discuss this movie in our forums |
|