Wild About Ladd

I was very pleased to see that StinkyLulu's monthly Supporting Actress Smackdown awarded their 1990 prize to Diane Ladd for her, ahem, batshit crazy performance as Marietta in David Lynch's, ahem, batshit crazy Wizard of Oz Wild at Heart. Ladd's performance is one of my all time favourites. It is just so bonkers, and so over-the-top, and so unhinged that I can't help but love it. Last year I wrote about The Black Dahlia and mused "Fiona Shaw plays a character that is so unhinged that it’s amazing she even exists in his movie, or any movie at all for that matter", well I must've let Ladd's performance slip my mind because those two are kindred spirits I tellsya.

I am actually a fan of the film itself, whereas many seem to enjoy Ladd's histrionics but not the film. Wild at Heart, I would go so far to say, is David Lynch's most hated film. It really does bring out the anger in people. I love it. If I were Jewish I'd say it has chutzpah, but I'm not so I'll simply say it has balls bigger than Texas to do what it does. It sure does have a visceral impact. Turning The Wizard of Oz into a sick road trip fantasy erotic horror soap opera? Getting Diane Ladd to cover her face and hands in bright red lipstick while extolling southern gothic Dynasty-esque words and wearing colossal reinventions of trendy outfits? Sherilynn Fenn giving one of the greatest cameo performances ever? It's insane and it's bizarre but I can't not love it. Even the bit where Willem Dafoe... well, if you've seen Wild at Heart you know the moment where things really go off with a bang (omg I'm so freakin' funny!)


Obviously it's not a movie for everyone, just like all Lynch films. It's not even a movie for Lynch fans in a lot of ways. But whenever I think of Ladd's performance, or that of her off and on screen daughter Laura Dern I can't help but think they are two of the most masterful performances of the 1990s. Add that to everything else about the film and Wild at Heart is actually one of my favourite David Lynch films. The movie received wild cheers and jeers (famously by Roger Ebert) upon winning the Palm d'Or at Cannes in 1990, probably more a testement to Lynch himself and not the film consdidering his followup Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, which has equally maddening violence and over-the-top insanities, was famously booed nearly out of the competition.

Below is a clip from Wild at Heart. The scene is, most likely, the movie's most famous and one in which Ladd's performance really reaches for the higher stratosphere. Her whispering voice in joint force with the... the... unique design of herself just makes it stand out. There's another of Ladd's moments that I could watch over and over and it's the "Buffalo huntin'? What the fuck does that mean" scene. "The fucker split!" Lynch does so many crazy things with the sound design and Ladd's performance up to 100. Yikes.

It still surprises and delights me to this very day that Ladd received an Academy Award nomination for this performance when the role is so bonkers and the movie had nothing else going for it in terms of awards (however unfortunate that may be). If you don't own Wild at Heart on DVD (I do! Special Edition!) then just watch this scene over and over again with the volume blaring and you'll get the idea pretty darn quick. Even down to the final moments when the munshkin costume makes a cameo! Bloody brilliant!

Premier's 20 Most Overrated

I was reading 20 Most Overrated list, and it's sort of confusing. A lot of these titles are perfect candidates (I agree and disagree with some) but there are some on there that... well, if anything, since their release it seems as if nobody likes them anymore. You know how it is, movie is praised upon release, then it beats other movies to Oscar and people immediately hate it and act as if they did all along.

1. American Beauty
Well, I still whole heartily love this movie.

2. Chicago
Now, this is what I'm talking about. A discussion about this decade's Oscar winners for Best Picture rarely goes by these days without people saying that Chicago is shithouse. So I don't really know how it qualifies as "overrated" when people such as myself actually have to furiously defend the movie from the masses.

3. Clerks
And here is where I chime in and say "Hell yes!" I just don't get this movie (I know there's nothing to get, but still). It's a bunch of idiot losers standing around being idiots and losers. It's like how Napoleon Dynamite was apparently hilarious because that loser stands around doing loserish things that you would laugh at somebody for doing in real life. But because he's got stupid hair and says GOSH! a lot it's apparently hysterical! Oh, yeah, Clerks. Well... I'd rather watch Napoleon Dynamite

4. Fantasia
Oh boy. This was a struggle to sit through with my eyes wide open. Like... what the hell was that?

5. Field of Dreams
And now I disagree again. I've never watched an entire game of baseball in my life, but I always thought that if I lived in America it would be the sport I'd follow (basically cause whatever it is that you call football is probably the stupidest sport I've ever seen. It's like rugby... but worse! And I've seen curling, and that's pretty darn stupid!) Anyway, this movie warms the cockles of my heart. It's all dreamy and it makes me smile just thinking about it.

6. Chariots of Fire
I've never seen this one, but again, this seems like a movie that today isn't seen in the greatest light so I doubt it's overrated.

7. Good Will Hunting
See, my understanding of this list is that the movies listed should be ones that are routinely mentioned today. Ones that started trends. One's that are thought of today as "classics". Good Will Hunting isn't really any of those.

8. Forrest Gump
I haven't watched this in a few years, but for whatever reason, I liked it much more when I was younger. I kinda can't stand Tom Hanks in this movie. Nor Robin Wright Penn. Nor Sally Field. JFK gives good cameo though!

9. Jules & Jim
Oh holy jesus YES! How this melodramatic, yet completely plain, movie is considered a classic is sorta beyond me. Oh, wait. It's because it's Truffaut and it's gotta be good if it's by him. *groan* I hate it when people give directors free passes.

10. A Beautiful Mind
Again, moreso than any of the others, this movie was roundly hated at the time, let alone now.

11. Monster's Ball
I don't remember that many loving the movie so much as Halle Berry's performance (now that is overrated!) What a silly movie this was. Just ridiculous and silly

12. Moonstruck
The guy at least redeems himself slightly by saying "Cher deserved her Oscar", but I really liked this movie. Basically because of Cher and how much she just assaults you with charm and whatever Jewish word that has that sound like you're coughing up furballs.

13. Mystic River
Interesting choice. I agree with the Kevin Bacon subplot. That was extraneous. But the rest of it was really quite good (although I'm still not sure about Tim Robbins' acting!!!!!!!)

14. Nashville
I've never seen this, unfortunately (don't blame me, blame the distributors. Although maybe with Altman's recent passing they'll finally see fit to allow Australians, who weren't born before 1975, the chance to see it) but it is pretty much unanimously seen as a classic, right? Right!

15. The Wizard of Oz
This dude doesn't like it because it's too colourful. I wish more movies were this colourful. "The film's reputation as kitsch-that-transcends-kitsch precedes it; a new viewer unaware of that rep might see kitsch, plain and simple." and that would be their tough luck.

16. An American in Paris
*cries* I HATE YOU!!!!!

17. Easy Rider
And now we're talking. Maybe it's cause I watched this, ya know, not high as a kite, but boy... bo-ring. Incredibly so. It's sort of unbelievable how boring it is.

18. The Red Shoes
He takes a pot shot at Martin Scorsese AND The Red Shoes? Holy crap this guy is weird. I can never decide which scene is better: The performance of the ballet with the leading lady, or the performance without. They've equally magical.

19. 2001: A Space Odyssey
Just like Easy Rider, it's hard to watch this movie when you're not stoned (I suppose - I've never tried to thank you very much), but as a sober watcher... well... i did want to snooze. Will the future make me sleepy? But it's one of those movie that I could find myself watching repeatedly yet never actually liking it fully. It's got so many well-made pieces, but they're just sorta floating around in zero gravity with nothing connecting them.

20. Gone with the Wind
I just watched this last week (it was divine). This is a strange inclusion because the general concensus is that Gone is still a bonafide classic and the writer just comes off as a pompous wank.


Frankly my dear... that was shithouse