5. Wild at Heart (1990)
Nic Cage and Laura Dern and Wizard of Oz and True Romance (which obviously took influences) x Acid = Wild at Heart. The film takes you on a journey that has coherence but drip feeds you with Lynchian style. You get Willem Dafoe with grotesque fake teeth wearing a pair of tights over his head, a heavy rock band stopping to play a slow dance Elvis track, a ridiculous prosthetic nose on Nicholas Cage, a lingering ECU shot of Laura Derns sick, a lesson from her on (and off) screen Mother on how not to apply lipstick, some really gratuitous sex scenes and the most hilarious/horrific decapitation scene this side of The Omens sheet glass. This film has an ironically sweet ending, one that makes you feel like you are stuck in a dream, a dream created by its central characters despite the reality you feel lies beneath - a theme running sinisterly throughout most Lynch work. This one is odd but certainly not too surreal that you have to repeat watch to get a grasp of its narrative/lack of narrative and themes. If you want to get to know Lynch, but you arent quite ready for his extreme measures, then you could do far worse than to begin with this.
The Severed Ear Scale of Madness: 3/5