"I really did miss your mind while I was out at Pee Dee, baby. The rest of you, too, of course, but the way your head works is God's own private mystery. What was it you was thinkin'?"
"Well, I was thinkin' about smokin', actually. My mama smokes Merits now. It used to be she smoked Viceroys. I started stealin' 'em from her about sixth grade. When'd you start smokin', Sail?"
"I guess I started smokin' when I was about four. My mom was already dead then from lung cancer."
"What brand did she smoke?"
"Marlboros, same as me. I guess both my mama and my daddy died of smoke- or alcohol-related illness."
"Geez, Sail, honey, I'm sorry."

Wild at Heart is still just an adrenaline-fueled blast straight through The Wizard of Oz all wrapped up in the fires of hell and decked out in snakeskin. It's one of those Nic Cage performances for the ages, one of the roles, along with H.I. McDonough from Raising Arizona, that made me seek out his work early on. Laura Dern is at her loopiest here as Lula, a character who's essentially sex on wheels. Not a role that one ordinarily associates with Laura Dern, but one that she plays as well as anything I've ever seen her do.

The two of them are magical together in this film and it amazes me that the two of them never worked together again. At least not as of yet. Now that I've said that, I want a sequel to this. The further adventures of Sailor and Lula. And Pace. Why the hell not?