In 1990, David Lynch seemed destined to finally break through to the masses. Despite a resolutely unconventional style, he showed signs that he’d finally gain more widespread acceptance.

While 1986’s Blue Velvet earned little money at the box office, it developed into a major cult film, and 1990’s TV series Twin Peaks threatened to make Lynch a household name.

With all this momentum at Lynch’s back, he released Wild At Heart in the late summer of 1990 – and his forward movement came to a halt. The film got decent but not great reviews and made a mere $16 million at the box office despite all the publicity that surrounded it.

Perhaps this made sense, as Lynch never seemed like a filmmaker destined for mainstream success. He tried to appeal to a broader audience with 1984’s Dune and wound up with an expensive flop, so perhaps it’s for the best that Wild put him back into Cult Town.

After he gets out of prison, Sailor Ripley (Nicolas Cage) reunites with his girlfriend Lula Fortune (Laura Dern). They decide to leave town, a decision with many ramifications.

In addition to legal issues connected to Sailor’s defiance of parole conditions, the couple encounter resistance from Lula’s mother Marietta (Diane Ladd). She sics various parties on the couple and they run into many other complications as they seek happiness and solace.

I admit I’ve never been a big fan of Lynch’s work, as I find his films to offer a self-consciousness that doesn’t often appeal to me. Lynch’s particular brand of quirkiness tends to feel “pre-planned” and not really organic.

That said, I remain open to his talents – and despite my view of his oddness, I know he possesses skill as a filmmaker. I just can find it tough to get past the contrived impression his style imparts to me.

Does Wild depart from this formula? Nope – though possibly campier than usual, we get typical Lynch excess and oddness here.

For some, I guess that works fine, but I have to imagine even the biggest Lynch diehard might feel a little less than enchanted by Wild. Lynch goes so over the top here that Wild feels more like his attempt to test his audience’s patience and less like a stab at a workable film.

Honestly, I think Lynch gets away with a lot of bad choices for which other directors would receive condemnation. For instance, Wild takes genuinely talented actors and forces them to ham up such a storm that their performances become amateurish and silly.

Somehow Ladd got an Oscar nomination for her crazily over the top work as Marietta, and I can’t figure out why – maybe because she allows Lynch to make her look insane? He does the same to everyone else, though, so I don’t see why Ladd would stand out among all the other “cranked to 11” performances.

None of them fare well, as they find themselves stuck in a long series of ridiculous, pointless characters forced to spout ridiculous, pointless dialogue as they pursue ridiculous, pointless goals. Essentially a twist on the “teen rebellion” genre, Wild feels better suited for someone like John Waters, a director who would give it the spoofery it needs.

Instead, Lynch finds himself on the border between parody and basic camp. Of course, as Waters has shown, those two can intersect, but Lynch opts for a silly sense of outrageousness that doesn’t work.

At some point a parody of a bad film simply may become a bad film, and Wild tramples that threshold, even though it sports some serious themes. For instance, we get obvious signs of abuse in Lula’s past, but Lynch plays these more for laughs than anything else, a choice that doesn’t work.

Given that Wild comes packed with choices that don’t work, though, this strangely light look at pedophiles and whatnot shouldn’t surprise. Lynch never met a metaphor he couldn’t make more obvious, such as during a scene in which a character refers to another as “shit” – and then cuts to a close-up of a toilet.

Is this supposed to be clever? Is it mocking? I don’t know, but to me, it just seems idiotic.

As does the film’s relentless, obvious Wizard of Oz motif. While Wild should make this a general background theme, Lynch instead thrusts the topic to the foreground with a slew of blatant references. There’s no subtlety involved, as Lynch brings out allusions that become literal – and painful.

Perhaps the cult of Lynch fans will disagree, but I think Wild At Heart feels rambling and pointless. Even for Lynch, the movie seems over the top and absurd, and it just doesn’t connect in any compelling way. It’s a sluggish montage of sex scenes, graphic violence and odd encounters without much entertainment value or purpose.

Wild At Heart appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This was an inconsistent presentation.

Sharpness was usually fine, but exceptions occurred. Interiors occasionally became tentative, so some of those could be a bit on the fuzzy side. Still, overall clarity was positive, and exteriors offered nice clarity.

No issues with jaggies or moiré effects appeared, and edge haloes remained minor. Print flaws became a persistent concern, however, as the movie suffered from a mix of specks. While not relentless or heavy, they appeared through the majority of the movie and created distractions.

Colors looked good. The film opted for bold hues that generally exhibited positive vivacity.

Blacks were fairly deep, and shadows showed acceptable clarity. Some low-light shots lacked great definition, but they were mostly good. Parts of the image seemed satisfactory, but the image lost a lot of points due to all those print flaws.

As for the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack, it offered a forward-oriented affair. Music presented a strong aspect of the track and brought out good stereo presence, while effects showed less consistency.

Indeed, a lot of the time these elements came across as borderline monaural. The movie broadened the effects to the sides on occasion, but they didn’t turn into an especially involving aspect of the mix.

Surround usage tended to favor music as well, which meant the score and songs spread to the back speakers in a positive way. Effects remained passive and left this as a mix heavy on music and not much else.

Audio quality seemed fine, with dialogue that appeared natural and concise. Though effects didn’t have a ton to do, those components came across as accurate and distinctive, without distortion or other concerns.

As noted, music played a prominent role, and both score and songs seemed lively and vivid, with nice dynamics. Nothing about the track dazzled, but I thought it seemed satisfactory.

This package comes with a broad mix of extras, and we find an Interview with Novelist Barry Gifford. In this 30-minute, six-second piece, the author discusses the source and its film adaptation. Some good information appears here, but the interview lacks a coherent through-line, so it becomes less effective than I’d like.

32 Extended and Deleted Scenes run a total of one hour, 16 minutes, 10 seconds. Most of these expand upon characters – especially secondary parts – though some add roles not seen in the final film.

Those prove to be the most interesting – to a degree, at least, as a few lack much merit. In particular, a thread with Johnnie Farragut runs too long and goes nowhere. Still, I’m sure fans will feel happy to see all this footage, as it offers a whole lot of unused material.

We also get an Uncensored Bobby Peru Scene. It goes for 44 seconds and presents a slightly more graphic violence than seen in the final film. It’s a curiosity and that’s all.

Called Love, Death, Elvis and Oz, a featurette fills 29 minutes, 52 seconds with comments from Gifford, writer/director David Lynch, producer Steve Golin, cinematographer Frederick Elmes, editor Duwayne Dunham, sound designer Randy Thom, and actors Laura Dern, Nicolas Cage, Willem Dafoe, Sheryl Lee, JE Freeman, Diane Ladd, Crispin Glover and Grace Zabriskie.

“Oz” covers the film’s roots and development, story/characters, influences, themes and allusions, cast and performances, audio and visual design, and the movie’s reception/legacy. Like the Gifford interview, this one can feel a bit scattershot, but it still throws out a reasonable number of useful notes.

Under the banner of “Dell’s Lunch Counter”, we find Extended Interviews. This compilation goes for 21 minutes, six seconds and offers remarks from Gifford, Ladd, Dern, Lynch, Elmes, Dafoe, Lee, Cage and Thom.

Outtakes from the sessions found in “Oz”, “Counter” gives us an assortment of semi-random observations. None of these seem crucial, but they add to our understanding of the production.

Next comes Specific Spontaneity: Focus on David Lynch, a seven-minute, 16-second piece with Elmes, Dafoe, Freeman, Lee, Golin, Dern, Gifford, Dunham, and casting director Johanna Ray. “Focus” looks at Lynch’s work and impact on the production. While we get a few decent thoughts, a lot of this turns into basic praise for the director.

Lynch on the DVD Process goes for two minutes, 46 seconds and brings the writer/director as he discusses areas related to color timing and other aspects of the DVD transfer process. Lynch delivers a few interesting notes.

In addition to the film’s trailer and four TV Spots, we locate an Original 1990 Making of EPK. It occupies six minutes, 55 seconds with Lynch, Dern, Dafoe, Cage, and actor Isabella Rossellini. For its genre, the EPK seems better than average.

Finally, we discover an Image Gallery. A running two-minute, 11-second montage, it shows various publicity stills in a stylized manner that makes them less than satisfying.

Like most David Lynch films, Wild at Heart will polarize viewers, though I imagine it taxes the patience of even the most dedicated fans. Random, pointless and rambling, the film veers heavily into self-parody territory. The Blu-ray boasts a broad array of bonus materials but audio seems fairly average and visuals suffer from a mix of flaws. Maybe I’m wrong and Lynch buffs love this thing, but I think it’s a ridiculous dud.