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Sailor Ripley (Nicolas Cage) wears a snakeskin jacket as a symbol of his individuality and belief in personal freedom, and his girl, Lula Pace (Laura Dern, strutting her considerable stuff), knows this whole world is wild at heart and weird on top. He’s an ex-con who knows more about Lulu’s past than he really should, particularly the role her momma, Marietta Fortune (Diane Ladd at her most cartoonishly wicked), played in her father’s death. And when Sailor and Lulu head cross-country, Marietta sets a string of underworld characters on their tail, including the vile, reptilian Bobby Peru (Willem Dafoe). David Lynch shot this gloriously loud, unabashedly violent, The Wizard of Oz-quoting, Elvis-obsessed, and melodramatically lurid take on Barry Gifford’s source novel between seasons of Twin Peaks, and half the fun is checking off the bizarrely inspired cameos from his TV cast—particularly Jack Nance with his dog monologue, Sherilyn Fenn as a girl with something sticky in her hair after an automobile accident, and, in a bonkers meta-joke, Laura Palmer herself, Sheryl Lee, as the Good Witch. Rockin’ good news, peanut.

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