Wild at Heart Archives

It’s almost Valentines’ Day! For the love of God, don’t watch The Notebook again. Maybe instead of the same old rom coms and smooch fests, check out some different but nevertheless great onscreen romances. We recommend ten of our favorite silver screen couples.

Carl & Ellie, Up
Perhaps the most beautiful and most heartbreaking opening to any animated film, the relationship arc between Carl and Ellie promises to bring you to tears because of its excruciating tenderness. It’s a remarkably uncommon way to open a child’s film, but without this strong a sense of where Carl has been you simply can’t understand or accept where he thinks he’s going or fully appreciate where he winds up.

Annie Savoy & Crash Davis, Bull Durham
Sexy, grown up, fun and funny, Bull Durham is both the best baseball movie and best romantic comedy ever made – a fact due almost entirely to the easy chemistry and combustible energy between its stars. Kevin Costner is the dreamiest minor league catcher in history, and he only has eyes for Southern eccentric Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon at her absolute sultriest). Whip smart dialog has rarely fallen into such capable hands.

Lloyd Dobbler, Diane Court, Say Anything
He gave her his heart, she gave him a pen. Everyone rooted for Lloyd Dobbler (John Cusack) as he voyaged toward manhood (don’t be a guy!) and to love with untouchable, brainy Diane Court (Ione Skye). This may be the best high school romance film ever made.

Lula & Sailor, Wild at Heart
Overheated and on the run from the law and whatever Mamma can dish up, nothing can break the bond between Sailor (Nicolas Cage, before he sucked) and Lula (Laura Dern, who never sucks). Violent and nuts in the way that only a David Lynch film can be, with as colorful a cast of characters as any film you’ll ever find, this is a love story unlike any other.

Clarence & Alabama Worly, True Romance
The world gave up on Clarence and Alabama (Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette), but nothing will dent their love – not a silver toothed pimp or a sweaty hit man or a pot smoking roommate or any other thing screenwriter Quentin Tarantino can throw at them. And we love them for that.

Pat & Tiffany, Silver Linings Playbook
Sparks and dysfunction fly as one man (Bradley Cooper) plots to woo back his wife, restraining order be damned. Lawrence introduces layers and layers as cynical misanthropic dance lover Tiffany and Cooper perfectly balances JLaw’s manic negativity with his own positive energy mania.

Harold & Maude in same

Everyone’s favorite May/December romance upends every expectation, filling the screen with joy and pain, love and heartbreak. It’s a hilarious black comedy, but a true love story as well, and Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort made us believe.

Seth & Evan, Superbad
In our favorite bromance, BFFs Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) have to face an adult world where they may never again know the comfortable, intimate, familiar relationship they’ve had their whole lives together.

Jack Foley & Karen Sisco, Out of Sight
Elmore Leonard wrote a kick ass romance that lit up the screen thanks to the natural chemistry between George Clooney as ex-con Foley trying to evade and yet seduce Jennifer Lopez’s Sisco.

Buck & Jessie St. Vincent, Boogie Nights
In a film about damaged and damaging couplings, one true love bloomed. Buck and Jessie St. Vincent (Don Cheadle, Melora Walters) fell in love as the freewheeling Seventies turned to the judgmental Eighties. Sweet hearted sweethearts, their tenderness in the midst of all the ugliness and turmoil gave the film its heart.

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!

They come into our lives quickly, yearning for a state football title that never was, yelling “put that coffee down,” or jamming to Sister Christian on an awesome mix tape.

Then they’re gone..but never forgotten.

Here are ten supporting characters we’d love to see come back and take the lead:

Megan (Melissa McCarthy), Bridesmaids

Yes, please. Melissa McCarthy crafted a fully realized person with Megan, someone we kind of recognized, someone we’d like to see in almost any situation.

Carl Spackler (Bill Murray), Caddyshack

Drop us into Carl Spackler’s life at any point at all, and just leave us there for a couple hours. That’s really all we ask.

Blake (Alec Baldwin), Glengarry Glen Ross

We must have more! Alec Baldwin seared right through the celluloid with his one big speech, leaving us wanting more from this ball buster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kZg_ALxEz0

Rosalyn Rosenfeld (Jennifer Lawrence), American Hustle

Jennifer Lawrence so fully developed this relatively minor character that we were mesmerized, and we want to see more. Maybe show us her courtship with Irving, maybe take us to her new life with mafioso Pete. Hell, just leave us at home with Rosalyn, her son and her “science oven” – that would probably be entertaining enough.

Charlie Meadows (John Goodman), Barton Fink

Few filmmakers can pack a screenplay with more fascinating supporting characters than the Coens, and John Goodman’s had the great fortune of playing many of them. Walter? He could get a movie. Roland Turner, junky bluesman from Inside Llewyn Davis could probably shoulder a full film. But Goodman’s most mysterious and complex performance came as Barton Fink‘s unusual neighbor Charlie Meadows, and we’d like to know what made him tick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVCS9zV4wBo

Rahad Jackson (Alfred Molina), Boogie Nights

Indeed, almost every character in Paul Thomas Anderson’s brilliant Boogie Nights could hold our attention in a film of their own, but it’s Rahad Jackson, Night Ranger lover, who really piqued our interest.

Margie Hendricks (Regina King), Ray

Certainly Hendricks, longtime backup singer and secret girlfriend to Ray Charles, led a life fascinating enough to merit a film, but it was Regina King’s performance in Ray as the saucy, troubled chanteuse that compels her inclusion on this list. King ranks among the most underappreciated and versatile talents working today, but her turn in this biopic is her best.

Uncle Rico (John Gries), Napoleon Dynamite

What was high school like for Uncle Rico? Why is he living currently in that RV? What will his next business venture bring? Honestly, anything Uncle Rico does would entertain us.

Bobby Peru (Willem Dafoe), Wild at Heart

The David Lynch universe is populated by dozens of fascinating characters, including, of course, Dennis Hopper’s Frank Booth. But Bobby Peru is the one we just didn’t get quite enough time with. The most exciting item to hit Big Tuna since the ’86 cyclone, Bobby needs a full backstory movie.

Quint (Robert Shaw), Jaws

Here’s a guy who lived a life, workin’ for a livin’ and sharkin‘…right up until a shark ate him. We want to see some of his other adventures. You know, the ones he survived.

Maddwolf

Tag Archives: Wild at Heart

Countdown: Favorite Onscreen Couples

Countdown: Supporting Characters that Need Their Own Movie!