After serving prison time for a self-defense killing, Sailor Ripley reunites with girlfriend Lula Fortune. Lula's mother, Marietta, desperate to keep them apart, hires a hitman to kill Sailor. But he finds a whole new set of troubles when he and Bobby Peru, an old buddy who's also out to get Sailor, try to rob a store. When Sailor lands in jail yet again, the young lovers appear further than ever from the shared life they covet.
Nominated for 1 Oscar. 5 wins & 12 nominations total
Top Critics Reviews
fresh:
Though Miss Dern and Mr. Cage are constantly upstaged by the rest of the movie, they triumph.
– Vincent Canby,
New York Times,
20 May 2003
fresh:
Funny, scary and brilliantly cinematic.
– Geoff Andrew,
Time Out,
26 Jan 2006
rotten:
Barry Gifford's beautifully written picaresque novel about southern lovers on the run, though essentially literary, could have worked as a movie had David Lynch shown some fidelity to the realistic context.
– Jonathan Rosenbaum,
Chicago Reader,
17 Sep 2008
fresh:
Joltingly violent, wickedly funny and rivetingly erotic.