Short Cuts (1993)

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

There's a fine line between art and crap and this one didn't fall on the side of art. Don't get me wrong, I'm a sucker for a good artful film, but fell on the side crap, but the sheeple call it art!! What a waste of talented actors. Total crap. Really, what's Altman directed that was worth anything since Mash in 1972? He's one of those hack director's that Hollywood decided the biz should like and there's a few of those. All these talented actors flocked to do this movie just to say, "I was in an Altman movie." I guess is looks good on a resume. This movie script was written by someone who doesn't have the talent to finish a whole script so they crazy glued 5 or more reject scripts together for a 3 hour crap fest and Hollywood sheeple call it art!!

From Oscar nominated director Robert Altman (MASH, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Nashville, The Player), this was another film with a big ensemble cast of big stars, featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I was looking forward to seeing. Basically a fleet of helicopters spray for medflies, and along the path flight we meet various characters, most not aware of each other, only some that are, but all going through regular day to day things, but all have an element of luck and chance come into play and change things for them, whether based on infidelity or death. Dr. Ralph Wyman (Matthew Modine) is married to wife Marian Wyman (Julianne Moore), but she later admits she has been sleeping with another man, Marian's sister Sherri Shepard (Madeleine Stowe) is married to police officer Gene Shepard (Tim Robbins), he initially plans to leave the family and the irritating barking dog following his affair with Betty Weathers (Frances McDormand), but changes his mind for his children, and Betty herself is divorcing helicopter pilot Stormy Weathers (Peter Gallagher). Waitress Doreen Piggot (Lily Tomlin) is married to alcoholic limousine driver Earl (Tom Waits), she is shocked after hitting Casey Finnigan (Zane Cassidy) with her car, the day before his ninth birthday, the little boy seemed fine for some time, but then his mother Ann Finnigan (Andie MacDowell) finds him in a bad way and he is taken to hospital where he goes unconscious, and Casey shockingly dies all of the sudden, the baker gets a harsh explanation of why Ann or TV commentator husband Howard (Bruce Davison) didn't collect the birthday cake. Tess Trainer (Annie Ross) is a cabaret singer seen singing throughout the film, her daughter who lives with her is cello player Zoe (Lori Singer), she becomes overwhelmed by her mother's alcoholism and isolation, breaking down and committing suicide breathing gas fumes from inside her car, later being found dead by her mother, and Jerry Kaiser (Chris Penn) is a pool cleaner married to wife Lois (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who is a mother at home with children, and often taking care of them at the same time she makes money as a sex phone operator. Stuart Kane (Fred Ward), and his buddies Gordon Johnson (Buck Henry) and Vern Miller (Huey Lewis) are on a three day fishing trip, they find a woman's body in the river near the rocks, but initially considering it they do not report it to the police, they simply tie her to the rocks and continue fishing, and report the death after the trip, Stuart's wife Claire (Anne Archer) is angry that they did nothing all that time, and feeling guilty she attends the funeral of the dead twenty three year old girl. Other characters you see appearing in the film in amongst the other story lines and events include couple Honey Bush (Lili Taylor), Doreen's daughter, and makeup artist Bill Bush (Robert Downey Jr.) who spend most of their time entertaining each other at home, and Howard's father Paul Finnigan (Jack Lemmon) in the hospital who approaches some people being friendly or jokey, and the event that involves all characters is an earthquake in the area. All the stars in the film do their parts very well, whether being funny or serious, especially MacDowell, Robbins and Jason Leigh, obviously none of the stories are really related or connected, but you are compelled by a good number of them, when they are illicit, distressing or emotional, a most watchable and interesting ensemble, interweaving and multi layered drama. It won the Golden Globe for the Special Award for Best Ensemble Cast, and it was nominated for Best Screenplay. Very good!

"Short Cuts" is made up of a number of Raymond Carver's brilliant short stories. Although Carver wrote them as separate stories, in the film they are linked in clever and unexpected ways.I was surprised to learn that a number of reviewers criticised Altman's tone, and the fragmentation the stories underwent to create the script. However, I think it shows his genius in pulling the stories together to make a continuous narrative.The film opens as helicopters spray Los Angeles to eradicate Medfly. As the helicopters pass over the city, the camera zooms down and selects a number of people from the millions below. The lives of these people are brought into sharp focus, allowing the audience to share their pain, secrets and desires. Self-absorption is a trait shared by many of the characters; they appear to be concerned only with themselves. Even when they learn that terrible things have happened to others, their reactions are often superficial and unaffected.Altman has been criticised for having too cynical an attitude towards the characters, anticipating their failure in a way that Carver did not in his stories. However, a number of the characters in the film grow though adversity and many of them are basically good people.Of them all, it is the highway patrolman played by Tim Robbins, the character who seemed to have the least chance of redemption, who undergoes the most dramatic transformation.Neighbourhood watch takes on a new meaning when neighbours ask a couple played by Lili Taylor and Robert Downey Jnr, to mind their apartment, but they move in, throwing parties and having sex in the bed.Jennifer Jason Leigh plays a phone sex worker who deals with her client's calls while she feeds her baby, however she is never in the mood for sex with her husband played by Chris Penn. His repressed feelings erupt in the film's most disturbing sequence.It almost seems reasonable when three guys on a fishing trip decide not to report a dead body until after they have finished fishing. Later, the morality of their decision becomes an issue.Much of the film centres on two families who live side by side. Bruce Davidson and Andie McDowell play the Finnigans whose eleven-year-old son, Casey, is in hospital after being hit by a car. Before the accident, Mrs Finnigan goes to a bakery to organise a cake for her son's birthday. The baker, played by Lyle Lovett, becomes enmeshed in their lives in an unexpected way.Tess and Zoe played by Annie Ross and Lori Singer live next door to the Finnigans. They each react differently to Casey's accident but it leads to a tragedy just as great. Tess and Zoe are the only characters not drawn from Carver's stories.Jack Lemmon plays Howard Finnigan's father. It's a role filled with regret for past actions and lost opportunities.The structure of "Short Cuts" is not unlike Paul Anderson's later "Magnolia". Both have multiple, intersecting story lines. The similarities become more marked when towards the end of "Short Cuts", an earthquake intercedes as does the rain of frogs in Magnolia. However, the earthquake doesn't change the course of the characters lives or provide redemption. The film ends leaving the characters to deal with their lives as best they can.Altman couldn't always pull off a masterpiece as Prêt-à-Porter proved, but he came pretty close with this compelling movie.

Ever see someone train a dog by pushing its nose into its feces? This movie is that for 3 hours (oui, you're the dog). You watch depressed/ angry/ unpleasant characters flit and interact. There isn't one redeeming/ uplifting/ positive/ life-affirming moment. OK, wait: In the end, Waits & Tomlin celebrate their poverty and alcoholism in a dreary trailer; Robbins has sex with Stowe and brings the dog back home; MacDowell & Davison eat pastries with baker Lovett after their child dies. Yeah, sorry, all upbeat stuff.Altman was a brilliant creator (3 Women, Nashville, Mash), capturing the American panorama and subconscious like no other director. Amazing in the range of topics he undertook. But over time he relied increasingly on dialogue to move his (lack of) plot forward. For many this skim was the invisible hand of meaning - "What is he trying to say here? It's obscure so it's gravid."Short Cuts has all the Altman signatures: annoying lounge music that permeates everything, overlapping dialogue, characters staring at fish or fixed objects as they think about the meaning of life, overlapping dialogue, near-constant elevator jazz, characters who talk from the script and to the camera but not to each other, overlapping dialogue.It might be a TV show that charms via "lives of idiosyncratic, tortured, neurotic characters intersecting & intertwining in a fictional yet all-too-real city of desire, failed dreams ...." The kind of thing where folks say "OMG, that is SO my family". Except for the bit where Penn beats a girl to death with a rock; or the guy who took pictures of the girl he raped and strangled.Scenes or characters you might care or wonder about are never fully-explored; other scenes (eg. Lemmon's description of boinking his son's aunt) go on and on. And on. You got it, and still it continues. Perhaps this is a mirror that forces us to confront our inner selves while we confront our outer lives, as we reflect on ....There's some nice acting: Robbins, Stowe, Tomlin, Jason-Leigh, McDormand, Davison, Gallagher, Chris Penn, Lili Taylor, more. But almost anyone can get good performances out of these folks.Meryl Streep - sorry, I mean Julianne Moore - does her usual "watch me, I'm REALLY acting" - especially when she is nude from the waist-down in the pre-BBQ scene. Andie MacDowell, as always, squeezes her lack of range into playing herself. Same for Robert Downey Jr. and Lori Singer.Jack Lemmon does the stuttering, mumbling, rolling fingers uh-uh-uh alky-monologue thing that he (incredibly) made a career out of. His understudy Tom Waits does a gravelly-voice version of this. Boy, imagine if Altman had filmed an 8-hour version of an O'Neil play where Waits and Lemmon talk about life as they drink in a bar on a rainy day. Various characters could come and go, talking about the rain as they walk in; the bartender, perhaps a jaded Brian Blessed, would comment as he refilled their glasses .... Whew.Carver seemed to have insight, albeit through a whiskey glass, into the human spirit. But this movie version of his stories seems as contrived as a HS play. Look at the scene where Penn & Jason-Leigh consider having sex; or the photo-mixup scene; or the funeral scene where the dialogue approaches an Ibsen play: Sven opens his front door and a woman outside says "May I come in? I'm yust in town and I want to tell your father's last words as he died from syphilis ... yah, I'm your sister; the maid is your real mother; and the bank president, see the insanity in my left eye ..." Oofta, people do jump in like that in real life.I got to page 3 of the reviews without reading anything negative about Short Cuts. I infer from this that viewers think a stage production where actors tell, but don't show, is good art. There it is.I gave it a 7 and considered an 8. Several parts were so irritating that I winced and squirmed so it's certainly effective.Two sidebars:1. If you think Carver would be difficult to bring to the screen, see the excellent Jindabyne.2. Altman over time became like his protégé Alan Rudolph - vague and insubstantial - whereas Rudolph's quirkiness grew into meatier work.