Summary:
An anthology film concerning the interconnecting lives of Los Angeles residents.
My Thoughts:
The opening scene of this film- helicopters flying over LA spraying for Medfly- immediately brought to mind the openings from two of my favorite movies: “La Dolce Vita” and “Apocalypse Now”. “La Dolce Vita” opens with a helicopter carrying a statue of Jesus over Rome, as if God himself were surveying the hedonistic landscape below in disgust. “Apocalypse Now” opens with helicopters sweeping over the Vietnam jungle and dropping tons of napalm, completely obliterating anything that once lived there. By the end of Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts”, I was pretty convinced napalming LA wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen to the world. In fact, a total destruction of LA might feel akin to God’s decision to wipe Sodom and Gomorrah from the map. LA in this film is a cold, heartless, loveless, tragic place; it’s also wonderfully developed, beautifully acted, and meticulously crafted. This is a story that sort of defies any sort of plot summary; it’s just an anthology film about a few interconnecting stories of modern people being casually cruel to one another. While this film is listed on IMDb as a comedy, don’t go into this move expecting happiness unless you can laugh at the tragi-comedic ironies that continually pop up.
As much of the fun of this story comes from figuring out how each of the stories relate to each other, I won’t discuss much of the connections between characters, but I will address the themes, directing, and overall story. This is one heck of a movie; it’s probably the most ambitious project I’ve seen from Altman, and though it’s not my favorite of his films (“McCabe & Mrs. Miller” is one of my all-time favorites), it is certainly a movie worth watching several times. In terms of anthology films set in LA (I can’t believe that’s a subgenre of film now) this is below the bar set by “Pulp Fiction”, but it blows “Crash (2005)” waaaaaay out of the water.
“What is the world coming to?”
“Short Cuts” follows the interconnecting lives of Los Angeles residents as they move about their daily lives. One story revolves around the television anchor Howard Finnigan (Bruce Davison, “X-Men”), his wife Ann (Andie MacDowell, “Groundhog Day”), and Howard’s estranged father Paul (Jack Lemmon, “Some Like it Hot”) as they deal with the immediate aftermath of their son Casey being hit by a car. Another story revolves around a waitress named Doreen Piggot (Lily Tomlin, “The Player”) and her drunk of husband Earl (Tom Waits, “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”). One story revolves around a phone sex worker named Lois Kaiser (Jennifer Jason Leigh, “eXistenZ”) and her pool cleaner husband Jerry (Chris Penn, “Reservoir Dogs”). One story revolves around a musically inclined mother (Annie Ross, “Basket Case 3”) and daughter (Lori Singer, “Footloose (1984)”) whom are constantly at ends. Yet another story revolves around Betty (Frances McDormand, “Fargo”) and her crazy ex-husband Stormy (Peter Gallagher, “American Beauty”). There’s the story of police officer Gene Shepard (Tim Robbins, “Jacob’s Ladder”) and his wife Sherri (Madeleine Stowe, “12 Monkeys”). There’s the story of makeup artist Bill (Robert Downey Jr., “Avengers: Endgame”) and his wife Honey (Lili Taylor, “The Conjuring”). There’s the story of popular artist Marian (Julianne Moore, “The Big Lebowski”) and her husband Dr. Ralph Wyman (Matthew Modine, “Full Metal Jacket”). And there’s the story of Stuart Kane (Fred Ward, “Tremors”) and his fishing pals (Huey Lewis, “Back to the Future”) whom find a girl’s body in a stream, and then, later, Stuart’s wife Claire (Anne Archer, “Fatal Attraction”) whom has a lot to say on the subject. With the players set, let’s get this show on the road.
So, really, my only issue at all with this movie was the length and the pacing. Altman’s directing style is so polished that even in his longer films (like this one or “Nashville”), the scenes just seem to flow from one to the next without ever really feeling like there’s need for a break. However, as this movie focuses on so many different stories, it does feel like the film takes a while to really get going in some of those stories. For the most part, Altman knows how to keep the viewer engaged, but I must admit that, around the two hour mark I had to pause, stand up, stretch, and walk around for a minute. This is a long movie, and the themes and points that Altman are trying to make aren’t exactly light, so the movie tends to feel longer than it actually is; it’s wholly rewarding for those of us that make it to the end though.
Altman wants us to look at the chaotic world we live in now and realize how we as the human race have lost something… In the modern age we’ve become so self-obsessed and thoughtless to the problems of others that the world has become a cold and callous place, filled with dire situations of hopelessness.
There are certain stories that stand out more than others. Tim Robbins as the less-than-brilliant police officer was simultaneously absolutely hilarious and one of the most revolting characters in the film. Tom Waits gave an amazing performance as a drunk. Jack Lemmon’s character arc actually surprised me the most, but Chris Penn, and Peter Gallagher’s storylines also had some surprising turns. For me, the cruelest and most disturbing of all of the stories was the one involving the fishermen and the young girl’s body they found floating in the river; while the fishermen justify their actions by claiming they don’t technically do anything wrong, I found their heartlessness to be utterly despicable. I was practically queasy listening to them rationalize their actions.
(Some Spoilers Follow)
Towards the end of this film, one of the characters who has been dealing with an immense amount of pent up rage kills someone with a rock, and in that instant bird flee from the scene and a literal earthquake shake Los Angeles. As the residents wait for the quake to pass, we flicker through their stories, and many of them handle their situations in ways that feel proper for their characters. One or two of the characters wait out the earthquake almost as if they wish it were, in their words: “The big one” or, in other words, the end of the world. I feel like this final scene sort of channels the philosophy of the character of Johnny in Mike Leigh’s “Naked”. These characters have gotten so sick of the casual cruelty displayed by mankind that they’d be fine with dying, they’d be fine with the world ending… it’s a rather bleak ending, but boy is it brilliant.
Verdict:
Sometimes you see a film that you think is a masterpiece, and you wonder, “Why has no one ever mentioned this movie to me before?” While I would say this film is pretty darn close to a masterpiece, I am not at all surprised I’ve never heard it mentioned before I picked it up. Why? Well, who really wants to sit through a three hour anthology film detailing the icy cruelty of modern man? Sounds like loads of fun, doesn’t it?
While I do think this movie is (slightly) mislabeled as a comedy, I do think that it’s absolutely worth seeing, though, I urge you to prepare yourself. This is a long movie, and it’s one that requires attention to detail to fully grasp all the nuances. That being said, this movie is pretty close to pique Altman, and if you like his oeuvre, then you’ve got to check this out. It’s a bleak but beautiful work of art that slices into your skin and squeezes lemon juice all over your wounds before you leave.
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