Short Cuts

Short Cuts

I want to like Robert Altman. I really do. I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with myself for not enjoying his films, because he's influenced all of my heroes, mainly Paul Thomas Anderson (In fact it's very clear that Magnolia received inspiration from Short Cuts, since it's a tale of many different characters living in Los Angeles (and Julianne Moore is in both films), but while Magnolia also has clear influences from more borderline-melodramatic films like Network and Ordinary People, Short Cuts is pure Altman). I find myself consistently having a hard time getting invested in Altman's films, maybe because I don't buy into their attempt at authenticity, or maybe I'm just not big on his dialogue, or maybe I feel like his cinematography is often flat, I don't really know. However, Short Cuts may actually be my favorite of Altman's so far, along with Nashville, because there are a few moments of genuine surprise and intrigue, and I was consistently at least somewhat engaged.

Short Cuts is the story of 9 different stories of like 20 different people living in Los Angeles, and the ways they all bump into each other in one way or another. They all either have horrible lives and are bitter because of it or have decent lives and then something horrible happens to them which traumatizes them. It's a pretty cynical movie, though there are a few glimmers of hope in it.

Good lord, this cast. Frances Mcdormand, Tom Waits, Tim Robbins, Chris Penn, Matthew Modine, Julianne Moore, Jack Lemmon, Lily Tomlin, Andie Macdowell, Fred Ward, Buck Henry, Peter Gallagher, Huey Lewis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Robert Downey Jr., and Alex Trebek as himself, it's an actual army of 90's stars. Not only that, but a lot of them are playing somewhat against type. Tim Robbins isn't the typical sweet character that he plays, he's an abusive monster. Chris Penn is very submissive and sad, and doesn't do a crazy Chris Penn snap until the very end. These performances are all really wonderful, with the actors making a full meal out of these characters. It's easily my favorite element of the film.

As far as the stories and dialogue go, these are stories based off of the writings of Raymond Carver. Now I'm not familiar with his work, but if the movie counts as evidence, he seems to focus primarily on stories about dysfunctional relationship that center around infidelity. There's a lot of infidelity in this movie. It's almost entirely infidelity. There's a lot of wonderful movies that feature infidelity or even focus on it, but when there's 9 different stories and most but not all of them feature it, it comes off as more of a fixation than a theme. Robert Downey Jr. tries to get Chris Penn to cheat, Chris Penn's wife is a phone sex worker who's not even interested in Penn physically, Tim Robbins is a serial cheater, Frances Mcdormand is cheating on Peter Gallagher with Tim Robbins, Tom Waits verbally abuses Lily Tomlin about customers being attracted to her, Julianne Moore cheats on Matthew Modine with Fred Ward I think but can't remember, etc. With movies about multiple stories like this, there sort of needs to be an "all or one" mentality. In Magnolia, each story is very different. There's things that they all share, and a lot of them bump into each other, but they're all unique nonetheless. In Short Cuts a lot of the stories are similar or somewhat blend together, which I assume is something Altman wanted, but that actually makes it harder to get invested in them because it's more difficult to follow what's going on. What's even more frustrating is that some of the most interesting stories aren't given enough time because they have to share with other less interesting stories. The men going camping and discovering a body is a great idea but it's essentially glossed over, there's a woman who's a clown but we never actually see her perform, a couple loses their child and are pestered by the man's father which should be its own movie, etc. However, some of these stories are perfect in the shorter format, such as Chris Penn's story, the cello player and her mother, etc. But some stories could be cut entirely, like the Julianne Moore/Matthew Modine/Fred Ward bit, and cutting would be helpful as the film's already over 3 hours.

This is a metaphor I'm fairly certain I've used before, but the movie is like a gigantic bag of trail mix that's mostly pretty okay nuts with some not so great dried fruit and legumes, but there's a handful of tasty M&Ms in there that are worth sticking around for. I'm still waiting for that Altman film that completely turns me around to his work, but I still think this one is solid.