Review of Short Cuts (1993) by Christopher M — 15 Apr 2008

A slick ensemble film by director Robert Altman based in L.A. I heard about this film in connection with it being based on the work of Raymond Carver, who is one of my favourite writers. I definitely see this after having watched it; the film paints a picture of dark suburban American life that Carver often focused on, and I think it's this inspiration that makes the film so special.

There are a lot of similarities to later ensemble films like Magnolia or even Crash. Considering Magnolia's director P.T. Anderson was a co-director on Altman's last film, A Prairie House Companion, one can assume this film was definitely an influence on Anderson's ensemble masterpiece from 1999.

It's similar to Crash in that it's an ensemble film that deals with racial issues and the death of a child based in L.A. - but unlike Crash, this is actually a very good film. Also unlike Crash, it deals with the racial issues present in a very subtle way which I really appreciated (the fact that the issues were so obviously presented and shoved down your throat is what I most hated about Crash).

The other themes are not as subtle, but still handled very smoothly and with class - Altman's direction (I admit to not being extremely familiar with his work) is very graceful, his use of the songs of one of the characters, a night-club jazz singer, throughout the film and the awesome jazz soundtrack that was present almost throughout worked very well.

The cast, and their acting, was overall very good. There were a couple sour apples (Andie MacDowell gets a little overbearing near the end), but they don't ruin the bunch - as the film exhibits solid performances from Chris Penn (great to see him in a more meaty role than usual), Bruce Davison, Tim Robbins, Madeleine Stowe, Peter Gallagher, and the great Jack Lemmon.

It's always a pleasure as well to see Tom Waits acting (especially in something beyond a small cameo-type role), and he does very well. Overall, this is a very good episodic movie with a literary feel, I'd definitely recommend checking it out.