I ♥ Huckabees (2004)

I Heart Huckabees (2004): Dir: David O. Russell / Cast: Jason Schwartzman, Mark Wahlberg, Jude Law, Naomi Watts, Isabelle Huppert: Strange and intriguing comedy about finding oneself and living amongst others. Jason Schwartzman is having an emotional crisis that he cannot quite lock down so he seeks help from a couple of spies played by Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin who will examine his daily life and conclude on his situation. Directed by David O. Russell who previously made the mind blowing Three Kings and switches gears here with a story full of overwhelming detail. Schwartzman is terrific as he struggles with his life and job for which Jude Law is slowly taking over. Law plays Schwartzman's brother whose crises seems to be that his trophy wife who is transforming herself into a plain Jane. His latest business deal is to involve country singer Shania Twain, which results in a funny cameo. Mark Wahlberg is hilarious as a firefighter looking for answers and forms much aggression. Hoffman and Tomlin steal the film as spies who inform their clients what they don't want to hear. Naomi Watts plays Law's wife who goes plain but also swerves towards another relationship. Isabelle Huppert plays a counter to Hoffman and Tomlin, directing Schwartman's attention away. Curious film full of ideas that will leave viewers loving more than Huckabees. Score: 10 / 10

There may be no other movie that better illustrates the absurd by being absurd. Dustin Hoffman as existential detective Bernard is classic, spewing utter nonsense that often sounds reasonable, but ultimately doesn't mean anything at all. Like my summary quote - in trying to analyze it, the line seems to be a profound comment on the absolute nature of mathematics. On the flip side, so what?The most distracting thing about this movie is that one is always a few moments behind the events occurring on screen contemplating what was said a mere few seconds ago. The dialog by Hoffman and Lily Tomlin doesn't allow you to come up for air most of the time, because you're either stymied or laughing hysterically at the nonsense. My point is not to make fun of existentialism, the movie does that well enough by itself. It skewers those deep thinkers who think they can come up with the secrets to the mystery of life in a neat, compact little package. Personally, I went through my own existentialist period while transitioning from high school to college, and it was as confusing a time for me as this picture.So forgive me for making this a short review. I'm going to transcend space and time here for a couple of minutes and get my bearings before I take a walk up to the lake and watch the sun set. Then maybe, just maybe, I'll watch this movie again.

I decided three quarters of the way through this movie that I was going to review it. I also decided that I wasn't gong to read anyone else's reviews before I did. Half way through and I was already mentally punishing myself for not having a guaranteed definition of what was going on. Being a Sociology graduate I felt like I was letting myself down by not having a concrete definition. I decided to write the review when it clicked; this movie is entirely based on the confusion I felt, and the malleable concept of the existential thought process that fueled it. If you are to consider such a thing as existentialism, then you must first accept that your consideration will be either utterly pointless, or infinitely meaningful given the universal pointlessness of the world that it exists within. Which really brings you to the crux of the matter...or not. Two sides of the same coin land edgewise up and gently ridicule the very concept of flipping it in the first place, and the idea that there can be two conflicting arguments within such an ideology becomes absurd. We are all connected so everything matters, or we are all disconnected so nothing does, which means that if nothing matters, then everything does, and if everything matters, then nothing does. As I walked around my house after watching it, I found myself in a positive state of mind, and I felt a new fondness for my surroundings that had been absent for a few months. I have no conscious idea why this was the case, but if a movie can have that effect on you, then something's gone right.

I watched this movie in my English class to learn a little more about existentialism along with reading the book the stranger I am only a senior in high school and completely understood this movie as strange and abstract as it maybe i have a few ideas for a thesis on a paper I am writing using the movie and the book: Ultimately you can only fix your own problems but together you can fix the world. People only care when there is a problem. When you betray others you betray yourself. In order to be successful you must be liked by society. Repeating yourself to get your point across only leads to insanity. You only realize what you had after you lose it all. Pain exist in the past and in the future but if you live day by day you can be completely indifferent and emotionless.Those are my ideas so far.