Short Cuts (1993)

This film, from director Robert Altman, shows us a few days in the intertwined lives of various Los Angeles residents. Some of the characters already know each other, some will get to know each other and others are merely destined to cross paths. We see snapshots into their various lives. A group of fishermen discover a body but decide not to report it straight away. A waitress hits a young boy in her car; he appears to be fine but is later rushed to hospital. A clown, married to one of the anglers, is invited to dinner at the home of an artist who is married to the doctor treating the boy. An adulterous policeman tries to get rid of the family dog and the ex-husband of the woman she is seeing decides to literally take half of what they own. These are just some of the stories and characters we meet along the way.'Short Cuts' isn't an easy film to describe as there isn't a conventional plot; the characters each have their own little story; some have obvious resolutions, others don't. The opening scenes tell us how the city is being sprayed to deal with a medfly infestation but that has almost no bearing on what we see. This might all sound rather confusing but actually when watching I found it made sense and the way the film skipped from one story to another kept me interested; it certainly didn't feel like I was watching a three hour film. The cast is packed with well-known actors; Julianne Moore, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Robert Downey Jnr, Madeleine Stowe, Tim Robbins, Francis McDormand and Chris Penn to name just a few; these and the others are on great form making their characters believable even during the more extreme moments. This certainly isn't for younger viewers or the easily offended; as well as such things as Jennifer Jason Leigh performing phone-sex while feeding her young children and Julianne Moore arguing with Matthew Modine while half naked there is a nihilistic feel at times with the fishermen's story and a murder in the closing scenes. If you believe a good film needs a strong plot then this probably won't be for you but if you want a film that is all about characters and how they interact then this is definitely one to watch.

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!!

The day-to-day lives of a number of suburban Los Angeles residents.In many ways, this film is a follow-up to Altman's "Nashville", another story of several people (twenty-four) going about their day in Nashville. How many characters are in this story of folks in Los Angeles? Probably about the same.If anything, this story strikes me as better. Better scripted, for sure, and with much more mystery and suspense (and more dead bodies). We have an incredible cast: Tom Waits and Jennifer Jason Leigh steal the show, but Robert Downey, Tim Robbins, Chris Penn and a dozen others are amazing, too.

I love movies that intertwine multiple stories and connect everything together with a nice big bow. However this present was far to big and ran out of wrapping paper.As the cliché goes ''more is less''. This film could have used less to make it more. I do understand the importance of character development but redundancy can leave you disinterested in one or even all the players. In fact, some of them seem disinterested with themselves and the events occurring around or directly to them. They all seem to have to much restraint when it comes to emotions. Was this the point? If so, perhaps another hour should have been added to the film to better explain why. Did I mention this film clocks in at just over 3hours? I'm usually very patient when it comes to long films, but 3hrs felt like 5 in this case.This is not a bad film, but you can get the same kind of entertainment sitting on a park bench for a few hours.