I ♥ Huckabees

English Title:	I Heart Huckabees
Other Titles:	View 1 Title
Year:	2004
Country:	International
Language:	Multilingual
Genre:	Comedy
IMDB:	IMDB Page
Rating:	5.5 Rate
Collection:	Seen It Wishlist
Community:	2 Have Seen


Director	David O. Russell
Selected Cast	Jason Schwartzman as Albert Markovski
	Jude Law as Brad Stand
	Naomi Watts as Dawn Campbell
	Dustin Hoffman as Bernard
	Isabelle Huppert as Caterine Vauban
	Lily Tomlin as Vivian
	Mark Wahlberg as Tommy Corn
	Shania Twain as Herself

Notes

UK / Germany / USA co-production

Comments and Reviews


Magic Marmalade 28th Apr 2023		Rated 5/10 Not half as clever as it likes to think it is, or wants you to think it is. Another noisy neighbour! ...As I've come to think of those movies that seem to hum away in the background of your consciousness, occasionally bubbling up to the surface of conversation as some kind of cult classic contender, or unappreciated prospective masterpiece, to quote Peter Griffin: "It insists upon itself", until you finally relent, and watch the thing. And for the most part such movies have not yet disappointed: Crazy Stupid Love, The Before Trilogy (such as I have seen so far!), have knocked it out of the park, and proven themselves worthy of more general appreciation, even, to a degree: Punch Drunk Love was in this zone... ...But this has proven itself not to be such a film - a lot of talk about it's quirky strangeness worthy of being mentioned alongside the works of Wes Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson, Charlie Kauffman, Gondry, Jonze and the rest, is flattery beyond what is reasonable, because basically, this feels like an attempt to bottle and commercialise, or otherwise cash in on the vibes and themes that those other master film-makers do - to tap into their wild, surreal, yet insightful genius, and claim it for their own. This wants to be a Wes Anderson movie, or a Paul Thomas Anderson movie, better yet. Wes Anderson directing a Paul Thomas Anderson Kauffman story, and reeks of pretentions to this... indeed it is, therefore: Pretentious. And while, on the surface of things, it should be an interesting confounding story of a man who feels nudged out of an enterprise by usurping, shallow former friend hiring a couple of, um, existential investigators to follow himself around, and get the bottom of his existence, and discover if life rests upon the intricate relationship of a causal interconnectedness of things, with meaning or purpose in it's design, or if it's all just one great coincidental mess, with no point or purpose to the circumstances of life... (Phew! - I told you it was pretentious!!!) ...It actually dissolves into an uninteresting, incomprehensible mess of parts. .......And you become increasingly aware as the movie goes on, that it was only a half baked idea to begin with, that on paper, may have made the actors involved look with relish at such an interesting concept, and script, probably with those other movie makers works in mind, like they would get the chance to be involve in something like that, with the same results. But sadly, no. This feels very much like nobody involved even understood what it is those other guys actually do, but thought, let's just be strange, wordy, and make it look and feel like one of those we've achieved it... if it's purposely obscure, it must mean something, and people will be believe it too, and nod reverently at us for having made something so profound, and brilliant. (For some reason, that Turner prize winner of the painting made with poo springs to mind, that everyone got very frowny, obsequious, and celebratory about :) For this is a piece of shit. First, look at the cast: Mark Wahlberg, Naomi Watts, ad Jude Law... yeah, enough said. And then, I think the cardinal sin, is trying to all of those other film makers at once, and therefore loses the definition, and distinctiveness, both in substance and style which is each their own, and makes their movies work. It therefore feels messy, flat, bland, and uncompelling. Granted, there are one or two moments of inspiration, such as the blanket analogy of reality, which I enjoyed, but then went beyond ridiculous to plain embarrassing in the "surreal" moments of seeing Schwartzman as a baby being breast fed by a grown man with hairy tits - an image I never want in my head again! - or the slow motion "passionate sexual abandon" in the woodland, covering each other with mud, and being really depressingly sad to look at. Many other things just feel like amateur theatre ideas and playground gimmicks dressed up as something important, but it just made me wince. And, although promising to begin with, the telling line: "That September thing" seeming to allude to what this was all about really, given it's historical proximity to 911: A shattered faith, and psychology of a people after that catastrophic event, seeking to make sense of an equally shattered reality trying to find meaning, and purpose in life where everything is apparently called into question... ...But this never lives up to it, and just meanders along until the end, and doesn't get good at any point. So, I can now file this in my brain as watched, and can advise anyone else curious about it because of what they may have heard about it, that on this occasion, you can give this a miss, it won't ever (I hope) become regarded as a beloved classic, or culturally important in any way. ✔︎ Helpful Review?



jaimeeduardo 22nd Apr 2021

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