Cheap Short Cuts - Criterion Collection (DVD) (Andie MacDowell, Julianne Moore, Tim Robbins) (Robert Altman) Price

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Customer Reviews of Short Cuts - Criterion Collection

However, Short Cuts has a few scenes so brilliant and affecting that they are worth the rental (or purchase price) alone.

The intersecting storylines tell a story about a group of fishermen who discover a dead body, a grieving family (Andie MacDowell), a married couple with skeletons in the closet (Julianne Moore and Matthew Modine) a drunkard and his waitress girlfriend (Tom Waits and Lily Tomlin), a depressed cellist (Lori Singer) a philandering cop with a wife and family back home (Tim Robbins and Madeleine Stowe) and a sketchy make-up artist and his girlfriend (Robert Downey Jr. and Lily Taylor).

The incredible number of stories and stars may seem mind-boggling, but it's the least of the film's problems. In fact the strong acting and richness of the collective stories are the film's high point.

All the actors are great in one way or another, but Julianne Moore's performance is stunning. Jack Lemmon is similarly incredible. These two have to be seen to be believed.

However, with so many stories, all of them won't measure up to high quality. Short Cuts main problem is that a whole lot don't measure up.

By the way, there's a lot of nudity in this film, profanity, sex, and overall depressing material.

It's Long but it Resonates!
Robert Altman takes another large cast and tells engrossing, interconnected and overlapping tales of modern LA life as no one else can. Based on the short stories of Raymond Carver, yes, the movie is long, 189 minutes long to be exact. But what stories! They echoed and resonated and stayed with me and I can't imagine what you would cut. So, its 189 minutes. Take your time.

There isn't a "movie minute" in the whole film, which doesn't mean there aren't surprises. These people act like real people, they do what real people do, which means they surpise the hell out of you all the time. Character is revealed not so much by words but by unanticipated responses and actions.

I don't want to divulge too much of the individual stories as it would spoil the moments of revelation. Suffice it to say, Tim Robbin's arrogant philandering motorcyle cop, Fred Ward's obtuse & callous fisherman, Lori Singer's sad cellist, Jack Lemmon's pathetic loser, Lily Tomlin & Tom Waits alcoholic trailer trash, Lyle Lovett's mistaken baker, Chris Penn's inwardly raging pool- cleaner, Davidson's & MacDowell's anxious parents, Modine's jealous surgeon, Gallagher's vengeful Ex, and all the other terrific performances both light and dark, will stay with you when the movie has ended.

This is Altman back doing what Altman does best, catching lightning in a bottle, and great performances on celluloid. First rate!

AN ACRID BUT INTRIGUING BANQUET OF CLIPS FROM EVERYDAY LIVES
Altman's singature classic with twenty two characters and ten nearly distinct tales. Imagine the ingenuity required to interweave all of that into a seamless whole, but Altman manages the feat deliciously.

While the individual threads may coax discussion, it is their blending that enables a variety of perspectives. Most of them are poignant, for instance the life of a pool cleaner and his wife who vocalizes orgasms on the phone in her job as a tele-sex worker while changing her kids' diapers. Or the life of a couple whose son has been in a tragic accident that brings their lives to an abrupt halt. Etc.

Be warned, many of these vignettes, while very tautly scripted and cleverly screenplayed, remain "unresolved," which may not work for some viewers. Personally I feel that films like this are more genuine reflections of the world in which we live: people often don't change, questions are frequently left unanswered, and unbecoming things do happen every day.

It's a pure pleasure to find a movie that weaves such a deep and intelligent tapestry of human lives, with all their idiosynchratic travails and triumphs. An absolute gem for you to own, not just rent.