I often watch movies over several days. My first "session" with Huckabees was stimulating. I was fully prepared to embrace it as another "Coen-esque" film (the good Coens of "Lewbowski" not the bad Coens of "Intolerable Cruelty"), however by the end I was sorely disappointed. I applaud the attempts at creativity (the effort to introduce "philosophy" in a humorous way, especially setting up an enmity between Hollywood therapy-Buddhism-lite versus sexy French nihilism), but in the end I felt I was listening to a lecture by a very young person and I was afraid to leave the auditorium because her parents were there and I had previously said their child was a genius. This is a film by a young person who hasn't had much experience in life or relationships (but earnestly wants to), who wants to read philosophy (but doesn't have the time) and who admires edgy filmmakers (and thinks it would be easy to "make a film like that.") Some have called it a sad mess and I think I can go along with that. Flashes of brilliance are present but not sustained. Intruguingly contrarian political/ philosophical are flirted with then abandoned to "this is what they want to hear" positions (eg. like "let's all hate Wallmart, we can get behind that right, gang?") These writers and filmmakers should take a sabbatical and actually do something besides talk to each other in bars and wrangle funding from befuddled elders. It's like art school, only done with huge budgets and in public. Some things should be allowed to mature before they're shown the cruel light of day.
Review of I Heart Huckabees
