Andie MacDowell

Bruce Davison

Jack Lemmon

Zane Cassidy

Julianne Moore

Matthew Modine

Anne Archer

Fred Ward

Jennifer Jason Leigh

Chris Penn

Joseph C. Hopkins

Josette Maccario

Lili Taylor

Robert Downey Jr.

Madeleine Stowe

Tim Robbins

Frances McDormand

Peter Gallagher

Austin Friel

Dustin Friel

Cassie Friel

Lily Tomlin

Tom Waits

Jarrett Lennon

Buck Henry

Huey Lewis

Dirk Blocker

Alex Trebek

Jerry Dunphy

Lyle Lovett

Lori Singer

Danny Darst

Annie Ross

Robert DoQui

Margery Bond

Darnell Williams

Michael Beach

Andi Chapman

Deborah Falconer

Susie Cusack

Charles Rocket

Jane Alden

Christian Altman

William H.D. Marlett

Suzanne Calvert

Natalie Strong

Jay Della

Jeri Gray

Derek Webster

Nathaniel Harris

Ron McPherson

Cary Brokaw

Suzy Elmiger

John Hay

Mike Kaplan

Robert Altman

Frank Barhydt

Scott Bushnell

Walt Lloyd

Mark Isham

Dee Dee Altamura

David Levy

Geraldine Peroni

Jerry Fleming

Raymond Carver

Stephen Altman

Susan Emshwiller

Diana Pokorny

Lee Dichter

John Pritchett

Margaret Crimmins

Michael Barry

Drama

Comedy

Short Cuts

Fine Line Features

Spelling Entertainment

Avenue Entertainment

United States of America

English

suicide

helicopter

cheating

loss of loved one

fishing

jazz singer or musician

modern society

cellist

earthquake

los angeles, california

hit by a car

multiple storylines

**tripping over ourselves**

While there's no cinematic equivalent to the Mona Lisa, I submit a list of the top ten American movies of the last 50 years in no particular order:

The _Godfather_, _Apocalypse Now_, _Raging Bull_, _Pulp Fiction_, _Blade Runner_, _Raiders of the Lost Ark_, _Mulholland Drive_, _Tree of Life_, _Boyhood_, _Short Cuts_.

Whaaaaaa... _Short Cuts_? Is it even Altman's best work? Well, everything unique and original in the other movies on this list was done before... by Altman. (Is there anything the man hasn't tried?) And everything Altman achieved in his career can be summed up in _Short Cuts_.

Five of the entries on my list are genre intact: gangster, war, bio, sci-fi, adventure. Lynch is a genre of his own (a master of hook and subvert), _Pulp Fiction_ is pomo-noir with a swagger, _Tree of Life_, an audacious and transcendent poem, _Boyhood_, literally an epic achievement of dedication and commitment. _Short Cuts_ doesn't seem to fit in as it is merely an observation of lives and love. But what observations! What lives! What heartbreaking affection. All underscored with a resonating heartbeat patching into so many paths, teetering on the brink of disaster and threatening to explode, which it does, in the form of a climactic planetary stroke. Nothing brings people together quite like a natural disaster. An earthquake, tremoring just enough to inform us of our place in history on the cosmic map. Enough to bring us down to earth, reboot our egos, and put multiple perspectives in perspective. Enough to appreciate the simple state of being. 

A larger-than-life baroque master is at the helm, warbling out contrapuntal narratives and swirling themes orchestrated to perfection. Multiple story-lines wavering under one very singular umbrella. And under Altman's protective cover the talent runs free and easy, playful and experimental, ironic and sincere. The key characters in one story become walk-throughs in another, paradoxically tethered and disconnected from the self, from family, community, and life. Boundaries are crossed and souls get lost. We're all the same if only by not knowing what our needs are or why we're even here. With nothing to say except everything is exceptional, infinite and empty. And life is short. Shorts Cuts of scenes stories words actions desire love loss lies lust faith wonder and devotion. Heck, I'd see it again only to watch Tom Waits and Lily Tomlin shack up.

Some movies claim to be infinitely entertaining, some maintain they can be viewed repeatedly without losing their initial charm, some insist they never age, I know only one that can lay claim to all such conceits. _Short Cuts_ is like falling in love. It delivers quietly, wonderfully, naturally, tenderly, simply and deeply.

Filipe Manuel Neto

**A huge cast full of familiar names, where each one does their job very well… but without commitment, without emotion and under a script so intricate that it leaves anyone lost.**

I'm usually very critical of movies with bad or weak scripts. It's a recurring problem in cinema. This film, however, makes the opposite mistake: the script is excessive, it has so many characters and so many interconnected sub-plots that it is almost necessary to make diagrams and schemes on a board to be able to follow what is happening. I got almost halfway through the movie and I didn't really know who was who.

The film begins with a fleet of helicopters spraying something over the skies of Los Angeles. I, who was very young when the film was made, had to do some research to realize what they're doing: spraying an insecticide to fight flies, something I had never seen in the middle of a city. Then the film begins to introduce us to a multitude of characters and their everyday stories: we have several middle-class couples, each with the problems of their lives, we have a limousine driver married to a cafeteria worker, the pilot from one of the helicopters, an erotic line operator who has a husband and children… and we follow the daily problems of these couples and families. The film tries to give us a portrait of ordinary people and their lives, but it does so in an excessively dispassionate and uncompromising way, failing to convey the emotions of the characters, with whom we have no particular connection. The only sub-plot that tries to go through the most emotional way (that of the child) turns out to be so melodramatic that it loses credibility.

Technically, this film is low-key and doesn't bet too much on anything flashy. The cinematography is the standard used at that time, the special effects and visuals work reasonably, but not surprisingly, the sets and costumes are regular. The editing work was well done, but the film, with its three hours long, becomes a little tiring, mainly due to our inability to truly connect with the characters and what we see in the film.

What saves this film, in a decisive way, is the enormous cast of great actors, and the way in which each one, in a very individual way, does an excellent dramatic work. The film, in fact, looks like a showcase of the best Hollywood had in the early 90s. Bruce Davison, Fred Ward, Lily Tomlin, Tom Waits, Anne Archer, Andie MacDowell, Chris Penn, Robert Downey Jr., Lily Taylor, Madeleine Stowe, Tim Robbins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Julianne Moore, Peter Gallagher, Matthew Modine, Frances McDormand… say a name, and he's there! Each one in their role, each one trying to do the best, but each one for themselves. The film works very well as a dramatic exercise and allows each actor to show the best that he knows how to do. Even so, it lacks emotion, lacks commitment, lacks intensity.

Short Cuts ≣ 1993 ≣ Trailer ≣ Remastered

Criterion Trailer 256: Short Cuts

Short Cuts( 1993)

Short Cuts raises the roof on America.

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A review by tmdb39513728

Written by tmdb39513728 on Wed Feb 04 2015

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