I Heart Huckabees
Let’s be honest; there are some filmmakers out there who you simply cannot stand. Whether it’s their artistic choice or their personality, you cannot like every director, actor, or writer out there and you almost certainly can dislike them so much that it quakes your body. Anyway, I like to genuinely stay positive when it comes to the film industry (in general. When something is shite, it is shit and I’m not afraid to call out said bullshit.) But when it comes to David O Russell, I turn into a frothing at the mouth behemoth speaking of this walking wang with venom.
Right - breathe Cookie - anyway, what is most frustrating about O Russell is that, with the exception of American Hustle, I actually enjoy his work from Silver Linings Playbook to Three Kings. But behind the scenes, he is the saltiest of unwashed dicks, treating his crew like a spot on his scrotum, whilst simultaneously swinging his penis, and roaring like Tarzan. It sort of sours the taste of a films when you know what an insatiable twat he is (which, by the way, the whole different discussion on the separation of art and filmmaking wankers.)
No matter how much I hate O Russell (enough to introduce two of his films with the same way. Maybe I secretly love him………...)
Anyway, no matter how much I hate O Russell, I adore I Heart Huckabees.
Starring Dustin Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman, Jude Law, and Naomi Watts, I Heart Huckabees revolves around a man named Albert whose life is sent into a whirlwind of existential crisis and philosophical madness when he sees the same stranger three time during his day. Hiring a husband and wife team of detectives, Albert is catapulted into this journey where he questions his very life and the behaviour that populates it.
I Heart Huckabees is one of those films that smatters of the bewildering and confusing. (I’d almost use pretentious but I believe that word is so moot in conversation that I won’t.) You can completely understand why it polarised critics because the storyline is such a complex mash of ideas that’ll peck at your brain throughout. Not a lazy Sunday afternoon movie, this’ll take your brain cells working together and will roll in your emotions all at the same time. This isn’t some massive psychological debate either, that’ll have you coursing out the hefty Hulme and smart Socrates at dinner tables - this is more about the behaviour of one and the inability to see past oneself. This is what cleverly drives the film forward - rippling manic behaviour and neuroticism. Something most can relate to.
Wrapped around this chaotically packaged inner-self farce, there is endearing talent here who take away from the pure debate and help to inject something mildly amusing. Of course, the starring talent is the husband and wife duo act of Dustin Hoffman and Angelica Huston who are a match made in heaven, feeding of reams of comedy between one another, and transforming this into an almost Wes Anderson like affair. The populace of Law, Watts, and the infallible Schwartzman (who doesn’t get enough credit in anything thanks to his history with Wes,) gifts this film a stirring humanity that lovingly balances the intellect too - like the heart and the brain, melding together for a sweet movie.
This is a film that’ll cause you to look inside yourself for answers rather than outside for your musings. As convoluted as it may be, that is the frank winning quality here.