Short Cuts Reviews

I remember it pretty well, when it was released, there was a huge buzz and eventually it received some great reviews. So, following this and the fact I loved Robert Altman's previous movie ('The Player'), I was really eager to watch this movie. Unfortunately, I was rather disappointed. Still, since I was 14-15 years old when I watched it the first time around, I thought it needed a rewatch. Eventually, I enjoyed it a little bit more but, to be honest, I still didn't think it was anything really mind-blowing though. Basically, it is one of those hyperlink features with various characters and storylines which are more or less intertwined together. Back then, I thought it was a boring mess which was going nowhere. Nowadays, I'm more familiar with the whole hyperlink thing and I could appreciate more what Robert Altman was trying to pull here. Unfortunately, pretty much like 'Nashville', I didn't care much about the characters or what they were going through and, as a result, it was sometimes rather tedious to watch. Still, it was very well directed, there was a massive cast (Andie MacDowell, Jack Lemmon, Julianne Moore, Matthew Modine, Anne Archer, Fred Ward, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Chris Penn, Lili Taylor, Robert Downey Jr., Madeleine Stowe, Tim Robbins, Lily Tomlin, Tom Waits, Frances McDormand, Peter Gallagher, Lori Singer, Lyle Lovett) and they all gave some strong performances. Anyway, to conclude, even though I don't think it is an amazing masterpiece, it remains a solid feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Robert Altman's work.

I love movies with ensemble large casts & loosely intersecting stories like Nashville, Two Days In The Valley & of course Pulp Fiction.
And while this is a genre of film that we don't get to see much of these days,the few times that we do, it seems like that there are more good being produced that bad. Maybe it's b'cuz the idea of such a type of film can intimidate all but the most talented & those more suited to such an often complicated cinematic undertaking. The fact that the logistics of such a project requires handling people of a profession which allows egos to manifest almost unhindered only adds to the complexity of the task.
Whatever the reason,
Short Cuts is prime example of all the resulting benefits that the eyes of those who first pioneered the idea of these types of films envisioned when they conceived of the genre in the first place.
All the stories intertwine just loose enough to provide an energetic patchwork of distinctive individual stories,
yet close enough to make the movie work thematically as a cohesive whole, with the added benefit of allowing the title "Show Cuts" to do it's job both as a movie description and as a multi-literary metaphor.