I Heart Huckabees (David O. Russell, 2004)

[pianocrash]

I expect the evangelical wing of the Republican party to start making "I [Heart] Huckabee" bumper stickers now. I hope that the aforementioned wingnuts then head to their local Blockbuster to be confounded and angered by the movie.

"Fuckabees."

[Belmondo]

Nothing to worry about; two one hit wonders who have nowhere to go but down.
For Russell it is "Three Kings"
For Huckabee it is the Iowa caucuses
Say goodnight, boys; your 15 minutes are up.

[Barmy]

"President Huckabee" has a nice ring to it!

[Marcel Gioberti]

Nothing to worry about; two one hit wonders who have nowhere to go but down.
For Russell it is "Three Kings"
For Huckabee it is the Iowa caucuses
Say goodnight, boys; your 15 minutes are up.

Flirting With Disaster was a good film, if a little conventional.

[Magic Hate Ball]

"Fuckabees."

That was the best word in the movie.

[tavernier]

"President Huckabee" has a nice ring to it!

Only if you thought "President Bush" and "Vice-President Cheney" did also...yes, I know that Barmy did.

[swo17]

And in reinforcement of the short-lived taste love affair with Matt, I think I Heart Huckabees could lay claim to being one of the worst films ever made by people who should know better. I agree that overall Russell's a negligible director but he does seem on the upswing with Silver Linings Playbook and this looks like a great pisstake, so I have cautious optimism for the film. I won't go so far as to say "With that cast, how can it be bad," because, you know, Huckabees, but still

Surely you'll agree though that the variety of intense reactions re: Huckabees are indicative of some level of achievement...

[Zot!]

Yeah, I'm with Domino on Huckabees. The worst. Even worse because it's brought up by people who otherwise wouldn't bother with these kinds of things as something special.

[FerdinandGriffon]

Could someone please explain all this "I H8 Huckabees"? It seems to inspire something close to revulsion for several members of the board, but I don't know if any of them have ever told us why beyond labels like "twee", "quirky" and "self-conscious". (Labels I've always found doubly confusing since the quirky, self-conscious aesthetic is not in the film for its own sake (as one could more easily say about Wes Anderson, Miranda July or even PTA's films) but is deployed to the satirical end of depicting a totally blissed out, postmodern mileu caught precariously between new-age mysticism and corporate culture. It's a movie about shadows and abysses, composed entirely with sleek surfaces and pastels.)

I think I also heard "Tashlin knock-off" bandied about by someone (Domino?) at some point. That argument makes more sense to me, but I'd be curious to hear it depth.

[domino harvey]

Like I would ever sully Tashlin's name by uttering it in the same breath as this. I've never even considered such an idea, and apparently neither has anyone else:

[warren oates]

Well, I don't know, maybe the film is just too openly sincere and intellectual for the h8ers to see how brilliant, funny and moving it is too. Maybe they saw it when they were in the grip of a youthful "pretension" backlash (the probable scenario with many of my friends). Maybe they just don't think it's possible to make a successful screwball comedy that's as deeply about religion/existentialism as Andrei Rublev, A Man Escaped or Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left For the East?. Or they don't recognize it as the joyous showcase for some of the better performances from its entire cast (in spite of any apparent making-of unpleasantness, like its infamous leaked on-set screamfest). I've kind of given up stumping for this film in my circles. I think it's one of those films that's surprisingly difficult to convince someone to appreciate if they've seen it and they don't intuitively connect with it on a deeply personal level. It's more like the password for a secret society where I come from. If I meet someone who loves Huckabees, then I know I'll have something real to talk about with them. Welcome to the club, FG?

[domino harvey]

Well, I don't know, maybe the film is just too openly sincere and intellectual for the h8ers to see how brilliant, funny and moving it is too.

Sure you don't want to load that sentence up with a few more cast-aspersions? So far it only implies that those who don't like the film are opposed to sincerity, stupid or anti-intellectual, blind to brilliance, humorless, and resistant to emotion. Surely those who dislike the film are also at least into small children and don't tip?

[FerdinandGriffon]

I guess so Warren! Though I'm worried you're pulling my leg.

Domino, I'm sorry for speculating that the most avid Tashlin fan and vociferous Huckabee decrier on the board would have made the remark I remember hearing somewhere. I'd made that search before posting but, as we all know, that function of the board isn't perfect. In any case, I think the comparison makes complete sense, at least vis–à–vis Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, as both are deliberately mannered, brightly colored satires of corporate workplaces and excesses that often plunge into outright fantasy.

PS: It would seem David Ehrenstein agrees:

Like the fun of I Heart Huckabees, a comedy about philosophy that I’m sure Derrida would have loved. Indeed it resembles nothing so much as a Derrida remake of Frank Tashlin’s Who’s Minding the Store? — which doubtless explains why its made so many critics nervous.

[knives]

Even as someone who loves the movie as one of the best made recently I have to say you aspersions on the against crowd is rather obnoxiously suppositional.

[warren oates]

Well, leave it to a film about existentialism to lend itself to either/or positions. I didn't intend to suggest those who dislike the film were anti-intellectual. Just that perhaps the particular brand of David O. Russell's serious/sincere intellectualism in this film gets in their way.

But, like I tried to say above, it feels like you kind of have to take it all or leave it with this one. The kinds of criticisms I hear about this from my friends and from those on the board who dislike Huckabees aren't in the manner of "so and so is miscast," "the first act is too long," "If only it had a better editor." It's more about getting on board with the endeavor as a whole, being into what it's trying to do and thinking it does so interestingly/successfully.

These are the common refrains I've heard from bad reviews, bad word of mouth, from people who don't seem to connect with it.: "Too intellectual, too pretentious, too confusing, too earnest, too weird/quirky." If somebody's issue with a film is on the level of broad intention, then it's sort of hard to disagree with or even engage with that kind of problem.

Though I admire many of his other films, I have an issue like this with both version of Haneke's Funny Games, which strike me as immeasurably more obvious/didactic/pretentious on the level of conception than I believe he imagines or intends them to be. Still, I respect his willingness to risk (or from my point of view embrace) failure so boldly. That's what I admire about Lars Von Trier's films too, even the ones I dislike. And I'm surprised at least that Russell seems to get very little credit for his daring in this one.

[Gregory]

I just rewatched this and was surprised to see that Isabelle Huppert (whom I love as an actor) got second billing after Dustin Hoffman in the opening credits and second billing after Schwartzman in the end credits. Jude Law and Lily Tomlin are obviously huge names, and Huppert's part here is a supporting role (her character shows up 45 minutes into the film).

I had forgotten the nightmarish image of Jude Law where the camera moves down to reveal his breasts, with Schwartzman sucking at them and spraying milk out of his mouth. Hard to believe that ended up in the final cut, unless the reason was that they were trying to make the film extremely "quirky" by design.

[hearthesilence]

I had forgotten the nightmarish image of Jude Law where the camera moves down to reveal his breasts, with Schwartzman sucking at them and spraying milk out of his mouth. Hard to believe that ended up in the final cut, unless the reason was that they were trying to make the film extremely "quirky" by design.

Seems pretty tame compared to this network television sketch from eight years earlier.

[domino harvey]

Knew what that was going to be before clicking it