I haven’t seen a thread about this one yet, and a search turns up nothing.
I saw it yesterday. I wouldn’t say I “heart” it, but I did like it an awful lot. I can see why the reviews would be mixed, but it definitely worked for me. Entertainment Weekly (whose movie reviews I hardly ever agree with anyway) said that it purported to say a lot of profound things, but ended up saying nothing. I don’t agree with that at all – it maybe wasn’t as deep as it wanted to be, but it still had something to say if you were willing to pay attention.
And whether or not you “get” the pop philosophy from it, it’s still pretty damn funny. Naomi Watts, who I think is awesome in just about anything, is really great in this one – she’s so good at playing pretty, naive, seemingly vapid characters and making them real instead of a completely dismissible (sp?) stereotype, so you feel genuine sympathy for them. And the other performances were all perfect for the movie. Even Marky Mark, who I usually hate. Jude Law’s attempt at an American accent didn’t work so much, but the rest of his performance was great. Dustin Hoffman was just being himself in a wig, and Lily Tomlin did a remarkable job combining some bits of goofy physical comedy with understated dialogue.
Highlights were the dinner/lunch scene with the Christian family, IMO one of the funniest scenes in recent memory, and Naomi Watts’ character’s attempt at a Huckabees ad in overalls and her bonnet. (And I like her even with the bonnet.)
Overall, I’d say that this is the first Wes Anderson movie not made by Wes Anderson. And that’s pretty high praise.
I’m so jealous of you. I can’t wait until it’s released everywhere. Why, oh why did I choose to go to school in the middle of nowhere? Jason Schwartzman is awesome, and I can’t wait to see Isabelle Huppert in something other than her frigid character in 8 Femmes.
Damn. I finally broke down and subscribed to this board because I wanted to see what the smartest BBS on the web thought of I Heart Huckabees, only to be disappointed to find that there’s almost nothing. Has anyone seen this film? I am intrigued by the philosophies described in them and was wondering if anyone had any more insight to what they were talking about. After watching the idiocy of another philosophically based film called “What the $%&* do we know?”, Huckabees was quite refreshing.
And does anyone know where I can get one of those red balls?
I thought Huckabees was one the funniest things I’ve seen in ages. Don’t be fooled into thinking it’s “deep” though; most of it is a satire of obnoxious pop-philosophical nonsense.
And Lily Tomlin is totally a Hot Older Woman.
[sub]Fuckabees![/sub]
I haven’t seen it but I did read a very entertaining in the NYTimes about a reporter who was allowed to watch the entire process of the film being made, from start to finish. Searching for it now though, it seems that you have to pay money. It was entitled something along the lines of “nudist-buddhist abusive love-in.” Basically, it sounds like the director is insane and he’s bringing everybody else down with him. The article was written right after the premier of the movie, and it implied that it didn’t do well because nobody seemed to understand it. After reading the article I feel like I have to watch it now. Did the movie form a coherent plot?
I really enjoyed the film. I think one of the strong points is that you don’t need to have a great deal of knowledge about existentialism or nihilism to enjoy the film. I know this to be true because I don’t have a great deal of knowledge about existentialism or nihilism and I enjoyed it. The fact that the main characters are trying to learn about it and make sense of it really helps.
The film is opening wider this Friday so more people will be able to see it and discuss it.
Yes, it absolutely formed a coherent plot. That question highlights one of the more puzzling aspects of the criticism about this film. So many of those that don’t like it say that it jumps around and they can’t follow the plot. I don’t understand how anyone can say that. I could understand if they were talking about Memento, or Brazil, or Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, but this film was quite simple as far as plot lines were concerned.
That’s funny, I had pretty much the same thoughts about Demonlover – the critics and a lot of online movie fans said it made no sense, but it seemed kinda straightforward to me.
Almost nothing? That’s the best my mini-review gets?
I don’t know about insight, because I don’t know much about real philosophy (but I do know that I love you… sorry, got carried away for a second). I thought the movie made some pretty basic points:
No one has it all figured out. Often the ones who assert the most strongly that they do have it all figured out, are the ones who have the most fractured philosophy.
Everyone is trying, to one degree or another, to figure it all out. Even the seemingly shallow people, even the “pretty” people. If you assume that you, the introspective nerdy person in the corner writing poetry, are the only one who has “deep thoughts” and the only one who feels pain, you’re fooling yourself and are blind to how all people are similar.
A philosophy that can be simplified down to one sentence (“everything is interconnected” or “life is misery and cruelty”) is not a complete one, and it misses out on the whole of our existence.
Everyone has to find his own way to “truth” and understanding his own existence.
My apologies - your mini-review was very nice, but I was hoping to see more discussion from the doper community.
I guess what I was really wondering was if the ideas stated in the movie were standard themes presented by well-known philosophers like Nietzsche or other dead guys with German names. I’ve been reading up on quantum physics, genetics and history, and it’s led me to think about the universe, our role in it, blah, blah, blah.
I supposed I’ll have to pick up a copy of The Complete Idiots Guide to Philosophy (despite the fact that I’m an incomplete idiot), to find the answers I’m looking for.
We saw it last night. People stood up and cheered after it was over, but then again this is Palm Springs and we’re hard up for entertainment. There were some hilarious moments and overall we enjoyed it, but not in the “knock your socks off” way. Mr. Beckwall said he wanted more scenes with the Sudanese doorman, and I said no, that part was just perfect. I wanted more of Isabelle Hubert’s character - cruelty, manipulation and meaninglessness is attractive to me. The bike riding fireman thing had its moments - “Guys, I’m at the fire!”.
I really enjoyed the preview for Closer, with Jude and Julia and Clive Owen and Natalie Portman. It looks intense.
I liked the “prop psychology” — the no-thought balls, the isolation bag, the hoopy towel, all that.
I also liked a lot of the more subtle gags – like Dustin Hoffman’s character accidentally (and obliviously) ending up with his chalky diliineating rectangles on his own person.
I gotta say that was the best sex scene I’ve seen in a movie in a long time.
I saw it with my husband and his friend the otehr night. We all walked out laughing and asking, what was that movie about. We couldn’t come up with an answer.
Didn’t like it much. Now, I’m always open to the possibility that if I didn’t think a movie was funny, maybe I just got whooshed. But y’know, I think the movie whooshed itself. It spent so much time trying to be interesting and thought-provoking, but at the same time it was parodying the same. Problem was, the two occurred at different times, so it was disjointed.
It wasn’t so much in the “this sucks” way, like Josie and the Pussycats, it’s just that I don’t think it worked at all.
That said, the performances were great, particularly Walhberg, Tomlin, and the creepy French lady.
Thanks to Netflix, I can say that “I Heart Huckabees” is my new favorite movie. At first, I was trying to figure out what was the scam with the existential detectives but at some point I stopped caring and just watched the movie. Just let the mud-sex, bike riding, bonnets and evil petroleum wash over you. The weird thing is that I think I try to force myself to be a blanket person but at my core I really believe in meaninglessness and non-existence.
18 posts and no one has mentioned Shania yet? That was just gold.
I wasn’t expecting her to show up at all, and I certainly didn’t expect to see her do what she did!
I worked at Blockbuster for about five months and our January and February trailer DVDs had adorable trailers for I heart Huckabees on them. Despite listening to them five times a day every working day, they still cracked me up.
“Jesus is never mad at us if we live with Him in our hearts.”
“I hate to break it to you, but He is, He most definitely is*.”
I splurged on seeing this movie in the theatres at a time when I needed cheering up, and it was so completely worth it.
Loved it, loved it, loved it! Funniest film I’ve seen in a long while, in large part because Lily Tomlin is just incredibly funny. But the whole cast was excellent. And the writing was some of the wittiest writing outside of Charlie Kaufman’s films.
Anyone who thought the movie was trying to be deep completely missed the joke. There was nothing profound in it, and none of the philosophies were profound either. It wasn’t supposed to be - it was a joke about our modern-day obsession with finding “meaning” in everything.
