Not Coming to a Theater Near You

I ♥ Huckabees / USA / 2004

David O. Russell’s first three films bear his penchant for infusing slapstick with an otherwise humorless topic, usually some political or social issue. With I ♥ Huckabees the unlikely source for comedy is inherently exploitable and less taboo than in his previous films (comedies about incest, adoption, and war), which is to say Huckabees (“An Existential Comedy”) is Russell’s funniest film.

It is replete with philosophical applesauce, and it has a plot to speak of, but Huckabees favors punch lines instead of revelations. (At least, its numerous punch lines are more adept than its mystified conclusion.) For an audacious resistance to secure credence for the talk contained herein, the film is noteworthy as an opportunist comedy in which discussion and rumination are often second service.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Fox Searchlight Pictures 35mm print
10 Oct 2004 2:18 PM | Comments (2)

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1. Matt / 24 October 2004 / 3:24 PM / URL

   Two weeks later, I got to see this in my podunk town. It’s been described in the press as “an existential screwball comedy,” which, amazingly, is a description it more than lives up to.

   I’m amazed, but ultimately unsurprised, that so many critics have been so hostile to it. I suppose any movie that has genuine ideas and any comedy that is actually funny is bound to have its detractors. Pity.

2. Rumsey / 24 October 2004 / 8:26 PM / URL

   Huckabees’ polarized critical reception is also odd, being that (from what I remember) Flirting With Disaster seemed to have been liked by all—and each film sacrifices anything for the stupidest laugh at every available opportunity: Téa Leoni wrestling Ben Stiller into a glass cabinet, or here Mark Wahlberg beating his firefighter squad to a fire on a bicycle (and gloating and dancing about it before he enters the burning house). In this regard, Huckabees is the funnier film.

   Even the biography how O. Russell directed this film is hilarious, see: the issue of Premiere with Tom Hanks on the cover or this article in the NY Times.