BY LOIS WADSWORTH
CLAUDETTE BARIUS. FOX SEARCHLIGHT, 2004
Existential
Detective
Bernard Jaffee
(Dustin
Hoffman) zips
Albert (Jason
Schwartzman)
into his bag.
Being or Nothingness
An absurd comedy from David Russell
“A TOTALLY EPIC, EPIC"
- CHRIS ANTHONY
I HEART HUCKABEES: Writer, director, pro-
ducer David O. Russell. Co-writer, Jeff Baena.
Producers Gregory Goodman, Scott Rudin. Executive
producer, Michael Kuhn. Cinematography, Peter
Deming. Production design, K.K. Barrett. Editor, Robert
K. Lambert. Costumes, Mark Bridges. Music, Jon Brion.
Starring Jason Schwartzman, Lily Tomlin, Jude Law,
Isabelle Huppert, Dustin Hoffman, Naomi Watts and
Mark Wahlberg. Fox Searchlight, 2004. R. 105 minutes.
O
FEATURING MUSIC BY
YELLOWCARD
COLDPLAY RADIOHEAD
JANE'S ADDICTION
BUY A TICKET AND GET FREE STUFF *
FREE LIFT TICKET TO MT. HOOD MEADOWS
FREE TWILIGHT TICKET TO WILLAMETTE PASS
RECEIVE $25 OFF OF A $100 PURCHASE AT PEAK SPORTS
*RESTRICTIONS APPLY. CHECK WARRENMILLER.COM FOR DETAILS
DISCOUNTED TICKETS: BUY EIGHT OR MORE, SAVE $1 OFF EACH TICKET, BUY TWELVE
OR MORE, ALSO GET A WARREN MILLER DVD. BY PHONE ONLY: 800.523.7117
Tickets available at Peak Sports, Ticketmaster outlets and Austin
Auditorium box office night of show only.
CORVALLIS
OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
AUSTIN AUDITORIUM
Wednesday, October 27th 8:00 pm
EUGENE
MCDONALD THEATRE
Thursday, October 28th 8:00 pm
CHECK OUT WARRENMILLER.COM FOR MORE INFO
46 OCTOBER 21, 2004
ne of the funniest and smartest
films of the year, David O.
Russell’s lovably eccentric I Heart
Huckabees, defies categories, like Spike
Jonze’s Adaptation and Being John
Malkovich. In the same way you can say
Adaptation is about writer’s block and
Malkovich is about identity crisis,
Huckabees is about the meaning (or futili-
ty) of life. I laughed out loud a lot, saw
myself in every character and came away
dying to see the movie again.
My favorite sequence takes place
between Albert (Jason Schwartzman) and
Tommy Corn (Mark Wahlberg). Let’s call it
the Red Balloon scene. The men — oppo-
sites by every obvious standard of looks,
occupation, personality and intellect—
have bonded in defiance of the Existential
Detectives, Bernard (Dustin Hoffman) and
Vivian Jaffe (Lily Tomlin), each has hired.
The guys no longer believe everything is
connected to everything else as Bernard
and Vivian do. They don’t find life wonder-
ful. Instead, Albert and Tommy have taken
up the teachings of the Jaffes’ nemesis and
former student, Caterine Vauban (Isabelle
Huppert). Caterine sees life as a cruel,
meaningless exercise. Besides, she’s sexy.
Caught in a vise-grip between the Jaffes
and Caterine’s polarized positions, Albert
and Tommy have tried hard to resolve the
thoughts that race through their minds.
They’ve nearly driven themselves crazy.
Now, they resort to brute force. Albert
smashes the Red Balloon into Tommy’s
face. “Again,” Tommy demands. Albert
hits him harder. “Again,” he begs, and
“Again.” Tommy stares into space, with a
goofy smile.
Now it’s Albert’s turn. “Hit me,” he
cries, milliseconds before Tommy bangs
the balloon into Albert’s smug puss so hard
Albert falls over backward onto the ground.
He picks himself up. “Again,” Albert
orders. Repeatedly, Tommy slams Albert.
When enlightenment dawns, a stupefied
Albert struggles for words. It’s great, he
says; for a minute, my thoughts stopped.
Tommy and Albert figure they can knock
each other batty every few hours to experi-
ence a moment of mental stillness, which
will help them figure out if everything is
irredeemably fucked or not.
This ploy is not the only way the film’s
characters try to calm their anger and para-
noia, but repetitive bashing works as a
metaphor for what the film is getting at.
Don’t ask me to be any more specific. For a
fuller explanation, you’ll have to see the
film.
Other good reasons to see the film
include the excellent cast, with Naomi
Watts as Dawn Campbell, the Huckabee’s
super store model, and Jude Law as Brad
Stand, an ambitious corporate suck-up,
who takes over the environmental coali-
tion Albert founded, Open Spaces. On his
way up the corporate ladder, Brad acquires
Dawn.
Schwartzman plays Albert as an annoy-
ing whiner, a big-time bore, who imagines
himself a deep, mature poet. Albert’s scene
with his mother is a true gem. It’s not as
edgy as the reluctant reunion in Vincent
Gallo’s Buffalo 66 (1997), but Vivian and
Bernard notice mother sheds a lot of light
on Albert’s existential dilemma.
Wahlberg plays Tommy as a buff fire-
fighter whose vision of the world changed
after 9/11. Trapped inside his head, Tommy
can’t connect emotionally with his wife and
daughter, who’ve left him. This role is a
good stretch for Wahlberg, with its combi-
nation of seriously questioning reality, self-
examination and crude slapstick. Wahlberg
worked with Russell on Three Kings
(1999), in which he gave another memo-
rable performance.
It’s divine to see the ever-excellent
Tomlin onscreen again. She’s a class act: a
liberated comic actress. Tomlin and
Hoffman make a surprising, pleasant cou-
ple. When Vivian asks Bernard, “What are
we doing tonight?” and he answers,
“Korean barbecue,” you know their rela-
tionship is hot.
This film is a hoot. If you don’t need
everything to make sense in the “real”
world, this film’s for you. Like Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, another of
the year’s best films, give yourself over to I
Heart Huckabees’ reality, and you’ll feel
better! Opens Oct. 22 at the Bijou, with my
very highest recommendations.
ew