Short Cuts

Written by: Altman and others Starring: a whole herd of well known stars too numerous to mention

Kind of "Fear and Loathing in LA." I suppose I was spoiled by the razor-sharp focus of "The Player," but this long, rambling picture is too diffuse for its own good. Altman adapts a whole bunch of Ray Carver stories to create his tapestry, but the result is only proof that no matter how compelling individual scenarios and characters are (and make no mistake, much here is compelling--and many performances are excellent), it takes more than stringing a bunch of them together to make a compelling or great picture. In the end I am left wondering why he bothered to make this at all; there is no larger truth here, unless you consider it news that LA is full of kooks and that people do strange things at times for even stranger reasons. If Altman really wanted to know how to make a great stream-of-consciousness picture melding together many narrative threads, he should have studied John Sayles' great, underrated "City of Hope," which succeeded brilliantly at something of which Altman seems only dimly aware. (11/15/93)