The Robert Downey Jr. Film Guide: Short Cuts (1993)

Acclaimed Altman film squeezes 9 short stories into a series of vaguely connected vignettes.

Low, compared to some of the other actors.

Bill Bush, a womanizing special effects make-up artist.

A little bit sloppy.

How long are they gone? A month? I think we should move in here.

He’s with Lily Taylor.

No, no, not quite in context.

Appearing on-screen with Downey: Chris Penn, Lily Taylor, Jennifer Jason Leigh. In other story lines: Tim Robbins, Julianne Moore, Matthew Modine, Lyle Lovett, Peter Gallagher, Lily Tomlin, Jack Lemmon, Frances McDormand, Andie MacDowell

Matthew Modine in Baby It’s You. Robert Altman’s The Gingerbread Man. Deborah Falconer in The Last Party. Frances McDormand in Wonder Boys. Almost everyone in Luck, Trust and Ketchup.

[Robert Altman] came in after I’d already shot like two days and he said, “I think [your character is] a sociopath.” ... I play this big bastard, a rat of the most clearest water. I have been living in Hollywood for many years now, so that part didn’t need much research. After Chaplin it was nice to play such a rotten character ... I was watching Short Cuts a couple of months ago and there’s this scene where I’m pretending to strangle my girlfriend and take pictures of her. That’s literally the exact same way I am if I’m hanging out with my gal [Susan] where I’m silly and weird and dark and making jokes ... This is being shot much more interestingly than anything I’ve done ... Actors love [Robert Altman] because he lets you improvise and allows you to create. He is not one of those directors who demand that you do what the script tells you to do. Bob lets you use your intuition to improve a scene ... Some people might watch the way that we’re working on this, the way that [Robert Altman] set it up, and say, “Well it seems kind of haphazard,” or whatever, but then by the end of the day, we’ve touched on two or three things that wouldn’t been in subtext, might not have even been discussed. Something that came up in just trusting the moment. I think that really has fortified my belief that you have to trust the moment. That all the techno mumbo jumbo has to be secondary or tertiary to that ... I think there’s been this uncommunicated thing between [Robert Altman and I], it’s like, Why don’t you be the real sick one? And I kind of looked at him, like lifting up my glasses, like, “Oh me?” because he’s a bit of a nutter himself. Or rather, he has that sense of humor.

Short Cuts: Selected Stories by Raymond Carver
This movie tie-in features all the stories that were woven together in the script.

Present day (1993), Los Angeles.

Released in theaters 3 October 1993. On DVD by Criterion in Region 1, regular version on DVD in region 2.

Argentina: Ciudad de Ángeles (City of Angels)
Brazil: Short Cuts, Cenas da Vida (Scenes of Life)
China: Life’s Crossroads (English translation)
Italy: America Oggi (America Today)
Finland: Oikopolkuja (Shortcuts)
Poland: Na Skróty (Shortcuts)
Slovenia: Kratke Zgodbe (Short Stories)

94% Fresh | 51 Reviews

Derek Malcolm, The Guardian: The film holds completely, both as a summation of Altman’s unflattering but not unloving view of American society, in which the happiest people appear to be the alcoholics, and an epic piece of cinema of innate daring and imagination.

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The movie is based on short stories by Raymond Carver, but this is Altman’s work, not Carver’s, and all the film really has in common with its source is a feeling for people who are disconnected —from relatives, church, tradition— and support themselves with jobs that never seem quite real.

1. Robert Altman is your favorite director.
2. Raymond Carver is your favorite writer.

If the movie doesn’t sound like something you’re into, it’s too long and he doesn’t have enough relative screen time to be worth seeing just for him. If you like movies that have a lot of characters and different mildly connected story-lines, then go for it.