Nashville

1975 drama

Rating: 18/20

Plot: Lives converge in Nashville as folks gather to celebrate country and western music or rally behind a political candidate.

Meandering, clumsy poetry with biting irony. Robert Altman is very much in that like-him-or-not category, and I, for the most part, have always liked him. (Note: Not Popeye, Pret-a-Porter or Gosford Park, the latter which I didn't even understand.) This is a movie that is almost entirely characterization with bits of information slipping in and characters' lives weaving in and out. It's surface-scratching characterization, however, and characters are caught in stride and left shielding their eyes and glancing into the horizon. This series of snapshots on the surface adds up to not much at all, but the mosaic really creates a fragmented and especially fragile picture of the film's main character--America, not just during an actual specific time, but a timeless America. The questions Altman explores and never answers are just as vital in 2008 as they were in the mid-70s. The film's imperfect (too long? too much music?), but I'm not sure it ever had a chance to be perfect. Lively, but with Altman's misanthropic eye. There's humor and heartbreak and shock, often within a few seconds of each other, just a brilliant juxtaposition of scenes, dialogue bits, songs. And any director who can make Jeff Goldblum not annoying has to be something special. (The key, apparently, is to not give him any lines.)

Confession: Ok, I like Popeye. And Jeff Goldblum.