Jason Schwarztman

(On Cable TV, June 2021) It took me a while (ahem, seventeen years) to circle back to I Heart Huckabees — writer-director David E. Russell has a filmography that’s all over the place, but there’s almost always something interesting in what he brings to the screen, and since I’d seen nearly everything else of his, why not this one? As it turns out, there’s a lot to like in the result. Featuring the offbeat concept of existential detectives following their clients to give them the answer about their lives, it’s a comedy with quirky ideas and plenty of opportunities for its ensemble past to shine. While Jason Schwarztman is nominally the protagonist, it’s hard to resist a cast with anchors such as Lily Tomlin, Dustin Hoffman, Jude Law, Mark Wahlberg, Isabelle Huppert and Naomi Watts, and that’s not even mentioning smaller pre-stardom roles for people such as Isla Fisher and Richard Jenkins, Jonah Hill’s screen debut, and cameos from veterans Tippi Hedren and Talia Shire. Still, the star here is the script, playfully blending philosophical ideas with life-crisis drama to create something far more interesting and amusing than the norm. One imagines that the film could have been even more absurdist, but what’s on-screen is fun enough to be satisfying. Even seventeen years later, there’s a unique quality to I Heart Huckabees that’s still distinctive and refreshing. It’s enough to make you wonder why more movies don’t delve as enthusiastically in philosophical comedy.