I Heart Huckabees

7/10. Watched this last Monday evening on DVD.

A philosophical investigation in the form of an old-fashioned screwball comedy, Huckabees is an original and entertaining movie. Whether or not you find it sublime and superlative probably depends on how strongly you connect to the ideas it wrestles with; I, personally, stopped wondering about the interconnectedness of the universe a while ago.

Now, about George Clooney. If you've read an interview with Clooney where director David O. Russell was mentioned, then you know that these two don't exactly get along. What confuses me, though, is Clooney's insistence that his conflict with Russell while making Three Kings resulted from objectively improper behavior on the director's part.

Because if Russell was such a maniac while making Kings, why did one of its other stars, Mark Wahlberg, sign on for Huckabees? Why did Spike Jonze, also in Kings, help produce Huckabees' behind-the-scenes documentary? And obviously Lily Tomlin found Russell inoffensive enough while making Flirting With Disaster to work with him again.

Clooney likes to say that he confronted Russell in defense of others. But as time passes, it's starting to smell like Clooney's problem with Russell is a specific, personal one. And so he should shut up about it.