I Heart Huckabees (2004)

After many years of it being on my “Movies to Watch” list I finally got around to watching I Heart Huckabees, and I absolutely loved it. David O.Russell is one of my favorite filmmakers of all time, he has written and directed some of my favorite movies in recent memory (The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle), and I absolutely love his filmmaking style.

Huckabees is admittedly a pretty weird movie that probably doesn’t appeal to most people but I just loved it. For one it is absolutely original, I can honestly say that I’ve never seen a movie like it. Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin play “Existential Detectives,” that alone should let you know how weird and unique the movie is. The film deals with a lot of themes that are somewhat difficult to understand/appreciate. There plenty of conversations about existentialism, philosophy and the meaning of life, it can get a little heavy but O.Russell did a fantastic job at mixing in humor with some of the heavier themes. I thought the movie was absolutely hilarious, Hoffman’s character in particular always made me laugh when he was onscreen.

The entire cast is amazing, there are so many great actors in this movie (Dustin Hoffman, Jude Law, Jason Schwartzman, Lily Tomlin, Mark Wahlberg, Naomi Watts) and they all deliver excellent performances. There are even a few scenes with a young Jonah Hill (this was his film debut I believe). I’m surprised the film didn’t do better in the box office with a list of names like this.

I really can’t think of anything I disliked about the movie. With that being said I understand that I Heart Huckabees is not for everyone, but as I mentioned at the start of the review I personally just absolutely loved it. To me it was a beautiful, quirky, creative and refreshingly unique movie that deserves to be seen.

So if you are a fan of fun, original comedies and think that your movie tastes are similar to mine then I absolutely recommend watching this movie. Even if you’re not a big fan of philosophy and things like that, I Heart Huckabees is worth watching for the cast alone. 4.5/5