I Heart Huckabees

(Directed by David O. Russel)

I Heart Huckabees is a light, satirical film about a guy who hires "Existential Detectives" (yes, existentialism!) to sort out the problems in his life. Check out wikipedia or imdb if you want to learn more - i'm not good at summaries.

I thought I Heart Huckabees was incredible (although i did watch it at 1am, feeling pretty spaced out). Take a look on the net and you might not get that impression from critics: most either describe it as far too confusing and ridiculous, or as being existentialism/nihilisim/other philosophies boiled down to a light slapstick froth.

But that misses the point. I Heart Huckabees isn't a philosophical film - its a film about philosophy. That might sound ridiculous, but think about it for a moment. Its point isnt to show or validate any philosophy - it's a satirical film about how we relate to and use philosophy in our lives. Its charachters are far more important to it than any philosophical theme or idea - if it has a central theme, it's about how humans latch onto and make use of philosophies for relief in times of crisis, only to discard them once crisis has passed. But mainly it's about poking fun at pretentious postmodern philosophy, and I found it hilarious after having studied far too much existentialism recently.

If you're into any of those texts (Fight Club, The Matrix, Being John Malkovich, The Great Gatsby, Notes From Underground, etc etc.) then go watch it - its good relief from too much seriousness. If you're not, go watch it anyway - it'll probably still be funny.