Who am I? What am I doing here? What is the purpose of it all? Why do I keep bumping in to that person? How do I find a way to keep going on? These are the type of questions one asks them self all the time. Jaffe & Jaffe, existential detectives are whom some people go to when they want answers.
This is the main premise behind David O’Russell’s latest opus “I Heart Huckabees”. Our protagonist, portrayed by Jason Schwartzman, drummer of Phantom Planet and the man who made his mark with “Rushmore”, is an environmental rights activist whose life is in intense turmoil. It isn’t this turmoil that brings him to Bernard and Vivian Jaffe (played brilliantly by Dustin Hoffman and Lilly Tomlin and there will be plenty more about them later), but it is that turmoil that sets up the rest of the film and slowly but surely introduces an ensemble cast that includes Jude Law, Mark Wahlberg, Tippi Hedren, Naomi Watts, Kevin Dunn, Jean Smart and plenty others. This ensemble is a major factor to what makes this film so brilliantly fun. They are all extremely talented actors with a strong penchant for comedy, physical and verbal and handling difficult, wordy dialogue without it ever becoming too verbose or boring.
The other strong backing behind the film is David’s genius. His script which was re-written a lot during filming as reported by Dustin and Lily, as well as his filming style in which he goes through an entire magazine, continually shooting instead of doing takes, combined with also a non-traditional editing style in which he cut with Robert Lambert (an experienced editor who also worked on Russell’s Three Kings) and some interesting visual effects and choices all combine to bring this little dramedy all together in neat package.
Holding it all into pure magic is the composition and music of Jon Brion. Those not familiar with Brion deserve a quick little lesson. Formerly one of the many members of Jellyfish, playing guitar tracks on their sophmore effort Spilt Milk, he then recorded one album with another former Jellyfisher, Jason Falkner as The Grays. After the success of that underground beauty he went on to write produce and record with the likes of Aimee Man, Rufus Wainwright, Jude Cole, the eels, Taj Mahal, Fiona Apple, Robyn Hitchcock, Macy Gray, Dave Navarro and Badly Drawn Boy. His movie composition began in 1996 when P.T. Anderson hired him to work on his first film Hard Eight. P.T. then hired Jon to compose Magnolia, alongside Aimee Mann and once again for his most highly lauded and interesting composition for Punch-Drunk Love. Michel Gondry also hired Brion to write the composition for his abstract existence film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which made Jon a perfect fit for David O’ Russell’s latest in what is possibly one of the most psychologically encompassing and enjoyable efforts to view for this film lover in a long while.
After the screening/movie, I had the distinct pleasure to listen to a Q & A with Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin, conducted by a Premiere magazine writer. In one hour I would learn the career beginnings of both brilliant classic performers, hear amazing tidbits about their lives and experiences, tales on the set of Huckabees, and all the classic stuff you hope to hear about in an intimate setting of approx. 150 actors and two of the greatest actors of all time.
The following bios are based on the actor’s words:
As a child Dustin was trained to become a concert pianist, that was until he heard Jazz as a teenager and decided that was his true passion. His skills never formed to his satisfaction though and eventually he forgot about it. He found himself in college failing in a big way. His advisor told him to take an acting class, because no one ever fails those. (As an aside, that is so untrue… I saw plenty of kids fail acting courses while in I was in college.) He quickly gained a love for the craft and decided he wanted to pursue it full time.
He dropped out of college and went to an acting conservatory, one that was also being attended by Gene Hackman, who was kicked out for having no talent despite rooming with Dustin himself. At 21 he moved to New York City, his roommate was Robert Duvall who was poised to be the next Marlon Brando. While Dustin was continually rejected for work, Robert got work constantly. Mostly on “Naked City”. It wasn’t till at an audition Robert told the casting director to hire Dustin that he got his first major role and from there he got continued work eventually leading to 1967’s The Graduate.
As a child Lily Tomlin would perform little plays and dialogues like so many young actors. It never became her passion though and as she grew up she lead a more traditional life heading to college as a pre-med student. While in one of her many courses a fellow student who she wasn’t particularly friends with but was a fellow classmate suggested she join her to audition for the school’s production of The Madwoman of Chailott because there would be many “small roles”. At the audition every time her name was called she would leave the room. They had her name and number on a list though and she ended up getting a walk-on/background role. She ended up taking to it quickly, each night improvising something more for it. The full time acting students would rush to the theatre every night during its run to see what she would do that night. That experience made her decide that she wanted to do this for a living. She made her start at the various places you could perform till The Improv opened, where she got her first real break.
The first time Dustin and Lily met it was a meeting at Robert Evan’s house for the eventual Popeye film with Dustin definitely to be cast as the sailor man and Lily in consideration for Olive Oyl. (Of course while still produced by Evans, the film ended up being a musical starring Robin Williams and Shelly Duval… imagine if it HAD been Hoffman and Tomlin, Dustin of course instead did Tootsie, while Tomlin did 9 to 5).
Lily and Dustin continued to regale us with various stories and experiences about the form, they’re ways of finding character, developing and working in front of the camera and all that great stuff you would hear on Inside the Actor’s Studio or another acting program/talk show. Dustin reminded all actors that it’s not about failure or success, but passion for the craft and knowing you’re doing what you were meant to. Lily made an interesting mention that fame was never a goal for her, she just wanted to work as an actress, she’d be happy doing a role in a show in the middle of nowhere, as long as she was making a living doing what she loved.
After the Q and A, both actors stayed behind and it was a pleasure to get a little one and one time with them. Dustin is one those type of actors who can talk forever with actor’s about acting. He seemed to want to talk to everyone that wanted to talk to him and make proper and personal time with them. Lily was just as courteous and personable, although not as much a talker in terms of speaking on acting as if lecturer or teacher to his students. A nice tidbit on Lily is that I was speaking to her, Lori Singer came up to tell her she loved the film and considered Lily an inspiration. A great cinematic treat and a wonderful presentation from the stars made for a perfect movie experience and monumental night.