I have just finished reading Raymond Carver’s collection of disquieting short stories, Short Cuts, which inspired the subject of today’s blog, Robert Altman’s 1993 movie of the same name. Carver was a master of the sub-genre of literary fiction dubbed “dirty realism” by American journalist Bill Buford. Dirty realism is characterised by depicting the seamier side of life, with downbeat characters suffering from a kind of internal desperation brought about by their particular life circumstances. Before full-time writing, Carver had worked in California in the fifties and sixties in a variety of jobs – delivery man, janitor, library assistant, sawmill labourer – and perhaps internalised material from seeing people living lives of quiet desperation (to quote Henry David Thoreau). His stories of ordinary people at breaking point inspired Robert Altman to make the masterpiece we’re about to discuss.

Filmed from a screenplay by Altman and Frank Barhydt, Short Cuts was inspired by nine of Carver’s short stories (culled largely from his collection Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, published in 1976). It was set in Los Angeles (in contrast to the original Pacific Northwest backdrop of Carver’s stories) and traces the lives of twenty two principal characters, loosely connected to one another in one way or another. The stellar cast includes Matthew Modine, Julianne Moore, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Robert Downey Jr., Madeleine Stowe, Chris Penn, Jack Lemmon, Frances McDormand, Lori Singer, Andie MacDowell, Buck Henry, Lily Tomlin, actress and singer Annie Ross, and musicians Huey Lewis, Lyle Lovett, and Tom Waits.

The film begins with a fleet of helicopters spraying for medflies, which brings various characters together along the flight path. To this backdrop, and with the sultry nightclub jazz songs of Annie Ross as the incidental music, we see the multiple characters in their various scenarios slowly falling apart. There is too much by way of plot to describe here, but the stories play out in tandem and often loop back on themselves as we see characters familiar from earlier scenes in the movie appearing in different contexts later.

I called it a masterpiece for good reason: the actors absolutely nail the theme of dysfunction. There are heart-breaking scenes, but also mundane ones that nonetheless masterfully display the human condition thanks to the quality of the actors. It’s a psychological drama but a comic one too, and it swings from tragedy to comedy and back again. It is, like Carver’s original stories, highly disquieting but well worth the experience. Here is the film trailer to whet your appetite but watch the full three hours for an extraordinary ride.