H.E.A.L.T.H.

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Audience Member HealtH-1980-Robert Altman Taking risks in film making should always be applauded. On this premise alone Robert Altman's 1980 ‘comedy' deserves a modicum of credit. Of the Altman catalogue, this most reminds me of the zany yet darkly twisted Brewster McCloud. Both films have large free form set pieces to open and the distinct soundscape that Altman experimented with his entire career. The first time we visit the HEALTH convention floor we are bombarded with sounds coming in multiple directions. Men dressed in corn cob outfits. Barbershop quartet belting out political parody songs. Its overwhelming. You are forced to follow sound not your sight and the camera joins in. The louder voice becomes the focus of the shot. Carol Burnett, Paul Dooley, James Garner, Lauren Bacall and Glenda Jackson just to name a few offer their talents to this movie. Unfortunately it's just not enough. The premise is satirical and is a send up of presidential elections complete with handlers/fixers/influencers, you name it and it's in this movie. Over the top attention grabbing stunts, Dooley's character, who is an independent and therefore on the outside of the election process looking in, twice fakes a drowning in the hotel pool just to get media coverage. Twice! The jokes rarely land, the overacting to be called campy would a compliment, and I laughed maybe three times, it provoked deep thought maybe once. This movie isn't downright awful but it is absolutely a swing and a miss for one of the greats. I'll generously give it a C+. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/14/23 Full Review Audience Member We found no enjoyable elements in this movie. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member The trouble with this particular outing - a cartoonish mini-'Nashville' that perhaps displays the director's ability to smear his mise-en-scene into opacity better than anything he'd done before - is that it never makes the attempt to meaningfully explore its own surface circus. This is not always a problem, and is indeed not the film's main objective. Whereas 'Nashville' utilized that city's culture to examine the machinery of fame and politics, blurring the edges of those subjects whilst displaying a poignant array of adrift characters, 'HealtH' really only has politics on its mind, a cast of caricatures and a penchant for extremely broad satire, perhaps too broad at times. "Nashville', though quite dense and daunting upon first viewing, gradually reveals itself as an impressively well-balanced study of the world it inhabits; the themes emerging clearer with every viewing. With 'HealtH' we are given a smaller-scale microcosm to observe (a Florida hotel taken-over by a health convention), and the film is only illuminating in fits and broad sketches. It is also one of the most visually hectic and blunt Altman has ever given us. But it certainly isn't a film without its charms. Reminiscent of the inexplicable yet somehow perfect circus mutation that climaxes his 'Brewster McCloud', 'HealtH' submerges us inside the claustrophobic and nauseatingly colorful convention of the title with gleeful abandon, as vegetable-suited enthusiasts, posters, placards and banners surround a bevy of guests and punters. This spectacle is a wonderfully apt metaphor for the hoopla of American politics, yet we never burrow deeper into a skewering of the convention itself or the world of body and nutrition obsessed America, a topic which seems rife with delicious targets and ever more topical as the years pass. There's a thin quality to everything besides what Dick Cavett describes as the 'festoonery' of the setting, leaving very little for those unwilling to be merely pleased by what Altman is attempting to do. For viewers who will be pleased by the sight of a man in a tomato suit getting crushed in an elevator's doors to Carol Burnett's horror, or the recurrent sight of Lauren Bacall fanning herself maniacally in the midst of a heavy breeze one minute and lost the next minute in a zombie-like trance, it is enough to generate a satisfied, head-shaking smile. This is an Altman rush-job. The real fans know that and take it in stride. This was how Altman made films, from masterpieces to follies, whether we like it or not. He set the wheels turning and positioned the spotlights on three rings or more, willing to lend his benevolent creator's hand and welcome in whatever anyone had to bring along. This is a small, chaotic and finally quite dark representation of how one man saw the wild and wooly terrain of the politics of his country. As an artifact of merely that, we should be thankful. Whatever Altman was able to sneak past the Mainstream's goalies, the filmgoing public at large should be thankful for as well. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review Audience Member Man vs. Lawn Round 2 goes to Man. Man has the momentum... Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member This was an interesting mess. Skip it, unless you like Robert Altman. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/09/23 Full Review Audience Member Had a couple funny moments here & there but I mainly found it boring Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Read all reviews

H.E.A.L.T.H.

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