I’ll co-sign knives’ glee. This is an intelligent exercise where Goldblum and Hagerty’s eccentric personas are pitched at the de-romanticized, repelling tones that they would come off as in real life, outside of their typical movies that disguise their idiosyncrasies as safe and cute. And through doing this with genuine curiosity and respect for the weird in us all, Altman frames them as two of the most interesting and hilarious perfs ever, allowing them to become ‘naturally’ endearing the way I see strange friends in my personal life and perhaps the way some of my friends see me. This engagement includes blunt exposure and laughter ‘at’ their strangeness that is civil in its own way because it's in a compromised acclimation to their terms. The therapy sessions are also absolute gold with Altman intentionally going the polar opposite route of what anyone should expect in therapy- even back in the psychoanalytic-dominant 80s. I particularly loved how the characters (Hagerty often) have sound psychological revelations that are stunted by their therapists!knives wrote: Wed Jul 29, 2020 1:31 pm Finally got to Beyond Therapy and I'm in love. Generally farce doesn't work for me, but it manages to be just insane enough with the central pair underplaying things so much despite being the most mad that I had to get lost in it. Goldblum in particular is great just doing his thing in the most Goldblum way I've ever seen. It's like the missing link between John Waters and Almodovar.
In a sense this is like a screwball comedy shot into reality, its inclusive details totally absurd and exaggerated but shed of the verbal artifice and getting at something strikingly familiar in the process. Of course it descends into farce plenty- especially in the end, so it's anything but "literal realism"- but the juxtaposition between the zany and the austere technique and ordinary settings help remind us that the world is inherently a strange place filled with strange people, and whether we go to the movies or look down the street- this is what it is. Still, I can see why critics hated this, because the bizarre behavior isn't translated in effortfully composed dialogue and staggered delivery, and characters aren't developed in traditional ways that include us in their growth or deliberate exposure between the couple. This is more like what would happen if you peered over at the peculiar couple at the table next to you at a restaurant, and then followed them into their own movie.
