Over the past week I watched a couple of flawed but very interesting films. I wouldn't describe either of them as outright excellent, but they've grown in my mind since I saw them, and continued to occupy my thoughts, so I have to recommend them.
Max stars John Cusack as a Jewish art gallery owner in post-WWI Munich who befriends a sour young aspiring artist named Adolph Hitler. You've probably got your own preconceptions after a setup like that, but the story goes in an unexpected direction, and takes its time doing it.
California Split is one of Robert Altman's lesser known works, starring Elliot Gould and George Segal as a couple of gamblers. Altman was on a roll here, no pun intended. He'd just come off of MASH, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, and The Long Goodbye, all three of them masterpieces, and was about to do Nashville, so it's not surprising that this somewhat slighter picture isn't as well known. Gould, one of my all-time favorite actors, is at the height of his powers during this film, playing everything slightly off-key, and as usual, you never knew the tune could sound so good like that. This was Gould's third project with Altman, and I think it's interesting to look at that relationship as a sort of West Coast version of the DeNiro-Scorsese partnership, although it does predate it by a few years: DeNiro on the one hand intensely fighting Scorsese's Catholic battle for meaning, Gould on the other using his laid back sarcasm to distract from the fear that there is no meaning in anything.
P.S. I would also like to mention that I think Elliot Gould stole Ocean's Eleven ("I owe you for the thing with the guy at the place,"), which is impressive. Also, I would like to own Gould's entire wardrobe from that film, right down to the big sunglasses.
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