I :heart: Huckabees

[Queequeg]

Anyone seen this recently?

It was written by a Columbia grad who was inspired by Bob Thurman.

Pretty funny Dharma nerd humor.

Interested in other Dharma Wheelers' takes.

[passel]

He did some sesshins w Eido at Dai Bosatsu.

Horrible movie, really terrible, not a zen movie at all imo.
American Hustle was good tho. Silver Linings Playbook was ok. David O. Russel is the guy's name.

[passel]

To be clear, I just say "not a zen movie" specifically because (a) he has this thing where people knock themselves in the head and stop thinking for a second or two, and then chase that experience. Which is lame; and (b) he's doing the naturalist fallacy, where Jason Schwartzman is rooting on some poor woman in the mud- it's supposed to seem free and real and raw but it's just gross and dumb. Just an inane movie, the only worse "zen" movie is Zen Noir (where the "Roshi" couldn't even sit in zazen posture.)

[mechashivaz]

I saw it a couple of times senior year of high school (2005) and found it pretty funny. Having had some psychedelic trips under my belt by that time the whole blanket thing made a lot of sense. I haven't seen it sense so not sure how it holds up, perhaps a rewatch is in order.

[Thomas Amundsen]

I've seen it a few times. It's probably been 2-3 years since I've seen it. I find it absolutely hilarious more than anything else. Plus, Jude Law and Dustin Hoffman are two of my favorite actors. The philosophical armchair stuff was pretty neat too, at the time.

My favorite part is when Jude Law's character plants Kafka books in his garbage to make himself look all deep and intellectual.



Dustin Hoffman: "Kafka. Look at that. So fishy."

[Queequeg]

I need to correct my first post -

Russel is an Amherst grad and that's where he met Bob Thurman.

From a Tricycle article:

“I was always a little in the closet about spiritual stuff because I grew up in a typical home that was aggressively agnostic, dogmatically so… Then at Amherst I had this teacher, Robert Thurman, and took three or four courses with him.” Russell remembers the current professor of Buddhist studies at Columbia as “one of the most unpretentious teachers I’d ever met. Bob could talk to anybody about these mind-blowing ideas, in ways that didn’t mystify them.” Russell later went on to study and practice for four years at the New York Zendo with Eido Roshi, and took numerous short and longer retreats upstate. “It’s still a pretty big part of my life. We sit here [in L.A.] with a bunch of friends, but there’s not a place I go to now. Charlotte Joko Beck seems real interesting to me, but she’s in San Diego, so that’s a bit of a schlep… One of my heroes is Nyogen Senzaki, this Zen roshi who took the teachings at their word where they say you don’t need to have a temple—he came to L.A. and lived anonymously as a waiter downtown and taught a few people in his apartment. He has this skinny little book, Buddhism and Zen, which I just love.”

Russell has maintained his East Coast contacts, including Clark Strand, former Buddhist monk, author, andTricycle contributing editor, and Bob Thurman, with whom he began a personal friendship ten years ago. “A lot of Bob’s ideas, and Clark’s ideas, fueled Huckabees, and Bob and I plan to write a screenplay together based on an idea of his about consciousness traveling through the time-space continuum. It’s a little sci-fi-ish.”

To be clear, I just say "not a zen movie" specifically because (a) he has this thing where people knock themselves in the head and stop thinking for a second or two, and then chase that experience. Which is lame; and (b) he's doing the naturalist fallacy, where Jason Schwartzman is rooting on some poor woman in the mud- it's supposed to seem free and real and raw but it's just gross and dumb. Just an inane movie, the only worse "zen" movie is Zen Noir (where the "Roshi" couldn't even sit in zazen posture.)

I didn't take the head smashing as a critique of Zen. I thought Mark Wahlberg represented the Nihilist perspective while Hoffman and Tomlin represented the Buddhist Buddha-nature/Tathagatagarbha view. The head smashing I think is a critique of meditation that aimed at nothingness.

[Queequeg]

So, I sat down with the wife last night to watch from the beginning (Its on heavy rotation on HBO so I keep catching bits and pieces)

I think Hoffman and Lilly Tomlin are sort of a Yidam/Consort figure. Hoffman might loosely be based on Thurman with the shaggy hair and tweed jacket and casual profundity. Hoffman is definitely talking about tathagatagarbha/Buddhnature/emtpiness/dependent origination, and his zip up meditation bag is something...

The dinner scene with the Christian family is pretty hilarious. Thought that rang true.

Shwartzman and Walberg are sort of ordinary seekers who are being brought along, but then the French Nihilist gets in Walberg's head...

Got late and stopped the viewing for the night.