---
title: "Short Cuts"
year: 1993
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/short-cuts"
fi1m_id: "short-cuts"
imdb_id: "tt0108122"
tmdb_id: 695
wikidata_id: "Q605226"
fi1m_score: 84
critics_score: 73
critics_reviews: 9
published: "2026-09-14"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:38:16.251595+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Short Cuts (1993)

Directed by Robert Altman · 3h 08m · MPA R · Drama, Comedy

## Identity

Short Cuts

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/short-cuts
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** short-cuts
- **IMDb ID:** tt0108122
- **TMDB ID:** 695
- **Wikidata ID:** Q605226
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108122/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/695, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q605226

**Fi1m score: 84** · Critics 73 from 9 reviews

*In a sentence:* Three hours of marital trouble, and nobody has the decency to be dull

> Robert Altman’s ensemble drama is funny, absorbing and occasionally too harsh on its characters. Its actors make the long running time worthwhile, even when the writing becomes too quick to judge them.

## Synopsis

Across Los Angeles, couples contend with infidelity, doubts and the difficulty of living together. Their lives overlap as the film moves between households, placing private disputes alongside other people’s troubles. Robert Altman and co-writer Frank Barhydt bring together stories by Raymond Carver, with Andie MacDowell and Bruce Davison as Ann and Howard Finnigan. Tom Waits and Lily Tomlin play Earl and Doreen Piggot, while Tim Robbins and Madeleine Stowe are Gene and Sherri Shepard. Julianne Moore, Jack Lemmon, Frances McDormand and Jennifer Jason Leigh also feature in the ensemble.

## Review

*Short Cuts* is funny, absorbing and sometimes harder on its people than they deserve. Robert Altman brings Raymond Carver’s stories into an interconnected Los Angeles, where a couple’s private troubles are never the only troubles in progress. At 188 minutes, he gives us time to recognise habits, excuses and grievances across a large cast. The actors make the length worthwhile, even when Altman’s judgement of their characters becomes a little too easy.

The screenplay, by Altman and Frank Barhydt, makes infidelity and domestic disappointment funny without treating the hurt as imaginary. People can be ridiculous and still have a point, particularly when somebody else refuses to hear it. That gives the conversations a welcome uncertainty: we cannot settle into approving of one person and dismissing another. The interconnections occasionally look too carefully arranged, but most of the time the film lets an encounter remain awkward without supplying a lesson.

Lily Tomlin’s Doreen Piggot moved us more than we expected. Her blunt delivery makes room for fatigue, so the humour never quite removes the sense of effort involved in getting through the day. Tom Waits gives Earl Piggot a rasping irritability that keeps his comic moments uncomfortable. Tim Robbins’s Gene Shepard is harder to enjoy, deliberately so: Robbins makes the man’s self-satisfaction funny, then allows it to become wearing. Their different rhythms matter when so many people are competing for our attention.

Walt Lloyd’s cinematography leaves space to watch the listener as well as the speaker. That matters in conversations where someone’s impatience can be more revealing than the words we are supposed to be attending to. Stephen Altman’s production design makes the different homes feel inhabited, without insisting that every room should explain its owner. The domestic interiors remain ordinary enough for the arguments to feel familiar.

Editors Suzy Elmiger and Geraldine Peroni make returning to a household feel natural, and they are good at leaving a scene while something remains unsettled. Humour can therefore linger uncomfortably into the next stretch of unhappiness. Mark Isham’s music holds the uneasy mood through these shifts, leaving room for a joke to remain unpleasant. The changes of tone are more assured than the pacing, which occasionally lets familiar grievances occupy too much time.

The more serious weakness is the suspicion that Altman finds some of these people too easy to explain. His screenplay with Barhydt can press different relationships towards the same conclusion about selfishness, particularly male selfishness. After enough repetitions, another failure of sympathy begins to feel expected, and the encounters lose some of their surprise. That is a particular risk in an ensemble drama, where every return to a household needs to justify the time spent there.

The performances are the reason to stay. The cast keeps finding hesitations and changes of emphasis that make Altman’s judgements seem less settled than the writing sometimes suggests. We have room to disagree about a person’s behaviour without losing interest in what happens next. Set aside the full evening, and leave time afterwards to argue about who deserved a kinder hearing.

*Fi1m score 84, published 14 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics respond warmly to Short Cuts, with praise centred on Altman’s handling of a large ensemble and the intricate connections between lives in Los Angeles. The performances are repeatedly admired for their naturalism, while the shifts between comedy and tragedy help the sprawling structure hold together. Several reviews see the adaptation as an imaginative expansion of Raymond Carver’s stories, finding coherence and everyday detail across its many strands.

The disagreement concerns emotional involvement and Altman’s attitude towards his characters. Even the favourable Variety review notes condescension and excessive length. The Independent finds the panoramic view intoxicating but the film closed-off, with sourness and sentimentality. The sharper dissent comes from The New Yorker, which finds contrived connections and uniformity, and The Skinny, which argues that the crowded ensemble prevents attachment. The spread is wide: what most critics admire as intricate storytelling, others find imposed or difficult to care about.

## Straight answers

**Is Short Cuts worth watching?**

*Short Cuts* is worth watching for anyone prepared to give a full evening to an ensemble drama about marriages in trouble, and we scored it 84. Robert Altman’s cast, led by Lily Tomlin, Tom Waits and Tim Robbins, makes the 188 minutes pass, though the writing is sometimes too quick to judge the people it shows. Leave time afterwards to argue about who deserved more sympathy.

**How long is Short Cuts, and what is it rated?**

*Short Cuts* runs 3h 08m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is a drama and comedy film.

**Where can I watch Short Cuts in the US?**

*Short Cuts* is not on any streaming or rental service in the US at the moment. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is Short Cuts, and is it suitable for children?**

*Short Cuts* is a film for adults, rated R in the United States, and it is not suitable for children. Its subject is infidelity, drink and domestic disappointment across several Los Angeles households, treated with humour that often turns uncomfortable rather than with frightening or violent set pieces. Teenagers would find little to alarm them and much to bore them.

**How does Short Cuts compare to Nashville?**

*Short Cuts* is the harsher of the two Altman ensembles; [*Nashville*](https://film.one/film/nashville) is the warmer and, on balance, the better film. Both spread their attention across a large cast whose private disappointments keep breaking through, but *Nashville* shows an unexpected tenderness towards people wanting to be noticed, where *Short Cuts* is sometimes too ready to explain its characters’ selfishness. Start with *Nashville* if you want to like the people; choose *Short Cuts* for sharper, sadder comedy about marriage.

**What should I watch after Short Cuts?**

After *Short Cuts*, try [*Nashville*](https://film.one/film/nashville) (1975, Fi1m 89): Another crowded ensemble in which public performance fails to conceal private disappointment. Then [*Yi Yi*](https://film.one/film/yi-yi) (2000, Fi1m 92): Family routines and private disappointments receive patient attention, with considerably more tenderness; and [*A Separation*](https://film.one/film/a-separation) (2011, Fi1m 93): Domestic disagreements widen into moral dilemmas without making the people conveniently simple.

### Reviews we read (10)

- **Empire**, Angie Errigo (85/100, inferred): Altman delivers a masterful, kaleidoscopic collage of interconnected LA lives drawn from Carver stories, following up The Player with his most complex ensemble piece since Nashville. The three-hour satire of vice and folly is gripping and heady, with a talented cast delivering under his sharp gaze. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/short-cuts-review/)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (85/100, inferred): The old lion can still roar with this daring and inventive mosaic that expands Carver's world while remaining true to its spirit, examining ordinary reality through 22 players in a beautiful, intricate chamber piece. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-10-08-ca-43332-story.html)
- **Slant Magazine**, Budd Wilkins (85/100, inferred): The critic highlights the film's sprawling tragicomic exploration of fate, infidelity, and interconnected lives in Los Angeles, drawn from Carver stories, commending its behavioral naturalism and ensemble performances. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/short-cuts/)
- **The Guardian**, Derek Malcolm (85/100, inferred): The critic praises Altman's blend of Raymond Carver stories as a powerful and imaginative Nashville for the nineties with an unerring feel for contemporary life. He singles out the superb cast's natural playing and masterstrokes like the opening sequence depicting pre-earthquake Los Angeles. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/News_Story/Critic_Review/Guardian_review/0,,544570,00.html)
- **The AV Club**, Keith Phipps (80/100, inferred): The critic praises Altman's adaptation of Carver's stories into a sprawling ensemble film that magnifies the source material through interconnected lives in LA, noting its graceful structure and shifts in tone from comedy to tragedy. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/short-cuts-1798200172)
- **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (80/100, inferred): Altman has made his most complex and full-bodied human comedy since Nashville by expanding Carver's stories into an impressively constructed web of plots. The filmmaking mastery, expansion of the source material, and offhandedness impress, though some condescension and length are noted. [Read](https://variety.com/1993/film/reviews/altman-s-short-cuts-stands-tall-film-short-cuts-1200433405/)
- **The Independent**, Adam Mars-Jones (65/100, inferred): Altman weaves Carver stories into a complex, polyphonic LA mosaic that imposes his own meanings and point of view on the material. The result is a fine but closed-off work with sourness and sentimentality, offering the audience an intoxicating panoramic view that the characters lack. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-life-but-not-as-they-know-it-adam-marsjones-on-short-cuts-robert-altman-s-allstar-adaptation-and-fullscale-appropriation-of-short-stories-by-raymond-carver-1426894.html)
- **The New Yorker**, Terrence Rafferty (40/100, inferred): Altman uses Carver stories for a radical narrative high-wire act but the result feels thin and homogeneous, with contrived correspondences and a big generalization about men and women. Some performances and one story line stand out positively amid the imposed uniformity. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1993/09/27/carverville)
- **Time Out**, GA: The critic finds Altman's epic multi-story film special from the start, a tragicomic kaleidoscope of interlinked tales focused on couples facing doubts and disasters. Marvellous performances and Altman's masterful direction and narrative organisation are singled out for praise. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/short-cuts)
- **The Skinny**, Katie Smyth (★★): The sprawling ensemble prevents emotional attachment to the characters despite strong performances and an impressive cast. The result is a confusing montage that ultimately fails to engage. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/dvd-reviews/short-cuts)

## Details

- **Director:** Robert Altman
- **Director:** Robert Altman
- **Screenplay:** Robert Altman, Frank Barhydt
- **Cinematography:** Walt Lloyd
- **Editor:** Geraldine Peroni, Suzy Elmiger
- **Music:** Mark Isham
- **Production design:** Stephen Altman
- **Costume design:** John Hay
- **Producer:** Cary Brokaw
- **Cast:** Andie MacDowell as Ann Finnigan; Bruce Davison as Howard Finnigan; Jack Lemmon as Paul Finnigan; Tim Robbins as Gene Shepard; Julianne Moore as Marian Wyman; Tom Waits as Earl Piggot; Lily Tomlin as Doreen Piggot; Fred Ward as Stuart Kane
- **Runtime:** 3h 08m
- **Certificate (MPA):** R
- **Release (the US):** 1 October 1993
- **Genres:** Drama, Comedy
- **Also in:** [Golden Lion winners](https://film.one/collections/golden-lion.md) (Winner, 1993)
- **Budget:** $12 million
- **Box office:** $6 million

## Where to watch in the US

Not streaming, renting or buying in the US at the last check.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 1994: Best Director (nominated)
- Venice Film Festival 1993: Golden Lion (won)

## If you liked this

- *Nashville* (1975), Fi1m 89: Another crowded ensemble in which public performance fails to conceal private disappointment. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/nashville.md)
- *Yi Yi* (2000), Fi1m 92: Family routines and private disappointments receive patient attention, with considerably more tenderness. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/yi-yi.md)
- *A Separation* (2011), Fi1m 93: Domestic disagreements widen into moral dilemmas without making the people conveniently simple. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/a-separation.md)
- *Life Is Sweet* (1990), Fi1m 84: A family comedy that finds both irritation and affection in everyday habits. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/life-is-sweet.md)
- *Lantana* (2001), Fi1m 78: Intersecting relationships turn a mystery into an uncomfortable examination of trust. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/lantana.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/short-cuts