Nashville

"Y'all take it easy now. This isn't Dallas, it's Nashville!" New years isn't generally a massive deal to me, but I had been spending a couple of days trying to decide what my last film of 2024 would be. I had gone through a few ideas but I ultimately landed on Robert Altman's 1975 masterpiece Nashville. I had been meaning to watch Nashville for quite a while and was just kind of waiting for the right time to put it on and I am so glad I finally got around to it. Nashville follows about 24 "main" characters and their lives across a 5 day period in Nashville, Tennessee. I use the term main characters very loosely, as there isn't really an overarching narrative in this film; you're just sat watching these characters interact with each other for almost 3 hours. For me at least, Nashville never really felt like a film in a sense. Everything about it completely transported me into this little slice of America that Altman so faultlessly portrays. The film has such a sense of community, kind of similar to Twin Peaks. While the characters in Nashville feel a lot more down to earth and realistic (although still a little eccentric), you get that same kind of feel that everyone in this town really knows each other and each one of their lives all intertwine extremely naturally. The level of immersion I felt was almost trance like, and even at almost 3 hours I still just wanted to see more and more of these characters. I read a little bit about the film after I watched it and found that apparently a lot of the dialogue is improvised, and while that doesn't necessarily surprise me due to how natural and real the conversations felt, it makes the movie all that more impressive. The performances across the board are all just absolutely incredible. It isn't a very dramatic film for the vast majority of the runtime; I'd say at least 90% if not more of the picture simply consists of conversations between the characters, like listening to a group of friends at a dinner or just hanging out somewhere. Therefore, the performances are not very dramatic or intense either, but they all feel so raw and real, like you're watching real people just interact and not a scripted film. I feel like this is because, again, most of the dialogue in this film isn't to push forward a main story or a setup for a big payoff or plot twist ending, it is just dialogue, if that makes any sense. Even if a large portion of the film is adlibbed and not sticking to the script, enormous credit has to go to the screenwriter because without the incredible base that the cast built upon, I don't think the film would not work nearly as well as it does. While lots of the runtime of this film consists of general conversations and interactions between the 24 characters, there are numerous subplots going on, which hold the film together and keep you invested. From a singer in hospital to various affairs between musicians to a ridiculous and hilarious woman from the BBC to Jeff Goldblum on a weird easy rider motorbike car thing, there is so much going on. The film masterfully progresses all the different little stories through simple interactions in such a seamless fashion. I just got completely lost in this film in the best way, completely immersed and engaged. While I'm not generally a fan of country music, some of the songs in Nashville were pretty fun and enjoyable, most likely thanks to the way the musical numbers were shot and edited together. The final scene is just one of the greatest endings of a film of all time in my opinion. Nashville is one of the most unique and interesting films I've ever seen, and an incredible portrait of America, community, politics and human interaction.