All I knew about Hudson Hawk when I walked into this 35mm screening tonight is that it starred Bruce Willis singing “Swinging on a Star” and was supposed to be an infamous flop.
I might have loved it?
Roughly speaking, one of the axes on the “cult classic movie” spectrum has on one end a film that is sincerely liked by its fans, but whose fans are small in number; and on the other end a film that is ironically liked by its fans, little-known because only so few people enjoy deliberately watching bad things. Off the top of my head, examples on either end of this spectrum might be Eraserhead and The Room.
I expected Hudson Hawk to be somewhere closer to the Room side of that spectrum — a train-wreck that was kinda fun to watch. I was wrong! Hudson Hawk tries to be funny, and succeeds.
It’s directed by Michael Lehmann and co-written by Daniel Waters, the director and screenwriter of Heathers!
If you can ignore the hat, and the singing, and the four (!!) gold earrings, it has all kinds of recent comedy in its DNA: Top Secret!, Nothing But Trouble, Johnny Dangerously. Are these great films? Eh. But they all have this absurdist, surrealist bent that Hudson Hawk also exhibits.
So many great lines that cracked me up:
“Look, can’t we have a late-night cappuccino?”
“I’m sorry, but the machine’s still set up for poisonous foam.”
“So much for his ‘cut.'”
[laughing]
“Forgive my dry, British humour.”
“Looks like you won’t be attending that hat convention in July.”
“Shut up, you’re going to make me lose my place!”
“Sprinkler system set up in the back. Can you fucking believe it?”
“Yeah, that’s probably what happened.”
And more that I’m sure I’m forgetting.
Hudson Hawk is a good movie. I hope those aren’t the last words I say, but I’ll probably stand by them.