The film is about dissatisfaction with self and the constant personal reinvention it inspires. People take on different personae, either subtly as with Duvall's character, or overtly as is the case when Spacek's character adopts her roommate's identity. The dream logic of the film is flavored by Altman's trademark deadpan cynicism and embrace of the murmured messiness of life. It lacks the offhand profundity of his best work, but it's fascinating nonetheless.

A strange and unique film, eschewing traditional plot devices for an ambiguous, amorphous pattern of pure behavior and emotion. Not that there aren't plenty of other dreamlike films out there, and in particular comparisons to Bergman seem relevant, but this is achieved with Altman's original brand of stylized naturalism. The performances are fantastic, with Duvall and Spacek playing out some sort of sinister mother/daughter, quasi-lesbian infatuation.

This is a very tense, artistic film. It had the same atmospheric feel as a horror movie, but there were no scares; it was a different kind of unease. It's the type of movie that, if it were not made as well as Altman was able, could've been very dull and uninteresting; instead, not to sound cliche, it grabs hold of you from start to finish.

The first half of the film works like a dream. The cutting is soft, lots of fades and wipes. Scenes wash by like lapping water. It's slow and eerie --the atmosphere provided by Gerald Busby's score has distinct horror overtones-- enigmatic, and resists attempts to decipher what happened. If Altman is trying to make some larger societal point in the relation of the numb Millie and Pinkie to the silent but powerful Willie and her murals, it was beyond me on the first viewing.

A strange trio of women in one of Altman's strangest and best films.

842

Duvall and Spacek are wonderful as a pair of socially alienated wannabes. The film gets gradually creepier and more surreal in tone. Fascinating.

Dark, mysterious and haunting, but also a little unsatisfying - it has great build up but in the end being deliberately enigmatic without a clear purpose feels kind of cheap.

#897

Sissy Spacek's performance is outstanding. She is an extraordinary actress and definitely one of America's greatest actresses. I don't have any firm idea as to what this movie is about but the second half especially was engrossing and the nightmare sequence is absolutely fantastic.

What the hell, this is terrible. It's like a proto-Lynch film whose mystery you couldn't care less about. Reinforces my impression from The Shining that Shelley Duvall is just a bad actress.

I was on board with this film for the first 30 minutes or so but it just never amounted to anything and then took a huge nose dive in the second half. Disappointing cause every Altman up to this point has been great. Found the characters to be boring and Altman was trying way too hard to be subtle and "deep." Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duvall are both horrifying looking as well, found it difficult to masturbate to.

Perfectly matches the feeling of a dream and a nightmare too. Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duvall are both great and I think David Lynch must've borrowed a good deal from this.

An interesting experiment from Altman, but it's not really his strongest. Duvall and Spacek do a great job and I felt genuinely sorry for Duvall especially.

A great atmosphere-piece by Altman in a very intuitive mood. Along with dealing with dreams, hallucinations and the fluidity of identity it's also, as I see it, a portrait of social alienation uncommonly found in such a sunny climate (which adds to the hazy mood). It's also predating David Lynch in many aspects (especially Mulholland Drive).

The midway point between two works of genius, and failing to be either. Lacks the poetry of Persona and the emotion of Mulholland Dr., falling in a dark place of "intellectually a good idea, but not amounting to much of a film".

Other than the eerie psychedelic sequences Altman fails to deliver with a good premise and falls into the land of needlessly depressive. Spacek and Duvall was a clever match though.

entertaining and interesting but dated