Anesthesia
(IFC FILMS)
Like an East Coast Crash (2004) with better acting and a higher IQ, Tim Blake Nelson’s Anesthesia follows the daily lives of several prototypical New Yorkers until a random act of violence connects their threads, pointing out just how interconnected we all are.
Despite being packed with a strong ensemble cast—including Glenn Close, Sam Waterston, and Kristen Stewart—portraying likable, familiar (if slightly stereotypical) characters, the film suffers from a certain overly-intellectual preachiness. Be it the sixth grader scolding her mother for drinking too much, the high schooler about to lose his virginity, the grad student in the midst of an existential crisis, the desperate crack addict, or the tenured philosophy professor, every character is irritatingly prone to pretentious philosophical monologues, so rambling and full of obscure, decontextualized…
