Human Nature [Blu-ray]

Director: Michel Gondry Michel Gondry

Overview

Video director Michel Gondry and scriptwriter Charles Kaufman -- who shot to fame after penning Being John Malkovich -- collaborate on this bizarre fable about human behavior in and out of society. The film opens by quickly introducing the three leads -- Lila (Patricia Arquette) who is locked away in prison; Puff (Rhys Ifans) who is testifying before Congress; and Nathan Bronfman (Tim Robbins) who is sitting in a glowing white afterlife waiting room with a bullet hole in his head. Rewinding to the beginning of the story, the film shows Lila as a girl about to enter womanhood. Unfortunately, puberty goes horribly awry and she starts to grow thick hair all over her body. After performing as Queen Kong in a circus freak show, she chucks it all and goes to live in the forest, where she becomes the best-selling author of a misanthropic hard-line ecological tome. At age 30, her itch for male companionship becomes overwhelming and she ventures back into the city. She is helped by electrolysis guru Louise (Rosie Perez), who not only makes Lila presentable to society, but introduces her to Nathan, a 35-year-old virgin who, as a scientist, has devoted his life to teaching table etiquette to lab mice. While showing Nathan the joys of the wild outdoors, Lila and her new beau discover an extremely hirsute feral man whom they dub Puff. Placing him a cage in his lab, Nathan sets out to teach Puff the ways of polite society while dreaming of fame and fortune. The first task is to curb Puff's enormous sexual appetite -- any time he catches sight of a female, Puff either tries to hump her or masturbates vigorously. Nathan yokes him with an electric collar that shocks him any time he acts unseemly. Unfortunately, the humans on the other side of the cage can't quite control their libidos either: Nathan succumbs to the incessant double entendres of his saucy French assistant Gabrielle (Miranda Otto) while Lila finds an animalistic lust for Nathan's science experiment. This film was screened at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.

Product Details

Release Date:	06/22/2021
UPC:	0826663218268
Original Release:	2001
Rating:	R
Source:	Shout Factory
Language:	English
Sales rank:	19,700

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Patricia Arquette	Lila Jute
Rhys Ifans	Puff
Tim Robbins	Nathan Bronfman
Miranda Otto	Gabrielle
Miguel Sandoval	Wendall
Rosie Perez	Louise
Robert Forster	Nathan's Father
Mary Kay Place	Nathan's Mother
Toby Huss	Puff's Father
Ken Magee	Police Detective
Sy Richardson	Police Detective
David Warshofsky	Police Detective
Hilary Duff	Young Lila
Stanley DeSantis	Doctor
Peter Dinklage	Frank
Bobby Harwell	Congressman
Daryl Anderson	Congressman
Bobby Pyle	Young Puff
Chase Bebak	Young Nathan
Anthony Winsick	Wayne Bronfman
Mary Portser	Bistro Waitress
Deborah Ferrari	Stripper
Laura Grady Peterson	Aversion Therapy Model
Angela Little	Chester's Waitress
Jeremy Kramer	Lecture Host
Nancy Lenehan	Puff's Mother
Graeme Revell	Composer

Technical Credits

Charlie Kaufman

Charlie Kaufman	Screenwriter,Producer
Spike Jonze	Producer
Anthony Bregman	Producer
Ted Hope	Producer
Jeanne McCarthy	Casting
Robert Milstein	Special Effects
Eddie Perez	Stunts
Michel Gondry	Director
Drew Kunin	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Human Nature, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's follow-up to Being John Malkovich, doesn't match the earth-shattering mix of originality, hilarity, and insight of his debut film, but it comes closer than most movies. It's an hour-and-a-half of solid entertainment. Kaufman shows signs of a unique genius that could only have developed during countless hours spent watching television. Visually inventive French music video and commercial director Michel Gondry makes his feature debut with Human Nature. Unlike Spike Jonze, who directed Malkovich, and was one of the producers here, Gondry sometimes struggles to find the right tone. The palette occasionally seems too bright and cheery, and some of the characters too oblivious to the absurdity of their situations. The cast is mostly terrific, however, especially Australian actor Miranda Otto as Gabrielle, the enigmatic lab assistant with the French accent, and Rhys Ifans as Puff, whose father was a madman who dropped out of society after JFK's assassination, and raised Puff as an ape. Ifans may not have deserved all the attention he got for his relatively simple goofball role in Notting Hill. But here, he sinks his comedic chops into what is basically the role of a lifetime. Like much in the film, Puff is simultaneously ludicrous and charming, and there aren't many actors who could play the character with such physical and verbal grace. The film alternates self-conscious dopiness, as in Puff's impassioned testimony before Congress, with an almost lyrical absurdity, as in Lila's (Patricia Arquette) sudden burst into song. Meanwhile, Human Nature raises thought-provoking points about the lengths people go to in order to be accepted. It also manages to generate a great deal of sympathy for its weird, misbehaving characters, much as Being John Malkovich did, and that in itself is quite an accomplishment.

All Movie Guide - Josh Ralske