What do you do, fish, or call the police, when you find a body in the river? Altman's SHORT CUTS has received a lot of praise from many quarters, and the critic Ebert gives it his highest rating. I think I know why. With about 10 separate stories, some related and others not, each story will get an average of about 18 minutes of total film time. Now, anyone can watch 18 minutes of movie, even if it is mediocre. Add to that, the editing which shows you a minute or so of each story before switching to another, and you don't have time to get bored by what in many respects are boring people who we can't identify with. It is hard to be sympathetic with any one character, because they are so flawed. Still, I think it is a good movie, not for the contrived stories, but for Altman's direction, and the editing that kept everything moving along at a brisk clip. The characters are perhaps quite ordinary for L.A., and all those things depiicted happen to real people, but maybe over a span of 40 or 50 years, not over the few days during which the film was set. That was the contrived part. This review will not go into any details, Ebert's review has all that covered quite well.