Forrest Gump – review

Here’s a neat trick. String a series of pop culture references and modern historical events that feel like pop culture references into a narrative that moves and amuses you. Not easy. On the surface it reflects the hollow disposability of its own commodified American biography — American post-war history as product, a manifestly American thing to do. All rather heady for a film like this, because if you scratch that surface you’ll find something disposable too. But, crucially, not hollow. It may on some substantive level be a meaningless pinball through the past, but that’s ultimately too cynical a description for a film without a shred of cynicism in its body. Sure, it’s an uneven viewing experience. There are clunky lines, gimmicks that outright fail, and the writing is often thin. But being disposable doesn’t have to mean empty, and being kind doesn’t have to mean schmaltzy. Moving and amusing, that is all we have the right to ask of our pop culture vehicles. Everyone onboard sees we get that.

A-