The resemblance to Altman's "Short Cuts" is indeed apt but I'm afraid I'm going to have to politely disagee with you on Altman's superiority over Anderson. Altman has degenerated from a maverick into little more than a dirty old man; he seems to make films that have little more ambition that getting his female stars to shed their clothes for little or no reason. (Julianne Moore owes Anderson a debt of gratitude for not having to perform any of her scenes in "Magnolia" with her skirt off and let's not even talk about Helen Hunt.)

There are some fine early Altman works that assure his place in film history ("M*A*S*H", "Nashville" "The Long Goodbye" and "California Split") but those were in the distant past. "Pret-A-Porter", "Dr. T & The Women" and "Short Cuts" are the Altman of today and his overwhelming contempt for women is some of the most distressing I've seen. (And this is coming from a guy who thought "Punch-Drunk Love" was plenty filled with contempt toward women--at least, however, it didn't exploit them.)