FOT Forum
FOT Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: allanalpha on June 15, 2009, 05:43:12 PM
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I watched all the Wes Anderson films this weekend on a whim, and must say that I think the man is a genius.
"The Darjeeling Limited" was my favorite, how about you, unless you hate his films, then feel free to blast him.
Allan Alpha
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I think I'm finally tired of them after Darjeeling. Or, at the very least, that trademark morose/detached acting.
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I've only seen Rushmore. I enjoyed it. I don't have any desire to see any other Wes Anderson films, however.
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I'm partial to THE LIFE AQUATIC myself. It took a couple of watchings, though.
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Tenenbaums is my favorite movie. Before that movie came along I couldn't pinpoint which was my favorite, but it settled in right away. My fiance's too... there are some subtle nods to it in our wedding that no one would get unless they were a) as obsessed as we are or b) we told them.
Second fave is Darjeeling although I didn't like the Natalie Portman stuff.
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Rushmore is in my top 5 movies of all time.
Rushmore is like "If You're Feeling Sinister" by Belle & Sebastian. Mean and endearing and vulnerable and really good. The rest of Anderson's films are like the rest of Belle & Sebastian's albums: mostly crappy.
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i like most of his movies individually but when you start putting them together it feels pretty shitty. like doing one movie or a couple of movies in that tone was cool, but man... it wears on me.
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Rushmore's great, I can't remember if I liked Bottle Rocket, and the rest stink. They've gotten worse each time. I loved the luggage in Darjeeling. Generally speaking, I do appreciate his movies as sartorial and interior design showcases.
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My dad is from India. He watched The Darjeeling Limited a few weeks ago and thought it was utterly stupid.
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I prefer Whit Stillman.
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Rushmore's my fave, with Tenenbaums being second. Royal Tenenbaums is worth it for Gene Hackman alone. Every single word out of his mouth is laugh out loud funny.
Tenenbaums is my favorite movie. Before that movie came along I couldn't pinpoint which was my favorite, but it settled in right away. My fiance's too... there are some subtle nods to it in our wedding that no one would get unless they were a) as obsessed as we are or b) we told them.
Did you call someone a big black buck?
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Only my father.
Nah, it hasn't happened yet. But our invites and ceremony music all borrow from the movie. Kind of a style thing. I'm a font nerd so I don't expect anyone else to understand (FUTURA!)
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My dad is from India. He watched The Darjeeling Limited a few weeks ago and thought it was utterly stupid.
Oh yeah, well, I'm an American Indian and I thought it was, uhhh, OK, I thought it was pretty stupid too. I did like the Life Aquatic, though, but then I am a Bill Purrey apologist.
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I had an English class last semester that focused on writing about film, and so we watched all Anderson's films but Darjeeling (we didn't have enough time in the semester), and wrote about them. It was fun. I loved writing about that stuff. AND I got really good grades!
I really loved Bottle Rocket. It was so "simple" and definitely different than his later stuff.
My favorite will always be Tenenbaums, though.
I know someone named Eli Cash.
I didn't care for Life Aquatic, but I've only seen it once, and I have heard from many ppl that you should see it more than once. Supposedly it gets better. Or at least grows on you.
I LOVE that interview w/ Anderson and Noah Baumbach (sp?) with that Italian (?) guy on Criterion's release of Life Aquatic. At the beginning I wondered many times if it was staged or if it was "real".
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I'm not a fan of any except Rushmore, though he's clearly a talented stylist. Best to worst:
1. Rushmore
1a. Hotel Chevalier
2. Darjeeling
3. Bottle Rocket
4. Life Aquatic
5. Tenenbaums
with a big dropoff between 3 and 4.
I like his sense of humour well enough, but the visual stuff that people seem to love about him I find unpleasant, especially Tenenbaums. The hyper-control, the cute framing tricks he uses over and over -- most obvious being the very distracting dollhouse quality of every background, typically with one or two pieces of decoration breaking up the perfect symmetry. And even his occasional attempts at being 'loose' (usually a handheld camera during the action set-pieces) seem laughable to me because they're so self-conscious when set against everything else.
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Rushmore's great, I can't remember if I liked Bottle Rocket, and the rest stink. They've gotten worse each time. I loved the luggage in Darjeeling. Generally speaking, I do appreciate his movies as sartorial and interior design showcases.
Agreed. This is also the main reason why I like a lot of Godard films.
I do think there is kind of a schism between Bottle Rocket/Rushmore and what came after them, though.
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Tenenbaums is my favorite. I was in lower Manhattan on September 11th, and the fallout for me was that I started turning into Ben Stiller's character for a long while. When he has the breakdown at the end and starts to cry in Gene Hackman's arms, I pretty much lost my shit. But I loved all of it, top to bottom.
My complaint with Darjeeling Limited boils down to one scene that ruined screwed it up for me. The brothers go through the traumatic event (won't spoil for those who haven't seen it) and suddenly the film gets quieter. Music stops, dialog goes to a bare minimum. Beautiful. Thumbs up. But then, at the funeral, Anderson goes into one of his hyper-cool, slow-mo shots of the brothers walking in the desert while rock music plays. ARGH! Wasn't all of that posing and facade supposed to go away when the traumatic event happened? The scene made me think that Anderson - and his characters - are helpless posers. Even life-changing trauma cannot cure them of their social artifice.
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I think they are all great. I've noticed a backlash in the past couple years- ever since Darjeeling came out I suppose.
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I really like Rushmore, I really like Life Aquatic, the other ones are alright.
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I love them all! WES ANDERSON IS GREAT
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Me too!
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I'm also an unapologetic booster.
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I'm not a fan of any except Rushmore, though he's clearly a talented stylist. Best to worst:
1. Rushmore
1a. Hotel Chevalier
2. Darjeeling
3. Bottle Rocket
4. Life Aquatic
5. Tenenbaums
with a big dropoff between 3 and 4 the ones dfk thinks are OK and the ones dfk really loves.
I like his sense of humour well enough, but the visual stuff that people seem to love about him I find unpleasant, especially Tenenbaums. The hyper-control, the cute framing tricks he uses over and over -- most obvious being the very distracting dollhouse quality of every background, typically with one or two pieces of decoration breaking up the perfect symmetry. And even his occasional attempts at being 'loose' (usually a handheld camera during the action set-pieces) seem laughable to me because they're so self-conscious when set against everything else.
You're welcome.
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I didn't care much about Rushmore one way or the other but I absolutely HATED Royal Tennenbaums and haven't bothered with any since.
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I thought Tennenbaums and Life Aquatic were both terrible. I actually liked Darjeeling a bit more. But yeah, I agree there's a shift from Bottle Rocket and Rushmore to Tennenbaums. It's like all the sudden he's been given the green light to indulge every precious whim and striver impulse. I'm also on the fence about what to make of some of the racial stuff in his movies. Max Fischer is so clearly a powerless wounded asshole that his behavior is kind of endearing, but the self-pitying ponces in Tennenbaums and Darjeeling I can't really root for in the same way; maybe it's because they're all rich?
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Rushmore is my favorite, and the first movie I bought after getting a DVD player. Royal Tenenbaums has sunk in my estimation since I saw it in the theater, while I am slowly warming up to Life Aquatic.
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I loved them all except Darjeeling Limited.
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No one ever wants to talk about Whit Stillman.
Even, presumably, Whit Stillman.
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A friend of mine borrowed, then lost, my Rushmore Criterion. I learned an important lesson that day, which is never let someone borrow a $40 DVD. And evidently now it's out of print so I might never end up replacing it.
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No one ever wants to talk about Whit Stillman.
I liked Metropolitan. But not as much as he and Wes Anderson like WASPs.
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I like Whit Stillman! Last Days of Disco taught me that rich people have feelings too. No kidding. I think Barcelona might be my favorite.
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the self-pitying ponces in Tennenbaums and Darjeeling I can't really root for in the same way; maybe it's because they're all rich?
I like Whit Stillman! Last Days of Disco taught me that rich people have feelings too.
Get your stories straight, Comrade Garbage.
(I love Barcelona, too.)
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No one ever wants to talk about Whit Stillman.
Even, presumably, Whit Stillman.
Hey, Last Days of Disco is out on Criterion in August.
(I always identified with the dude that was seriously bummed out that disco was "over" at the same time he realized the other guys never liked it in the first place.)
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the self-pitying ponces in Tennenbaums and Darjeeling I can't really root for in the same way; maybe it's because they're all rich?
I like Whit Stillman! Last Days of Disco taught me that rich people have feelings too.
Get your stories straight, Comrade Garbage.
(I love Barcelona, too.)
It's an ongoing unresolved thing.
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Without Chris Eigemann (I think that's the name) I am not sure Whit Stillman would be as highly regarded. Why don't we ever see him?
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I don't know, Dave. I've often wondered the same thing. Eigeman(n?) was in Noah Baumbach's Kicking and Screaming and Mr. Jealousy, too, but I think that's all I've seen him in. I wish he would come on the Best Show so I could ask him what else he's appeared in.
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Without Chris Eigemann (I think that's the name) I am not sure Whit Stillman would be as highly regarded. Why don't we ever see him?
He was good on "It's Like, You Know," a great little ABC show with a terrible name and an utter inability to appeal to ABC's demographic.
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He played a character in a later season of Gilmore Girls that was very much like the roles he had in Stillman films.
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Isn't he always exactly the same in everything?
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Isn't he always exactly the same in everything?
Yes: hilarious!
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I like how this thread has turned into a booster for Chris Eigemann. I think Kicking and Screaming (not the one with Will Ferrel) has to be one of the best Movies ever. I'd put that movie against any Wes Anderson Movie. Come on...
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Kicking and Screaming is a great movie. So funny.
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Is Kicking and Screaming actually funny? Like, actually funny or Wes Anderson dry-funny?
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It's dry funny. Good dialog. Light schmaltz.
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It's more Woody Allen than Will Ferrell.
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Isn't he always exactly the same in everything?
Yes: hilarious!
And irascible.
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I watched Kicking & Screaming and Metropolitan back-to-back, or at least very close together, and as a result I have a very hard time differentiating my memories of one and the other. I know Metropolitan was the one about the debutantes, but I can't remember if the climax I'm remembering was from that movie or Kicking & Screaming. I realize this is a problem easily solved, but until now there's never been a point where it was important to me to know the difference. Also, the protagonist in Metropolitan talking about how he only reads literary criticism was delightful.
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I watched Kicking & Screaming and Metropolitan back-to-back, or at least very close together, and as a result I have a very hard time differentiating my memories of one and the other. I know Metropolitan was the one about the debutantes, but I can't remember if the climax I'm remembering was from that movie or Kicking & Screaming. I realize this is a problem easily solved, but until now there's never been a point where it was important to me to know the difference. Also, the protagonist in Metropolitan talking about how he only reads literary criticism was delightful.
The Surrealists were all a bunch of social climbers.
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Kicking and Screaming is a great movie. So funny.
This movie is a favorite of mine. The writing is top notch and the characters are so perfectly flawed but likable.
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Is Kicking and Screaming actually funny? Like, actually funny or Wes Anderson dry-funny?
I think its what you would call a "DRAMAEDY" Like the life of Britney Spears or an Edward Burns movie. Funny but Serious.
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I watched Kicking & Screaming and Metropolitan back-to-back, or at least very close together, and as a result I have a very hard time differentiating my memories of one and the other. I know Metropolitan was the one about the debutantes, but I can't remember if the climax I'm remembering was from that movie or Kicking & Screaming. I realize this is a problem easily solved, but until now there's never been a point where it was important to me to know the difference. Also, the protagonist in Metropolitan talking about how he only reads literary criticism was delightful.
One great bit I remember involved the asshole friend describing seeing 'The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie' and being incensed when he realized the title was supposed to be ironic.
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I just saw The Brothers Bloom, and as much as I loved Rian Johnson's Brick, I didn't have high hopes for this movie. It just looked forgettable. It was far from perfect, but I really liked it. It had some great laughs and didn't take too many short cuts that "Con Man" films always make. (That having been said, like Brick you love this or you hate it like an enemy. My friend walked out.)
I did notice that Johnson was laying on the Wes Anderson whimsy pretty thick. It worked in the films favor, and maybe it was present in Brick, but it wasn't so transparent. Of all of the Wes Imitators, this was probably the better of them.
Juno is the basement, Brothers Bloom is the ceiling.