Wes Anderson (Part 3 of 3)

This is it. We've reached the end of the Wes Anderson segment for the Filmmaker of the Week and I will be spending Part 3 talking about both THE DARJEELING LIMITED and FANTASTIC MR. FOX. My hope is that, up to this point, you've noticed some recurring themes, ideas, and cast members that are popular with Wes Anderson, which will all be reinforced by the films that will be discussed below. You can check out Part 1 here, where BOTTLE ROCKET and RUSHMORE are on the docket, and Part 2 here, with THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS and THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU, if you happened to miss those. Now, let's take a look at two of his most recent films, shall we.

Francis Whitman (Owen Wilson), Peter Whitman (Adrien Brody), and Jack Whitman (Jason Schwartzman) are three brothers who haven't seen each other since attending their father's funeral a year ago, but decide to reunite for some good old-fashioned sibling bonding on a trip through India aboard a train called "The Darjeeling Limited." None of them seem to have much in common and all of them distrust each other, with Francis keen on preventing his brothers from finding out the true purpose of this little excursion, Peter unwilling to tell his brothers that his wife is now seven months pregnant with their first child, and Jack frequently slipping away from the company of his brothers in order to check the answering machine of his beloved ex-girlfriend. Taking advantage of each of the train's stops, Francis insists that he and his brothers visit various temples and markets in hopes of achieving some type of spiritual healing, but their attempts are half-hearted and it isn't long before they're at each other's throats, bickering and fighting like children. Once they're thrown off the train and Francis reveals his true intentions for the trip, the brothers are forced to get along as they trek across India in search of the one woman who connects them all --- their mother.

I had heard mixed responses to THE DARJEELING LIMITED and went in with low expectations, which made it all the more shocking when I ended up loving it. When I think about what made this movie work so well, I find myself smiling and laughing at the relationship between the three brothers, because it is so pitch perfect and believable that you buy into it from the beginning, even though the three actors look nothing alike. But I think the lack of resemblance between the siblings plays an important role in signifying how different they are from each other and the idea that these men would never have been in the same room together if not for the common blood that runs through their veins. It's obvious that Wes Anderson likes to play around with dysfunctional families and force them into situations that bring their flaws out into the open, and here he examines the concept of brotherhood and what it is that keeps these grown men together even in the face of constant friction, tension, and conflict between them. They scour India in search of an artificial or mystical answer for their problems in life, blind to the fact that what they need is to challenge each other and say what no one else will, rather than keeping each other at a distance.

THE DARJEELING LIMITED is about the complicated nature of brotherhood and how to find strength through your differences instead of letting them push you apart, and the three leads will keep you engaged until the end with their touching and often hilarious portrayals of three disconnected brothers who are lost both physically and emotionally in life.

Mr. Fox (George Clooney) is a former bandit forced to give up his thieving ways when his wife Felicity Fox (Meryl Streep) becomes pregnant with their son Ash Fox (Jason Schwartzman), prompting Mr. Fox to settle down as a newspaper columnist. But after twelve years of living in a hole with little excitement in his life, Mr. Fox decides to uproot his family to a more lavish home in a tree neighboring the farms of Walter Boggis (Robin Hurlstone), Nathan Bunce (Hugo Guinness), and Franklin Bean (Michael Gambon). Recruiting the superintendent Kylie Sven Oposum (Wallace Wolodarsky) as his accomplice, Mr. Fox sets out to rob these three farmers during the night, stealing chickens from Boggis, duck and geese from Bunce, and turkey, apples, and apple cider from Bean, despite making a promise to Felicity that he would never resort to a life of crime again. It all comes crashing down, literally, when the three farmers decide to take action against him for stealing from them and attempt to hunt him down and kill him, destroying his home and forcing Mr. Fox and his family to burrow underground in a desperate attempt to escape certain death.

FANTASTIC MR. FOX is adapted from the children's novel of the same name from author Roald Dahl and was filmed using stop-motion animation, making this the first non-live action film from Wes Anderson. I haven't seen a lot of stop-motion animated films, largely because it is such a long and painstaking process that most filmmakers avoid it in favor of more modern techniques, but I have a hard time imagining anyone more suited for it than Anderson. As a director with a keen eye for detail, this type of animation is perfect for him because it allows him to construct everything from scratch, rather than having to build off of existing areas for some of the more impractical shots, and ensure every minute aspect is as he imagined it. I have nothing against the more mainstream techniques of animation, but there is something about stop-motion that makes it feel so much more three-dimensional and life-like, and in FANTASTIC MR. FOX it seamlessly transports you to this world where talking animals and three cutthroat old codgers can co-exist without it being questioned at all. As per usual, Anderson also assembles a winning cast, with George Clooney and Meryl Streep commanding the audience's undivided attention as a husband trying to re-claim the life he once had and a wife trying to get him to appreciate the one he has now, respectively.

FANTASTIC MR. FOX is the family film that Wes Anderson has been working towards for years now, in that it deals with all of the same themes you see running through THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS and his other films, but does so in a film truly tailored for an audience of families. This film is imaginative, quirky, hilarious, and heartwarming, and you'd be remiss not to give it your time.

NOTE: This should've been posted on Friday, but was not, due to a technical error on my part. I apologize for the mistake, and I hope to have my Final Thoughts on Wes Anderson posted either later today or on Sunday. Thanks for reading!

Wes Anderson (Part 2 of 3)

twee/twē/

Adjective:

Excessively or affectedly quaint, pretty, or sentimental.

In Part 1 of this second installment of Filmmaker of the Week, I began studying writer and director Wes Anderson by taking a good look at his first two films, BOTTLE ROCKET and RUSHMORE. Here in Part 2, I will be discussing THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS and THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU, both of which I have had the good fortune to see multiple times over the years. I will then finish up in Part 3 with his most recent efforts, THE DARJEELING LIMITED and FANTASTIC MR. FOX.

Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) and his wife Etheline Tenenbaum (Anjelica Huston) agreed to separate when their children were very young and, after Royal proved time and again that his parenting skills were mediocre at best, Etheline was forced to raise the kids alone, though all three of them seemed to flourish under her care. Chas Tenenbaum (Ben Stiller), the oldest of the three children, was considered a genius in international finance before he had even graduated high school, and he later sued Royal for stealing bonds from him when he was a minor. Margot Tenenbaum (Gwyneth Paltrow), the adopted daughter, would go on to become a famous playwright after being awarded a grant for a play that she wrote in the ninth grade. Richie Tenenbaum (Luke Wilson), the youngest of the group, was a tennis prodigy whose accomplishments in the sport earned him worldwide fame and the affectionate nickname "Baumer." But time has not been kind to the Tenenbaums despite their childhood accolades, with Chas turning into an obsessive and overprotective father after the death of his wife in a plane crash, Margot becoming a depressed and secretive loner despite her marriage to renowned neurologist Raleigh St. Clair (Bill Murray), and Richie forced into a premature exit from the sport of tennis after suffering a nervous breakdown during an important match. But these wayward siblings soon find themselves under one dysfunctional roof again when Royal returns with the news that he has been diagnosed with cancer and now wants to spend more time with his children before his impending demise.

THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS is considered by quite a few people to be the best film that Wes Anderson has done and I'm inclined to agree with them. It boasts an all-star cast and, on top of that, Anderson makes use of all of them, with particular acclaim being attributed to Gene Hackman in his role as the absent patriarch of the Tenenbaums. Royal Tenenbaum is a despicable and insensitive man child who was never meant to be a father, unable to grasp the radical notion that he is supposed to put the well-being of his children (or anyone else, for that matter) before his own self interests. But because it's Gene Hackman, we're inclined to give him a chance, especially in contrast to his morose and melancholic children, who now all seem so stiff as adults compared to their father's unrefined and unpredictable behavior. Aside from the stalwart performances, what makes this movie work is how Anderson manages to deftly intertwine these different personalities into a living and breathing family that the audience can invest in and laugh at as their dysfunctions become more and more profound. This is also the first time where I believe Anderson was able to fully the realize his trademark visual style, which is where the word twee, as defined above, comes in, because everything about THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS (the characters, the setting, the narrative style, the costumes, etc.) can be summed up with that one little word, to great effect.

It is no secret that I love THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS. Its unique characters are all as memorable as the outstanding performances from the actors bringing them to life, the humor is subtle and often deadpan, and it has an emotional core that never quits. If you're only going to see one movie from the mind of Wes Anderson, I recommend that you make it this one. You won't regret it.

Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) is a famed oceanographer and documentarian whose career is on a downhill slope when his best friend and longtime business partner is eaten by a "Jaguar Shark," an underwater creature that he intends to hunt down and kill as a part of his next film. Just before he is to set sail with his team, Steve receives an unexpected visit from an airline pilot, Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson), whose recently deceased mother let slip that Steve was his biological father, a claim that Steve neither confirms nor denies. Regardless, Steve welcomes Ned aboard his research vessel Belafonte and even invites him to be a part of the hunt for the Jaguar Shark, despite the misgivings of his resentful first mate Klaus Daimler (Willem Dafoe). With pregnant reporter Jane Winslett-Richardson (Cate Blanchett) also taking part in the voyage in hopes of writing an article on Steve, Team Zissou departs in search of the Jaguar Shark, but find themselves forced to overcome a number of obstacles preventing them from capturing their intended target, and Steve is forced to consider what price he is willing to pay in his desperate search for revenge.

To be honest, I struggled writing that synopsis for THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU. The plot is a convoluted one and I'm not sure how best to summarize it, because the movie seems to have a bad habit of getting lost at sea amidst its various subplots and character developments. It is with this film that the question of style over substance arises, because here Anderson seems to spend too much of his time focusing on the look of the film, where there is an expected abundance of twee, and not enough time working on a cohesive plot. I love the characters and Bill Murray, whose self-absorbed Steve Zissou is cut from the same cloth as Royal Tenenbaum, almost succeeds in carrying the film on his performance alone, but the actors can only do so much when hampered by a script that seems unsure of where it wants to go or what it wants to be. Everything feels as if it should revolve around Steve seeking revenge against the Jaguar Shark and his burgeoning father-son relationship with Ned, but the film seems to get bogged down in abrupt plot twists and an excess of supporting characters who don't seem to contribute much to the bigger picture, and the meandering plot can be frustratingly dull at times. It has everything going for it, from a top-notch cast to an impeccable visual style to an amazing soundtrack, but the whole never exceeds the sum of the parts, and the movie suffers as a result.

I love the idea behind THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU and the odd look and feel that Anderson was going for, but the film can't seem to balance its characters and deliver a focused narrative. With that said, Bill Murray gives one of the best performances of his career and I can't recommend this enough if you're a fan of his work. He does not disappoint.

I hope you'll check back later for Part 3!

Wes Anderson (Part 1 of 3)

"I want to try not to repeat myself. But then I seem to do it continuously in my films. It's not something I make any effort to do. I just want to make films that are personal, but interesting to an audience. I feel I get criticized for style over substance, and for details that get in the way of the characters. But every decision I make is how to bring those characters forward." - Wes Anderson

When I first discovered Wes Anderson, I had no idea I had even discovered him at all. When I was a kid, my dad was obsessed with THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS and we would watch it again and again, despite the fact that he would often fall asleep after the first half hour. Nevertheless, I too became smitten with the film and it got to the point where I could almost follow along with each line of dialogue as if I was reading from a book. It had this distinct sense of style that was both modern and old-fashioned at the same time and the characters fit right in, each of them representing this idealistic nostalgia that seemed to have been pulled apart by the cold and uncaring arms of a harsh modern world. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before and I kept coming back to it because it was hilarious and, more than anything, I loved the characters. I think people are drawn to films like THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS because almost everyone considers their own family to be dysfunctional and it is both comforting and heartwarming to know that you're not alone and to be able to find humor in these familial struggles that we all seem to face at one time or another.

Here, in Part 1, we will be talking about BOTTLE ROCKET and RUSHMORE, the first two films to be written and directed by Wes Anderson. In Part 2, we will take a closer look at the aforementioned THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS and also THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU. We will then finish up with a discussion of THE DARJEELING LIMITED and FANTASTIC MR. FOX in Part 3. I was hoping to be able to talk a little bit about MOONRISE KINGDOM, his most recent film that opened in select theaters last Friday, but it isn't showing anywhere in my area. Oh, well.

Based upon a short film of the same name (also by directed by Anderson), BOTTLE ROCKET is an unusual little movie, especially when compared to the films that came afterwards. It was released in 1996 and, despite a fair amount of critical acclaim, was a box office failure, and part of that can be attributed to the fact that both Owen Wilson and Luke Wilson were considered unknowns at the time. Anthony (Luke Wilson) checks himself out of a mental hospital, where he had been self-admitted due to supposed exhaustion, at the behest of his best friend Dignan (Owen Wilson). Since being fired off from his landscaping job, Dignan has been working on an elaborate plan for them to pull off a heist that would impress Mr. Henry (James Caan), his former employer and a part-time criminal. Recruiting their slow-witted friend Bob (Robert Musgrave) as the getaway driver simply because he is the only one who owns a car, Anthony and Dignan rob a book store and decide to lay low for a while at a motel in the middle of nowhere. But Anthony, who up to this point has been willing to go along with Dignan and his plan, experiences a change of heart when he falls in love with the beautiful hotel maid Inez (Lumi Cavazos), much to the irritation of Dignan.

BOTTLE ROCKET was not at all what I had come to expect from Wes Anderson, although, as his first film, that is to be expected, since he might not have developed his signature style until later in his career. Regardless, there is a lot to like about BOTTLE ROCKET. One of the highlights of the films is to watch real-life brothers Luke and Owen Wilson work off of each other, with Luke playing the logical and reserved friend and Owen playing the intense and common sense-challenged firecracker. Their interactions provide much of the humor throughout and it is refreshing to see Luke in a lead role, since he seems to have been relegated to portraying small supporting characters as of late. With that said, I will admit that the movie seems somewhat insignificant when compared to some of Anderson's other more ambitious films and this seems to lack the polish and precision that he would become known for in the years to come. One thing I did appreciate about BOTTLE ROCKET was its use of the two lead characters to illustrate two contrasting ideologies of how to achieve success in life, with Dignan possessed by delusions of grandeur that he attempts to seize by carefully mapping out the next several decades of his life, while Anthony appears more inclined to sit back and let life come to him at its own pace, seemingly content with relishing the smaller day-to-day treasures of life and the overpowering love that he comes to feel for Inez.

I liked BOTTLE ROCKET and I think that, even if it pales in comparison to something like THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, it has its own merits, like the subtle humor throughout and the performances of the two Wilsons. Not the best of Wes Anderson, but still better than your average crime caper.

RUSHMORE is credited with putting Wes Anderson on the map, giving Jason Schwartzman his first and most memorable role, and reviving the career of Bill Murray as a serious actor. It circulated through various film festivals before receiving a limited release in New York and Los Angeles, where it was the recipient of much critical acclaim, but was a financial failure at the box office. Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) is a scholarship student at Rushmore Academy who, despite being involved in over a dozen extra curricular activities, gives little to no effort in the classroom, with the headmaster even going so far as to deem him the worst student in the school. He spends his days writing and directing school plays, presiding over the various clubs in which he is the president or founding member, and telling people that his father is a neurosurgeon when, in truth, he is a barber. Harold Blume (Bill Murray), a bored and self-loathing local industrialist whose twin adolescent sons attend Rushmore, comes to admire Max for his unabashed confidence and zeal and strikes up an unlikely friendship with him. But their friendship is tested when both men develop feelings for Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams), a new school teacher at Rushmore, and the two of them engage in a childish game of one-upmanship in a desperate bid to win her affections.

I was taken aback when I first discovered that this marked the acting debut of Jason Schwartzman, because his performance as Max Fischer is not what you'd expect to see from an actor stepping in front of the camera for the first time. He imbues Max with a sort of cock-eyed innocence that makes him relatable and sympathetic, keeping the audience from resenting his self-assured and often times snot-nosed attitude that we all remember from the grade school brown noser way back when. Max is obsessed with how others perceive him and his desperate attempts to win the favor of those around him all seem to fall flat, with Rosemary in particular. He believes that he is in love with her, but has no idea what love is nor what it means to be in a relationship, because all he has to work from is the idealistic hyper-reality that exists solely in his head telling him what happiness looks like rather than what it feels like. He wants to be treated like an adult without having to do any actual growing up, which I think encapsulates the thinking of a lot of young adults and I applaud Anderson for being able to tap into that pubescent struggle. But none of this would have been as poignant if not for Bill Murray and his perfect portrayal of a man who has become disillusioned with life and longs to re-capture the enthusiasm that he sees in Max. Max has the ambition, Harold has the means, and together they each help the other reach a new understanding of life and love.

RUSHMORE represents Wes Anderson coming into his own and tapping into the unique style of storytelling that has defined him over the course of his career. This one of the most unusual tales of romance that you'll ever see, but one that more is interested in focusing on the struggles of being an adult and knowing what you want in life than whether or not the boy gets the girl.

Don't forget to come back for Part 2!