pick your favorite wes anderson film!

The only thing that was disappointing about Life Aquatic for me was the animation.

yeah the animation didn't work so well for me either.

voted rushmore, but bottle rocket is the sentimental favorite. geez now i feel like i sold myself out by voting for rushmore. i used to watch bottle rocket like 2-3 times a week for a year.

is that a joke

well, that's true. (that line is v. funny btw: "these are o.r. scrubs." "o.r. they?") for one thing, comedy doesn't equal jokes. i think it's a really funny movie.
― by another name (amateurist), Monday, April 5, 2010 9:45 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
It's like you didn't understand my post at all.
― kingkongvsgodzilla, Monday, April 5, 2010 12:19 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

it's very possible. did i miss a vein of sarcasm or irony?

i agree that royal tenenbaums (and life aquatic) really overdo(es) it with the pop-song cues. it's like, give me a breather between all the lyrical moments, dude. also maybe this is my own problem but i sort of cringe at emo monochrome + elliott smith suicide moment.

and not cringe in the sense of being grossed out by the bloodshed (which is gross), just being embarrassed by how this super-emo segment is kind of dropped into the film. in general i feel like anderson is trying to push me around emotionally a lot in tenenbaums and aquatic, and not so much in the other films.

not so much in darjeeling? seriously?

maybe i just tuned that out. there is a lot of would-be emotional stuff in the flashback and in the relationship w/ the mother, i s'pose.

yeah the kinks song in Darjeeling when they were walking to the funeral (in slo mo of course) made me scream

i don't know how i feel abt that one. yeah, it's sort of cringeworthy, but it sort of works just the same.

nothing beats the montage of max's extracurricular activities scored to "making time"

XP, YES

owen wilson's bandages coming off was where i kinda tuned out a little

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ud2BywS_3U

it's very possible. did i miss a vein of sarcasm or irony?

― by another name (amateurist), Monday, April 5, 2010 8:09 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

There was a certain implication of "this incident occured way back when I was a total lunkhead and none too appreciative of more subtle humor" I guess. That may not have come through in the telling though.

It was a good time though, and I don't regret it at all. I think we were on Demerol or something at the time too. Maybe Rushmore just wasn't a Demerol movie.

there are some beautiful zooms in wes anderson movies

virtual Rushmore-Fox tie, voted Fox cuz you won't.

The tension between Anderson's choice of British Invasion favorites and his rigorous framing is one of the more puzzling, unresolved things in his work; the music is a clear victor, I think.

interesting. by tension do you mean the music has ecstatic energy and the framings try to contain that energy?

also don't you love how in the calligraphy club shot he's writing a poster for yet another club?

One of the cliches about Anderson is his control, which is certainly true aesthetically but not in the hyperemotional performances and conceptions of the characters. What bugs me much of the time is the one-dimensionality of the performances and conceptions. It reminds me a lot (of all people!) of the improv in Cassavettes films, most of which boast a schema imposed by the director: it's great when it's hitting That Note, but obnoxious when not.

not sure i follow re. one-dimensionality. certainly his films call for stylized acting, but i think in rushmore especially the characters have somewhat contradictory and complex traits by usual standards. at least max and herman.

interesting. by tension do you mean the music has ecstatic energy and the framings try to contain that energy?

Yeah, I think so. I want to write about this in greater length. Although the music serves as counterpoint -- lots of directors do this - in Anderson movies it renders the fumbling hyperemotions of his main characters more coherently than they're capable of.

not sure i follow re. one-dimensionality. certainly his films call for stylized acting, but i think in rushmore especially the characters have somewhat contradictory and complex traits by usual standards

But he mitigates this by forcing the audience to like Max. It's possible that I'm basing at least some of my theory on how badly some of his actors are cast. It's true that Max shows complex and contradictory traits, but Schwartzenbaum's annoying performance throws me out of the movie. I like it, but not for one moment did I sympathize with him in any conventional sense.

I like it = the movie

oh man, i think schwartzman owns that role. i don't really see a problem with having the audience like him. certainly we don't like many of things he does, like e.g. be an asshole to margaret yang the first few times we encounter her. although her (not entirely inexplicable, though perhaps not fully justified) affection for him is kind of another hint that he's basically a good and decent guy.

anyway this is becoming a duet so i'll bow out until someone else wants to chime in

Isn't his dad Matthew Farnsworth? That guy can carry likability across several generations.

he's so weird and cute (in an odd, harshly angled sort of way, esp in a beret) that I'd probably be attracted to him in prep school too.

Max is not a good guy. He's a teenager.

never understood the love for Bottle Rocket

― kulinary gangsta (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, April 6, 2010 1:18 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

it's the whole lovable losers aspect. plus future man is one of the greatest monikers ever created.

Yeah, Max is often extremely unlikable.

all of these movies appeal 2 me deeply but i like rushmore best bcuz of the new wave & the azn gf

god the azn girlfriend made me so uncomfortable

have known so many of those types irl

azn gfs?

will say that w.ands perfectionist dollmaker rococo craziness was at its all time heights w/ rt ended up composing sum p incredible images storybook conceit probably helped. also kinda the most classic corny anderson music cues even better then eliot smith wrist slashing is the valiant eagle soaring 2 the strains of hey jude ~ gr8 filmmaking

hater's gonna hate, i voted natalie portman's ass

god the azn girlfriend made me so uncomfortable

― ain't no thang but a chicken ㅋ (dyao), Tuesday, April 6, 2010 1:08 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

why?

like I said I know too many of those types IRL and may actually be one IRL

what type is she?

overachieving azn who is pretty bland and lacks a personality/is not interesting

is sort of tolerated by everyone but nobody really likes her

:-(

The one I think I enjoyed most was Darjeeling, but I have a tough time with Anderson films. I don't know if it's an audio issue, but I always find it difficult to concentrate on the dialogue. It seems cloudy and arrhythmic or mumbled somehow.

jesus dyao you're making me feel bad with that level of self-hatred

although her (not entirely inexplicable, though perhaps not fully justified) affection for him is kind of another hint that he's basically a good and decent guy.

well, that and wes's racist exoticism fetish HEYO

haha nhex I guess I've just spent so much of my life trying to define myself against that 'type' that I'm just really sensitive about it I dunno

The actress who played her is now an M.D.

Which I hope everyone here will take with a goodnatured LOL given the current discussion of stereotypes.

She is currently in the Internal Medicine Residency program at the University of Chicago.

some people on this thread would like to get internal with her amirite