I think it's fine to anticipate Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom

I liked this but not much more than Rushmore or FMF. The script ran out of ideas in the last ten minutes (i.e. let's gather all the characters in a central location for a final time, for another climax).

fmf is way better imo, feels so full of ideas & jokes and characters compared to this

the dance scene on the beach reminded me of Pierrot le Fou

"FMF" is so good.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WpvgDgqTvdQ/Tyd9QqvWytI/AAAAAAAAAZw/jErSooKJdnI/s1600/wolf:fox+.jpg

There's Pierrot stuff all over this one (the scissors scene being another great example).

Caught this last night. This & FMF best 1-2 Anderson punch since his first two. Old people behind me thought Schwartzman was Sacha Baron Cohen. Young women next to me not ready for topless Bill Murray.

I liked this but not much more than Rushmore or FMF. The script ran out of ideas in the last ten minutes (i.e. let's gather all the characters in a central location for a final time, for another climax).

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, June 30, 2012 12:37 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there's some truth in this. the worst offender is life aquatic, where there are like eight climaxes all involving a grouping of nearly the entire cast.

the dance scene on the beach reminded me of Pierrot le Fou

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, June 30, 2012 12:50 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm 99% sure this was 100% intentional.

and if it wasn't Anderson has to refine his methods.

is it just me, or has he gotten a lot worse at achieving seamless tonal shifts? the murray/mcdormand marriage stuff felt kind of jarring in the context of the rest of the movie. especially as compared to tennenbaums, where he was able to glide back and forth between deadpan hilarity and much darker territory without creating any sense of disjointedness.

idk i remember something with an Elliott Smith song that was pretty jarring but it probably was supposed to be

It was jarring because it was an injection of a contemporary song.

I think it's important not to overlook having Owen Wilson as your writing partner vs. Roman Coppola or Noah Baumbach, both of whom have been hit or miss vs. Wilson. Though again, this and "Fantastic Mr. Fox" were pretty great, which sort of redeems those two vs. Wilson.

i don't think it's been overlooked

i must have missed all the ideas and jokes FMF was apparently brimming with

Huh? That movie is brimming with ideas and jokes!

bad ideas and unfunny jokes

this wasn't a bad movie at all

fmf sucked

I prefer talking foxes to arch adults

otm

argh started reading thread but SPOILERS but s'ok, only got halfway through one sentence and scrolled down quickly.

i have never ever understood why people don't appreciate the life aquatic for the subtle, layered, bittersweetly ridiculous comic genius that it is. one of murray's best rolls, all time.

not to mention willem dafoe

because it's just awful

If you like The Life Aquatic at all your opinion cannot be trusted

another one of bill murray's best rolls, all time:

http://i.cdn.turner.com/dr/golf/www/release/sites/default/files/imagecache/node-gallery-display/gallery_images/murraysandwich_1000.JPG

Where does this Life Aquatic film hate come from? I really don't see it as being significantly better or worse than his other films. Maybe it's the weakest link or something, but really, what about it makes it stand out as SO BAD?

this picture sums it up

http://kpnv.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/zissou-rom.jpg

no you're right, i don't think it was bad in qualitatively different way, it was just him being so much more wes anderson than in any of the others

rushmore > bottle rocket > tenenbaums > darjeeling > moonrise >> aquatic

xp loool

I think the hate springs from Murray's beret and its color.

if find the "he needs owen wilson" back thing plausible, but is any of it based on anything more than "the good movies had owen wilson therefore..." correlation implying causation?

for me its based on - new wes isnt funny, owen's funny, therefore need owen.

this article does some speculating

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/dvdextras/2005/07/the_o_factor.html

i have found anderson's slippage into tics + mannerisms to be beautiful and even writerly. there's a certain hallowedness + stillness + meditation to moonrise whose genesis imo occurs in life aquatic (hated darjeeling) and i've found his distance from naturalism (which he's obv always found uncomfortable) to be more + more interesting. i suspect this accounts for the massive distance between the films i love by anderson (primarily these later ones) and the ones other ppl like. thought it wasn't a coincidence that the penultimate scenes of moonrise occur at a church, the two lightning strikes from heaven, etc. more stately than realistic.

maybe unrelated that credit card commercial was a big mistake since it kinda exposed how apolitical some of his homage artifice was (he can even pan the camera for Mastercard!), and cheapened some of the tricks.

See the tics and mannerisms are just part of the WA package for me. I remember seeing the trailer for Rushmore and thinking "Holy crap they are playing the live "A Quick One" from the 1968 Rock n Roll Circus and look at how weird and symmetrical everything is! This is going to rule!"

maybe unrelated that credit card commercial was a big mistake since it kinda exposed how apolitical some of his homage artifice was (he can even pan the camera for Mastercard!), and cheapened some of the tricks.

I like to think that he's just doing his thing and this recognizable quality is what the ad producers snagged him for, so a) this is the cost of doing business in hollywood/tvland, and b) he's making mad cash so he can make weirder less "likeable" movies. I am an optimist obv!

He also did that commercial before making one movie in India and another entirely with stop motion.

Yes, proof!

I thought the whole point of those credit card ads was playing up all the director's quirks (M. Night, I'm looking at you).

saw this over the weekend! thought is was great. only complaint is that keitel was underused!

Anderson's learned much from Woody's penchant for star non-turns.

Frankly, I'm not sure how one even uses Keitel these days.

after seeing his photo in the khaki scout magazine in the beginning, i thought it would be interesting if anderson just used his picture, and keitel wasn't even in the movie.

i had no idea harvey keitel was in this. im suddenly interested!

he is underused!

but he's good. made me realize it had been forever since i'd sen harv in anything.

he's been underused for the last 12 years. the 90s were so kind to harvey, what happened!

The film's biggest disappointment is not using Keitel, McDormand, Balaban, etc as nothing more than visual cues.

*as anything

i dunno, i thought balaban was perfect. and mcdormand was great in that bathtub scene.

supposedly there's a photo of Owen Wilson (as Miss Cross' dead husband) in Rushmore somewhere. Never spotted it though