Movies

zombie.modernist said:
I loved Darjeeling! But it was my first so I have some bias. Curious about your thoughts though.
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Not OP but I was not a fan of Darjeeling at all. Can't really pinpoint it but I think I was just tired of his whimsy at that point. I felt like if you'd seen one of his movies, you'd more or less seen them all. Ironically enough, I hate(d) the first film of his I saw, Rushmore but came around after Royal Tenembaums. Also enjoy Bottle Rocket so take it fwiw, but yeah, don't think I've seen any of his output post-Darjeeling, that's how much I disliked it.
 
Clint Howard said:
Not OP but I was not a fan of Darjeeling at all. Can't really pinpoint it but I think I was just tired of his whimsy at that point. I felt like if you'd seen one of his movies, you'd more or less seen them all. Ironically enough, I hate(d) the first film of his I saw, Rushmore but came around after Royal Tenembaums. Also enjoy Bottle Rocket so take it fwiw, but yeah, don't think I've seen any of his output post-Darjeeling, that's how much I disliked it.
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Fantastic Mr Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, and The Grand Budapest Hotel are all great.
 
Clint Howard said:
Not OP but I was not a fan of Darjeeling at all. Can't really pinpoint it but I think I was just tired of his whimsy at that point. I felt like if you'd seen one of his movies, you'd more or less seen them all. Ironically enough, I hate(d) the first film of his I saw, Rushmore but came around after Royal Tenembaums. Also enjoy Bottle Rocket so take it fwiw, but yeah, don't think I've seen any of his output post-Darjeeling, that's how much I disliked it.
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That's my theory, Darjeeling and Aquatic before it were just the point of exhaustion for many when they realized that he was just going to keep doing the Tennenbaums thing for the rest of his career. I do think he's really sharpened up as a writer, but he kind of established his style fully with Tennebaums, and hasn't broken it too much outside of the stop motion films. I totally get not vibing with that, but I'm glad critically there was a come around to Anderson. IMO repetition is not bad (look at Chaplin) but if you don't love the style I could see getting real sick of it.

I will say as far as repetition he's nowhere near as bad as say Woody Allen, although that extends to his existence as a human being too.....
 
Clint Howard said:
Not OP but I was not a fan of Darjeeling at all. Can't really pinpoint it but I think I was just tired of his whimsy at that point. I felt like if you'd seen one of his movies, you'd more or less seen them all. Ironically enough, I hate(d) the first film of his I saw, Rushmore but came around after Royal Tenembaums. Also enjoy Bottle Rocket so take it fwiw, but yeah, don't think I've seen any of his output post-Darjeeling, that's how much I disliked it.
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I am a Wes Anderson Fanboy. He is possibly the most stylized and idiosyncratic filmmaker. I enjoy his filmography a great deal (Rushmore being one of my favorite films of all time). I get the criticism but personally I appreciate the fact that every movie he has made is undeniably a Wes Anderson film. I hope he never leaves the nice little box that he has built for himself and will gladly give him my money every few years when he drops a new film.
 
Wes Anderson has an impeccable eye and does wonders with character creation and dialogue. His weakness as a filmmaker is more overall plot (macro storytelling). I enjoy aesthetics and individual moments more than any of his stories as a whole. I think the movies that are the most critically lauded are the ones that do the best at telling a traditional story.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Wes Anderson has an impeccable eye and does wonders with character creation and dialogue. His weakness as a filmmaker is more overall plot (macro storytelling). I enjoy aesthetics and individual moments more than any of his stories as a whole. I think the movies that are the most critically lauded are the ones that do the best at telling a traditional story.
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I think Rushmore, Tennebaums, Moonrise Kingdom and Budapest have the most staying power because they have more traditional plot structures (even Budapest is a pretty straightforward frame narrative). Still I like his more meandering films too but I get your point.

He and Tarantino have a lot in common (besides being every teenager's basic jump into "cinema" lol) , both mid 90s American post-modern directors that have achieved massive success, but sometimes get lost in their own style. I have to wonder if the fame stifles the innovation at a certain point since they have such a wide fanbase that resembles that of a brand more than a director. Ultimately though, I like all of Wes' films, and don't mind him settling into the role of a craftsman vs an innovator.
 
zombie.modernist said:
That's my theory, Darjeeling and Aquatic before it were just the point of exhaustion for many when they realized that he was just going to keep doing the Tennenbaums thing for the rest of his career. I do think he's really sharpened up as a writer, but he kind of established his style fully with Tennebaums, and hasn't broken it too much outside of the stop motion films. I totally get not vibing with that, but I'm glad critically there was a come around to Anderson. IMO repetition is not bad (look at Chaplin) but if you don't love the style I could see getting real sick of it.

I will say as far as repetition he's nowhere near as bad as say Woody Allen, although that extends to his existence as a human being too.....
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It's not even really his style.. it's worse than that.. it was, more or less, his fans. Literally 9/10 dudes I met who loved him could have been a stand in for the main character from Rushmore. And isn't he just a standin for Wes Andrson more or less? And god do I hate that actor/character.. so that probably has ruined my view of him as well.

TenderLovingKiller® said:
I am a Wes Anderson Fanboy. He is possibly the most stylized and idiosyncratic filmmaker. I enjoy his filmography a great deal (Rushmore being one of my favorite films of all time). I get the criticism but personally I appreciate the fact that every movie he has made is undeniably a Wes Anderson film. I hope he never leaves the nice little box that he has built for himself and will gladly give him my money every few years when he drops a new film.
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He's definitely a modern day auteur.. among a handful that I can think of (mainly Nolan and Aranovsky come to mind as other modern auteurs but granted, that's a very westerncentric perspective too)... but, yeah, I just got kinda tired of it. I will come around and check the rest eventually.
 
zombie.modernist said:
I loved Darjeeling! But it was my first so I have some bias. Curious about your thoughts though.
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I’ll be honest, I’ve only seen it all the way through once, when it came out; I’ve caught parts of it on tv since. As @zombie.modernist points out, this was definitely the point of exhaustion for the whole “Wes Anderson thing,” and though I’ll go to bat for Life Aquatic (which is also uneven and emotionally confused), these two movies are definitely a fulcrum point where I saw the wheels starting to fall off the whole thing. There’s definitely a parallel universe where Anderson goes the way of Jared Hess and just falls further and further into his “thing” to the point of inaccessibility.

I think Darjeeling really suffers from emotional whiplash; the characters are all taciturn and unwilling to say how they really feel, yet spend most of their time moping about said feelings. The romance with the tea girl is really weirdly chaste and falls in with the cultural fetishization/appropriation which really didn’t sit right with me for that movie. There’s a whole emotional undercurrent to Jason Schwartzman’s character with a romantic subplot with Natalie Portman which the movie alludes to but doesn’t really make sense unless you watched the accompanying short film. It just feels like a movie with a lot of parts, yet doesn’t really put them all together into a complete whole.

I don’t think I’d say it’s an out-and-out bad movie, but it’s where the seams show the most. I feel like Fantastic Mr Fox was a good exercise for him; animation allowed him to give in to all his obsessions over detail and texture, and it feels like the energetic, economic storytelling of Moonrise Kingdom and Grand Budapest came from lessons learned in the animation studio.
 
I am a huge Wes Anderson fan, but I can understand a lot of the criticisms. That said, I don’t love everything. Never got why Life Aquatic was so beloved...it’s one of my least favorites, though I’ve come around on it since I first saw it. I liked Darjeeling, didn’t love it, but I enjoyed it mostly. It was the first time I saw a Wes Anderson film in the theater though, so it felt special. Not a favorite now though.

Love Moonrise Kingdom so much but when it came out I remember people saying they were just tired of him. It’s since come around to getting some recognition though.

Not as big a fan of Fantastic Mr. Fox as everyone else. Never really loved it. Isle Of Dogs was more my thing, though...that character Greta Gerwig plays is terrible. Looking forward to the new one! Sounds great.

anyway, here’s a ranking... (I still generally like everything though, even ones that are lower have things I like about them)

1.The Royal Tenenbaums
2. Rushmore
3. Moonrise Kingdom
4. The Grand Budapest Hotel
5. Isle Of Dogs
6. The Life Aquatic
7. Bottle Rocket
8. The Darjeeling Limited
9. Fantastic Mr. Fox
 
Bennnnn said:
I am a huge Wes Anderson fan, but I can understand a lot of the criticisms. That said, I don’t love everything. Never got why Life Aquatic was so beloved...it’s one of my least favorites, though I’ve come around on it since I first saw it. I liked Darjeeling, didn’t love it, but I enjoyed it mostly. It was the first time I saw a Wes Anderson film in the theater though, so it felt special. Not a favorite now though.

Love Moonrise Kingdom so much but when it came out I remember people saying they were just tired of him. It’s since come around to getting some recognition though.

Not as big a fan of Fantastic Mr. Fox as everyone else. Never really loved it. Isle Of Dogs was more my thing, though...that character Greta Gerwig plays is terrible. Looking forward to the new one! Sounds great.

anyway, here’s a ranking... (I still generally like everything though, even ones that are lower have things I like about them)

1.The Royal Tenenbaums
2. Rushmore
3. Moonrise Kingdom
4. The Grand Budapest Hotel
5. Isle Of Dogs
6. The Life Aquatic
7. Bottle Rocket
8. The Darjeeling Limited
9. Fantastic Mr. Fox
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Like you; I don't really care much for Darjeeling or Life Aquatic but Fantastic Mr. Fox is one of my favorites ... Top 3 for sure
 
Bennnnn said:
I like Jojo Rabbit and it seems like a lot of people have turned on it recently. So much of the criticism I’ve seen wildly misunderstands what the film is trying (and mostly succeeding) to do. Instead they’re framing it in a way that I don’t think was the point, and then saying: here’s how it fails at that.

example:

film.avclub.com

Jojo Rabbit is not the new Life Is Beautiful

Taika Waititi's film is actually misguided, not misunderstood.
film.avclub.com film.avclub.com
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Oof, I couldn't read any more after this part:

"Life Is Beautiful, a film I eventually concluded may be great in spite of Benigni’s concerted effort to make it terrible."

I really enjoyed JoJo fwiw.
 
Yeah I totally get all those criticisms, especially @Clint Howard 's of Rushmore, even though its my favorite Wes. The issue really is that the film is about how to get over being pretentious asshole but it does seem to attract a cult of the assholes who still don't get it. I know quite a few myself. I was blessed to have lived in Rhode Island when Moonrise was filming and got to be a part of a scene as an extra and meet Wes, Bill Murray and Ed Norton, so I have a big soft spot for that film, and Wes in general that's hard for me to separate from that experience. Anyhow if we're doing it:

1: Rushmore
2: Moonrise
3: Royal Tenebaums
4: Grand Budapest Hotel
5: Fantastic Mr. Fox
6: Darjeeling
7: Life Aquatic
8: Isle of Dogs
9: Bottle Rocket
 
Life Aquatic has always been one of my favorite Wes films, and is usually low on most lists I see. I just always felt on a comedy level, it's the funniest and therefore the most entertaining to watch. Love every single one of his movies though except maybe Darjeeling. I've only seen that once though, and was really tired during it.
 
Here’s my list...
Rushmore
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Moonrise Kingdom
The Life Aquatic
The Darjeeling Limited
Bottle Rocket
Isle Of Dogs
Fantastic Mr. Fox

Also, for any big Wes Anderson fans; check out this coffee table book...

EA0A6C24-F78E-4DFE-B2BB-8EF9B91562E8.jpeg
EAEE07EC-3656-45B2-A4CA-C1F503600F88.jpeg
7B35E67A-F307-41D9-A431-35056AFB13E2.jpeg
44AE8393-F7F8-43AD-AB9C-E34EB7AA7275.jpeg
6BB5DFAD-4A15-4FD8-BFCC-5BA92FDF2186.jpeg
It’s a really beaut. The only bummer is that it ends at Moonrise Kingdom. It would be nice if they eventually did a second collection but we are probably at least a few films away from that.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Here’s my list...
Rushmore
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Moonrise Kingdom
The Life Aquatic
The Darjeeling Limited
Bottle Rocket
Isle Of Dogs
Fantastic Mr. Fox

Also, for any big Wes Anderson fans; check out this coffee table book...

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It’s a really beaut. The only bummer is that it ends at Moonrise Kingdom. It would be nice if they eventually did a second collection but we are probably at least a few films away from that.
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They did standalone books for Budapest and Isle of Dogs, which were a bit steep IMO, but they do exist.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Here’s my list...
Rushmore
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Moonrise Kingdom
The Life Aquatic
The Darjeeling Limited
Bottle Rocket
Isle Of Dogs
Fantastic Mr. Fox

Also, for any big Wes Anderson fans; check out this coffee table book...

View attachment 32522
View attachment 32523
View attachment 32525
View attachment 32526
View attachment 32527
It’s a really beaut. The only bummer is that it ends at Moonrise Kingdom. It would be nice if they eventually did a second collection but we are probably at least a few films away from that.
Click to expand...
Can’t believe I don’t have this book.

aaaand just bought it
 
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