Director’s Note: Output has been scant here in the office of late, owing to a number of extra-curricular activities that won’t likely let up until the middle of May. We hope you’ll beg our pardon as we get our staffing ducks in a row.
The 2022 NTAB Directorial Culture Exchange Update: Wes Anderson
I was so excited when the d20 brought this director up for us, as he is one of my favorite filmmakers. In short, I think he watches the way books read. He does a lot of things that they tell you not to do in film school, that they frown on and pooh-pooh in screenwriter’s groups, and then he gets to work with a cornucopia of incredible actors, all of whom are taking pay cuts to be there, and getting regularly nominated for multiple awards. Take that, conventional wisdom!
Not wanting to influence Jes’s decision in any way, I let her choose first and was pleasantly surprised when she picked Anderson’s first movie, Bottle Rocket. Contrast that with the only one of his films I’d not seen, The French Dispatch, and we had ourselves a real Alpha and Omega situation going on.
Bottle Rocket (1996) came out right at the end of the Independent filmmaker barbarians storming the gates of established hollywood; you remember how it was all Tarantino, Rodrigues, and Kevin Smith for a while? Bottle Rocket is informed by that; I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was a reaction to all of the bloody crime sagas and dick jokes playing out over the first half of the 1990s, but it certainly was informed by them.
The movie was co-written by Luke Wilson and Wes Anderson, and is also Luke and Owen Wilson’s big screen debuts. In fact, the movie features all three of the Wilson brothers (including older brother, Andrew). I’d call it a caper movie, since the crimes are mostly played for laughs, albeit unintentionally. It’s the sincerity of Owen Wilson’s character, Dignan, that carries the movie most of the way through; watching him put the team together and try to manage them when he’s clearly out of his depth never quite gets old. And bonus! He learns his criminal skills at the feet of James Caan, who makes the most of his small part in the movie.
There’s not a lot of the signature film stylings that Anderson is now known for in Bottle Rocket. By contrast, The French Dispatch plays out like Wes Anderson’s Greatest Hits. Every single narrative device he’s developed over the years is deployed with surgical precision in this movie. It’s probably very helpful that so many Wes Anderson alumni make appearances in the movie, including, but not limited to: Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Adrian Brody, and Tilda Swinton, as well as a bevvy of accomplished character actors who will likely end up working with Anderson again. I have to say, this is the first movie I ever saw where I liked Timothee Chalamet.
Is Wes Anderson an acquired taste? I hope not. I honestly don’t know how to go about recommending his movies to people. He’s a master storyteller, and his movies are almost literary in their execution. The French Dispatch is my favorite of his films, but then again, I say that about each new one that comes out. I’m not sure I’d ask someone to start there, but if you have seen even Rushmore and The Royal Tannenbaums, then this movie should delight, if not instruct.
One of my former roommates saw himself as a cinephile. In reality that mean enduring a lot of… not good movies and insufferable commentary. I thought Bottle Rocket would be more of the same, but man was I wrong!
I can also say with confidence that I’ve seen The Fantastic Mr. Fox 7 bazillion times. My eldest would just watch it over and over and over…