Also, am I the only one who found:
to be one of the most hilarious exchanges in a long time? I didn't think the film itself was overlous humorous compared to other Anderson's, but Jesus did I laugh for at least two or three minutes at that.
Also, am I the only one who found:
to be one of the most hilarious exchanges in a long time? I didn't think the film itself was overlous humorous compared to other Anderson's, but Jesus did I laugh for at least two or three minutes at that.
Recently Viewed:
Thor: The Dark World (2013) **½
The Counselor (2013) *½
Walden (1969) ***
A Hijacking (2012) ***½
Before Midnight (2013) ***
Films By Year
I thought the adolescent sexuality was done really well and accurate to both the desires/awkwardness of that age. Frankly, I'm impressed it was there at all considering the continuing cute-ification of children (well pre-teens) in a lot of American cinema. Europeans generally handle this stuff much better (Tomboy to name one recent example).
It's possible it was a closed set during some of those scenes, although it's innocent enough to not warrant it. I agree with KF that the maturity level on film sets gets pretty low, and can be very bro-y, so subjecting a scene like that to grips and such who make comments on the sexiness of such-and-such actress would be a bit creepy. Then again, this is more about the actual behind-the-scenes of production, and stuff like this doesn't hinder my enjoyment of something like The Exorcist, for example.
Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:
Top Gun: Maverick - 8
Top Gun - 7
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
Crimes of the Future - 8
Videodrome - 9
Valley Girl - 8
Summer of '42 - 7
In the Line of Fire - 8
Passenger 57 - 7
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6
Man, I was too busy reveling in the pure, unadorned, perfect humanity on display during the whole beach scene to worry about if the kids were uncomfortable. I'm sure they were but hey, adolescent sexuality is always uncomfortable. I think they'll look back on it and feel like it was totally worth it. "This is our land!!"
My favorite moment might be the very end of the film, when Suzy gets down from her reading perch to go to dinner but freezes mid-stride as if she sees a ghost (the camera watching her) and then just moves on. At first I thought she was looking at the painting Sam did, but it's turned away from her. I seriously can't even describe what that moment meant for me, but it was perfect. Just thinking about it gives me a giant lump in my throat.
The severed arm perfectly acquitted itself, because of the simplicity of its wishes and its total lack of doubt.
I thought it was her deciding if she wanted to look at his picture or not.Quoting Milky Joe (view post)
Recently Viewed:
Thor: The Dark World (2013) **½
The Counselor (2013) *½
Walden (1969) ***
A Hijacking (2012) ***½
Before Midnight (2013) ***
Films By Year
Maybe that's what she was doing. I thought it was an echo of the moment earlier in the film where she looks directly into the camera after reading Sam's letter. Some sort of tacit recognition of the audience, and therefore her own existence as a character rather than a person. I prefer to think of it that way.
The severed arm perfectly acquitted itself, because of the simplicity of its wishes and its total lack of doubt.
I thought they spent enough time on the Willis/McDormand/Murray triangle, namely because it still was focused on even in the background throughout the entire film. Willis btw seemed to be channeling Murray's Max Blume in Rushmore at times, which was relatively notable-his character was probably my favorite in the film.
I'm not sure why I didn't have a problem with the kids on the beach scenes. It could be that I found them awkward to the point of being almost laughable as well as serious, young fumbling and confused love. I'm surprised that Anderson got away with it, and that despite it the film was only rated PG-13 (at least I think it is).
Oh and yes I too was kind of confused by the two Wilderness Scouts, but at the same time I liked that bit since when I was a in the Boy Scouts the uniforms often made it hard to tell people apart.
BTW, I thought this film had plenty of truly hilarious moments, where as many of Wes's films just have merely funny/amusing parts. The scene where the kids roll out to find Sam armed to the teeth was a riot, as was a couple other scenes that I can't recall exactly but which I would like to revisit at some point. And since I just bought Rushmore on Criterion, I only have two Anderson films left to own-Darjeeling Limited and The Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Glad you liked it, KF. Hopefully this film does well enough that they continue to give Anderson's movies wide releases.
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They call your name out loud and clear
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This was great, but I don't think it's better than any of his earlier movies.
I'm not really what you'd call a fan of Anderson's films. He's competent as a filmmaker, but what he does rarely resonates with me.
Before The Fantastic Mr. Fox, the only movie of his I enjoyed even a bit was The Life Aquatic.
Nothing against the guy, his stuff just isn't my cup of tea.
That said, I saw this yesterday and it's easily my favorite of his films. I can't explain why. Many of the common Anderson touches are on display here and yet it all seemed to work. The cinematography was pretty fantastic and Desplat is quickly becoming one of my favorite film composers.
The Anderson quirk really added to the fairy-tale quality of the entire film, which works so well to strengthen everything that unfolds on the screen.
The two lead kids were great, and really, that's one thing I can say about Anderson films - even when I'm not a huge fan of the finished product, the acting is always at least above average.
Of the supporting adults, Norton was my favorite, but Willis was good too.
My favorite moments were...
[]
and
[]
So yeah, I really liked this one. I'm surprised how much I did, to be honest.
So...went to see TDKR last night, it was sold out (which was surprising, it was Sunday at 9PM and I got there 10 mins early)...went and saw this again instead.
It's still great, even if some of the magic wears off the second time around. I was thinking one of the reasons why I like it, is that it's clear that it takes place in the 60s, whereas Anderson's other movies ostensibly take place in the time of their release, but everyone looks like they are from the 60s/70s so you just assume they are retro/hipster/vintage types. It seems like Anderson wants his films to take place in the past anyways, but maybe before it was cost-prohibitive to make everything vintage, so it's nice that he just goes ahead and does it here.
I also have to say, I like how bizarre Jason Schwartzman's character acts. The whole marriage scene and his behavior is so wonderfully odd.
[]
Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:
Top Gun: Maverick - 8
Top Gun - 7
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
Crimes of the Future - 8
Videodrome - 9
Valley Girl - 8
Summer of '42 - 7
In the Line of Fire - 8
Passenger 57 - 7
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6
He was my favorite part of the movie.
When he [] I thought it felt like some kind of odd homage to the scene in Apocalypse Now where the preacher is holding a church service while the battle still rages. I think it was just the weird costume that he's wearing in the film that made me think that.
Also I laughed pretty hard when Bill Murray finally gets really pissed and throws his shoe at Edward Norton's hapless Wilderness Scout leader.
BLOG
And everybody wants to be special here
They call your name out loud and clear
Here comes a regular
Call out your name
Here comes a regular
Am I the only one here today?
Could be intentional, with Schwartzman a part of the Coppola Clan. There's also a "leave the ___ take the ___" line but I forget what the nouns are.
Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:
Top Gun: Maverick - 8
Top Gun - 7
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
Crimes of the Future - 8
Videodrome - 9
Valley Girl - 8
Summer of '42 - 7
In the Line of Fire - 8
Passenger 57 - 7
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6
Yeah, but the painting is facing away from her, so she can't see what it's of. But it's almost like she knows what it is without having to see it. Beautiful ending.
The severed arm perfectly acquitted itself, because of the simplicity of its wishes and its total lack of doubt.
Oh yeah there was a Godfather reference, too. My favorite homage though was []
BLOG
And everybody wants to be special here
They call your name out loud and clear
Here comes a regular
Call out your name
Here comes a regular
Am I the only one here today?
Just realized I never responded to this.
I don't know. It might be that I was just in the wrong sort of mood for Fantastic Mr. Fox when I saw it, even though I know I was looking forward to it beforehand, and much as I love his other films, I think when it comes to Anderson's style often being so saturated and meticulous with visual ideas and offbeat touches to his design, dialogue and characters, is brought to life in an appealing way in live action since he lucks out with strong storytelling and performances that don't let his broader tendencies completely suffocate the relatable pulse beneath the material.
All of this may explain why I didn't respond to Fantastic Mr. Fox the same way I did to Moonrise Kingdom (or even Darjeeling Limited, Life Aquatic, Royal Tenenbaums, etc.), I find the largest saving grace in Anderson's work to be his twisted versions of the real world with his various actors within them conveying genuine personalities that juxtapose beautifully. So from the look of the characters to the choppy stop-motion animation style to the script (the whole ongoing "cussing" gag just outright annoyed me), it just didn't seem to have anything palpable for me to enjoy. The Mr. Fox world all felt far too mannered and inorganic.
I love the idea of the movie (with its images, cast, general premise), and to this day seeing individual stills and clips of the film still fill me with wonderment and thoughts of whether or not I was wrong about the movie and should revisit it. But I still think that the one time I saw it, this particular (intermittently gorgeous) way of realizing through this animation paired with Anderson's general instincts as a director just didn't mesh in a seamless or convincing enough way for me. A disembodied Bill Murray voice over a scraggly mole character just seemed like too many layers of insincerity for Anderson to balance with real emotions. The world he animates is just so alien, that unlike in his live action work where I can plainly see the heightened differences and enjoy its bizarre irregularities, I couldn't see anything in Fantastic Mr. Fox's smugly constructed script and universe to have stake in, and even taken on its own terms, disassociated from his other work, I wasn't moved by it in any way but to feel strong ambivalence.
Last 11 things I really enjoyed:
Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
Safe (Haynes, 1995)
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
Diva (Beineix, 1981)
Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)
That's because there wasn't enough Bill Murray, making it impossible to be better than Life Aquatic.
Speaking as a pretty big Wes Anderson fanboy, this movie's the first time I've found Murray's "Bill Murray" schtick tiresome. That well might be running dry
I didn't find it tiresome, but I did think they were counting on him being "Bill Murray." The character was barely fleshed out as though we should already know who he was because of who was playing him.
I can remember one great line from him;
Does it concern you that daughter just ran away from home?
Murray: "That's a loaded question".
He wasn't even a character. There was a lot of that in this movie. I think Anderson is relying on his stock archetypes too much.
My reaction, too.
I felt the same way about this as his last couple: admired it mostly for the meticulous production design and wonderful soundtrack and etc. Some of Anderson's strongest aesthetic work, perhaps. I thought the first half or so of the film was quite lovely and was really enjoying it. Lost its way a bit for me from there, but like Fantastic Mr. Fox was still entertaining throughout even when it was no longer resonating with me narratively/emotionally/whatever. For example, I found the scout shenanigans and the meteorological events and so on funny and engaging, but only on a superficial level. I found the film much more pleasing aesthetically and engaging emotionally during the earler sections before the two kids are caught on the beach. Part of this owes perhaps to some poor special effects; I enjoyed Anderson's use of miniatures, but shots like Norton leaping to Keitel's rescue were just sort of ugly.
I suppose in that sense I also agree a bit with Davis. I still enjoy Anderson's world on a film by film basis, and admire many elements of his craft, but these pleasures are becoming more and more superficial. I often find Anderson's penchant for shenanigans as in the aforementioned overbearing, and as others have mentioned, many of the characters here feel like little more than sketches, so that subplots like Murray and McDormand's marital troubles never come together for me thematically, and the film just sort of spins out in the third act. That said I will also agree that Anderson nailed the ending, probably one of his best. Anderson's use of Britten's music was sublime. Loved the credits, too.
Giving up in 2020. Who cares.
maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore (Sky Hopinka) ***½
Without Remorse (Stefano Sollima) *½
The Marksman (Robert Lorenz) **
Beckett (Ferdinando Cito Filomarino) *½
Night Hunter (David Raymond) *
I personally love the way Anderson's films kind of feel like a travelling theater troupe. I actually wish he always had the exact same actors. It feels like each destination is a new riff, the same group and thematics re-worked into a new story. I love seeing the way themes fit in through all of them and how the players are positioned in the new film.
On this film itself though, I think it is likely his most thematically rich film to date and definitely the most tender and poignant.
Recently Viewed:
Thor: The Dark World (2013) **½
The Counselor (2013) *½
Walden (1969) ***
A Hijacking (2012) ***½
Before Midnight (2013) ***
Films By Year
Bottle Rocket is way more tender and poignant, mainly because it's so sincere and real. After BR, Anderson got too caught up in his artificial world, and now everything feels artificial, from the sets to the characters to the emotions on display; he's taken his cardboard, shoebox diorama aesthetic too far, and the artificial nature of the setting, which looks great, has now transcended into the realms of emotion and character (two places where it doesn't belong). His characters are little more than paper dolls, made to look the part. They're automatons running through their programmed motions and emotions, but are unable to show any real emotion or convey any real sense of drama.
Couldn't disagree more. The most affecting moment for me in any Wes Anderson movie is when they finally encounter the jaguar shark in The Life Aquatic. In fact, poignancy isn't something any of his films has lacked, in my estimation. I also found many moments in Tenenbaums, Rushmore, and Darjeeling to be very sincere and emotionally resonant.
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