What movies are you watching?

[The Argonaut]

Wes Anderson's animated movies are not exclusively for kids. And I don't mean that in a "Pixar slips in a mildly risque joke that you need to be 14 to understand" kind of way.

[Mickey]

ugh i hate Anderson so much. At least what he become...a parody of an interior designer. I hate that every fucking ad creative in the world think he is a genious.

I only care for Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, Life Aquatic and Tenenbaums.

The other stuff is pretentious and awful.

Interesting. I don't know that I agree, and I think doing this re-watch really clarified for me why the description of his films as apolitical or twee never really worked for me. Obviously they are--starting with Tenebaums--hyper-stylized and almost baroque in their set design and photography, but to me that helps create the sense of crafted world-building that the films offer. And I think his films are increasingly concerned with what we could broadly call infrastructures--built environments--which the set design interrogates at a formal level. I think Grand Budapest is his best because it's the only one where this impulse is reflexively interrogated: what does this kind of ornate world mean in the face of historical violence? But I think almost all of his movies have a similar nostalgic desire for begone institutions, a yearning to live in these little worlds structured by things like prep schools, summer camp, or sleeper cars while also registering the limits of such a desire. I don't think Anderson is one of the elite filmmakers of his era, definitely not on the level of someone like Paul Thomas Anderson, but I think there's a lot of value in his films.

Interesting that you liked Bottle Rocket so much, that one was a first-viewing for me and I was surprised by how non-Anderson it felt. It reminded me a lot of Blood Simple, the James Caan character is 100% Coen. You can see the genesis for some of the Life Aquatic and Grand Budapest caper aspects in there but it barely felt like the same director.

[VinylGuy]

yeah, the first films felt also more grounded.
Now its all part of the same gimmick, even the performances of the cast. They act all similar.

[BurtReynolds]

I think lately he lurches into Tim Burton territory at times, but it felt like he was pushing himself a bit with the last one.

[VinylGuy]

well Burton is another fine example yeah. His recent output sucks. And by recent..i mean the last what 20 years? I think his last great movie is Big Fish, another that felt also grounded.

[Mickey]

I don't buy that parallel at all. They're both directors with identifiable styles who imbue a certain sense of whimsy but otherwise the comparison fails, and I think Burton has totally fallen off, whereas Grand Budapest is (for me, anyway) far and away Anderson's best film.

[Mickey]

But again, I don't watch the animated films, because animation is for children.

[Jorge]

I think it's cool that there's a handful of directors out there who, market be damned, retain such a clear aesthetic identity. I used to find Wes Anderson insufferable but I grew to really admire what he does.

[BurtReynolds]

I wouldn't say he's as lazy as Burton, but I've seen hints of it. Moonrise Kingdom and that dog movie are far too formulaic. I liked Budapest, though, but that might be more for the writing and acting.

[Jorge]

It just seems like something that's rapidly going away as everyone veers closer and closer to that TV-style drabness

[BurtReynolds]

I thought there were moments in French Dispatch where he's pushing his aesthetic without abandoning it, so there is some hope that he hasn't gotten lazy.

[Jorge]

Also The Last Duel and Annette were both excellent. Watching Pig tomorrow and I'll have finished off my list of 2021 must-watches

[Mickey]

Also The Last Duel and Annette were both excellent. Watching Pig tomorrow and I'll have finished off my list of 2021 must-watches

Yeah I loved this movie, so good.

[Anders]

479 movies. That’s great.

[Anders]

well Burton is another fine example yeah. His recent output sucks. And by recent..i mean the last what 20 years? I think his last great movie is Big Fish, another that felt also grounded.

Good one. I feel the same way.

[VinylGuy]

The Lost Daughter.

Promising debut for Maggie Gyllenhaal. I liked what she did with the framing and the aspect ratio. The story is fine but it kinda crumbles at the end.
Great acting from Olivia Coleman and Dakota Johnson.

[Malloy]

ugh i hate Anderson so much. At least what he become...a parody of an interior designer. I hate that every fucking ad creative in the world think he is a genious.

I only care for Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, Life Aquatic and Tenenbaums.

The other stuff is pretentious and awful.

Interesting. I don't know that I agree, and I think doing this re-watch really clarified for me why the description of his films as apolitical or twee never really worked for me. Obviously they are--starting with Tenebaums--hyper-stylized and almost baroque in their set design and photography, but to me that helps create the sense of crafted world-building that the films offer. And I think his films are increasingly concerned with what we could broadly call infrastructures--built environments--which the set design interrogates at a formal level. I think Grand Budapest is his best because it's the only one where this impulse is reflexively interrogated: what does this kind of ornate world mean in the face of historical violence? But I think almost all of his movies have a similar nostalgic desire for begone institutions, a yearning to live in these little worlds structured by things like prep schools, summer camp, or sleeper cars while also registering the limits of such a desire. I don't think Anderson is one of the elite filmmakers of his era, definitely not on the level of someone like Paul Thomas Anderson, but I think there's a lot of value in his films.

Interesting that you liked Bottle Rocket so much, that one was a first-viewing for me and I was surprised by how non-Anderson it felt. It reminded me a lot of Blood Simple, the James Caan character is 100% Coen. You can see the genesis for some of the Life Aquatic and Grand Budapest caper aspects in there but it barely felt like the same director.

i agree with all of this, especially re: grand budapest. but i'd go a step further & say that the back half of his filmography does place him among the elite filmmakers of his era. his doubling down, over & over again, on this incredibly narrow & seemingly ever-narrowing aesthetic (it's like he continues to refine & reduce it), and the tension in the face of seeminlgy external pressures (nearly always of a political valence), is first fucking rate.

[Mickey]

I could be swayed by that argument--I agree with Jorge in that I'll take an in-house baroque style over drab cinematic realism any day. I guess my sticking point with Wes Anderson is that I really only think of Grand Budapest as a great movie. I like Tenenbaums and Life Aquatic a lot, but they don't quite rise to the same level, and once you're into Darjeeling, Moonrise Kingdom, etc. I find them...not forgettable exactly, but definitely on the lighter side, and more open to the criticism that they're just going through the motions.

[epilogue]

Team Mickey here. Except that I think Moonrise is also great and Life Aquatic is in the not necessarily forgettable but lighter camp.

[epilogue]

Oh, and I am a child. The animated one I watched was aces!