Red Mosquito

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.

VinylGuy wrote: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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Jorge wrote: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.

479 movies. That’s great.

VinylGuy wrote: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.

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.

Mickey wrote:

VinylGuy wrote: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.

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.

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

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