The 11th Hall of Fame

Thanks a lot about the nom, will most likely PM you myself if i can't find it later.

Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012)
Imdb

Date Watched: 9/19/16
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: The 11th MoFo Hall of Fame
Rewatch: No

This is my fifth Wes Anderson film and he has struck out with me every time. I don’t object to quirk. I don’t object to entertainment for the sake of entertainment. But there is just something about Anderson’s brand of filmmaking that fails to resonate with me time and time again.

His movies look good: Lots of bright colors and sharp images. The soundtracks are usually interesting. But his characters ruin it for me every single time. I don’t believe them. Flat out. No. People don’t talk this way. People don’t move this way. They are quirky for the sake of being quirky. Even within the context of Anderson’s bizarro movie worlds, I don’t believe his characters. When I don’t believe characters, I don’t care about them. When I don’t care about the characters, I get bored.

Moonrise Kingdom is no different from the other Wes Anderson films I’ve seen before. I don’t believe Sam. I don’t believe Suzy. I don’t believe the scout master. I don’t believe Suzy’s parents. I don’t believe the cop. And I don’t care about any of them so when the film attempts to strike an emotional chord, it only falls flat.

About the only praise I can give Moonrise Kingdom is that, while I didn’t care about any of its characters, I didn’t truly hate any of them either - though I did hate some of the scenes (lightning strike, anyone?) and found myself saying "F*** you, Wes Anderson" a time or two. Looking back at my rating for Rushmore, the last Anderson film I watched, I see I gave it a . I must have been feeling really generous that day. I think I disliked this one a little less than I disliked that one, but I’m not feeling particularly generous this time.


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I have a question for you MV, just as way of discussion, not trying to be confrontational. Do you think Anderson is trying to draw naturalistic characters? Do you think Kauffman writes his characters in a naturalistic way?

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I can understand how you don't like Anderson, Miss Vicky. Hes not for everybody. I really don't like Tenenbaums or Budapest. However, I really liked Moonrise (and Rushmore and Fox)

Of course Anderson isn't, but they are so unnatural that they are off putting.

Kaufman's characters are different. For the most part, they inhabit absurd worlds, but they still behave and react to those worlds in very human ways. I believe Joel and Clementine. Hell, I even believe Craig and Lotte, as bizarre as they are. Through all his quirks, Kaufman's understanding of people really comes through in his work. Spike Jonze is the same.

Wes Anderson, on the other hand, just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

You don't like Fantastic Mr. Fox either?

No. Probably disliked it the least of the Anderson films I've seen, but still didn't like it at all.

The other two I've seen are The Royal Tenenbaums and Life Aquatic.

The Dead Girl (2006)


This was a damn depressing movie. Not really what I usually go in for, but with some good moment...even if it took some trugging to get to them.

To be fair, I'm not this movie's intended audience. I'm the guy who hates Repo men (2010) because of the ending.



The movie itself is divided into five parts, each separated from the others by titlecard depicting the relationship the protagonist has to either the girl or the murderer. For there's a dead girl. Toni Collette finds her in the first scene. She plays a woman living with her verbally abusive mother. When she reports the body to the police she gets mobbed by reporters and OH HOLY ****, IT'S RIBISI!

Is this man incapable of NOT playing a skeevy basterd?

Anyway, he asks her out on a date, she wants him to rape her, she leaves the mother, story over. And that's the problem I have with this movie. It's like Love Actually (2003) in that it tries to tell multiple stories, but whereas Love weaves the stories into one another, this keeps them utterly separated. When a story's over, we never hear from that character again. I know the focus is the girl, but the stories ends so abruptley that I never felt that we were told a complete story. Except, again, for the girl's. There's not enough time spent with each character to get to know them or care for them.

Except for two of them. Which were the two parts I actually liked. Both are very well acted and during the few moment we have to get to know them they get alot across. In the chapter titled sister we meet Leah, a college student who's sister dissapeared 15 years ago. The parents are still putting up flyers and collecting info, which means that the daughter they still have never got to grieve or move on, as the mother still believe that the other daughter's out there somewhere. The actress playing Leah does a great job in portraying a girl who wants to move on but feels so guilty over giving up on her sister. And there's some James Franco in this, so YAY, levity.

The second to last chapter follows Marcia Gay Harden playing the mother of the dead girl and her attempt to map out her daughter's final days. This is also very well acted and as she discovers more about her daughter she recives several emotional gut-punches that puts her on her ass.

At the end of things, this is a one and done for me. Some really good acting, some good pieces of story, but not somthing I feel needs a rewatch. I don't know if this sounds like a posetive or negative review. I feel it's mixed emotionally, just like I am when it comes to this movie. I do recommend you watch this, at least for the acting which is good almost throughout.

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Why not just kill them? I'll do it! I'll run up to Paris - bam, bam, bam, bam. I'm back before week's end. We spend the treasure. How is this a bad plan?

Way to go Clazor! You're watching these movies fast I have to get my movie watching butt in gear and view some of these fine flicks! Hopefully I can watch one soon

Thanks! I realize we have twelve weeks to see them, but I think I'll have some hard times finding some of them, so I thought I could watch the ones I have easy access to and then have a buffer zone in which I can spend on tracking down the others.

On an unrelated note, I'm glad you liked Payback, I was hoping you would find it interesting.

You're right some movies can be hard to find, so good plan to watch the easy to find ones now. Thank you! for suggesting Payback. Awesome flick!

Need to get moving on this, well not really we have ages i just want to. I'm too tired to watch something tonight but i'll watch Samurai Rebellion tomorrow. Was gutted when that Embrace link didn't actually have English Subs even though it said it did when i sat down to watch it, so i ended up just not watching anything. Will need to try and find another link for it.

The Dead Girl is the nomination I'm most looking forward to, even though I'm not expecting it to be the best. It looks like the one most suited to my taste, and it's the only one my wife will watch, with the possible exception of Flowers of War (because of Bale).

Cricket see if wifey will watch Flowers of War with you, most of the dialogue is in English. My wife really liked that movie, in fact she helped me pick it for my nomination.

I just watched it yesterday, I though it was an ok movie.

You do realize that you're supposed to do write-ups for the movies and post them in here, right?

Yeah Guap i'm sorry but as i told you in PM two different people have contacted me to say they don't think you watch the noms because you never participate and if you do you usually say a few vague things that make it seem like you are reading it from wikipedia or something. As i said to you in PM i trust you if you are telling me you watch them, i see no reason for you to lie. But from your recent response in PM and that Moonrise was an OK movie post, more or less confirming that you won't be saying much i have to ask why are you bothering to join? I get that you want people to watch an underseen movie that you are passionate about, but don't you think you could at least put some effort into joining in with discussions and giving even short write ups of the other members movies that they are passionate about in return?

This shouldn't even be a thing i need to ask of someone. It comes across like the sole reason you join these is so people can see your movie, while you have no interest in anyone elses.

I don't think either are very interested in naturalism. If you don't find Anderson's characters recognizable then that's fair enough. I think the young man that feels isolated and never a part of the crowd in Moonrise is very recognizable. The girl that is smarter than the others her age. Who feels different than her family and wants to run away with the first person she has felt a real connection with. The scout leader is yet another lonely soul who attaches his whole being to this world he loved as a kid. It makes sense, he can control it, and he has authority in it.

I could go on and on about hos characters. His style is certainly not for everyone but I don't think it's because his characters lack humanity.

I'm precious about my write-ups as you know, so I haven't had time to do them yet. Don't know if I'll just scatter something out without much structure or whatever of I don't get around them soon...

But movie-watching is going really well. Like I said, Her and Moonrise Kingdom is down. I also watched Ronin today, yet another (though long overdue) rewatch. I better get around the first watches soon too. But so far so good.

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Their situations and motivations are recognizable but the characters themselves - their actual actions and the way in which they speak and move - are not. They're foreign. They're fake.

Even with the absurdities of the premises, I can get lost in a Kaufman or Jonze film. With Wes Anderson I never forget that I'm watching a movie. A fiction. I'm always observing from a distance.