Quirky As Cuss: The Wes Anderson Fan Club

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Rushmore remains my favorite Anderson film and has become one of my top ten films ever. It's tight at 90 minutes and non-stop funny. This is one of the great characters ever conceived. One of my favorite aspects of Max is that he is an intelligent nerd type but a horrendous student. It is a small change to a stereotype but one that I think changes the whole perspective on Max and thus the film.
We can start to see more of the Anderson visual style here that was lacking in Bottle Rocket. Absolutely brilliant movie. As perfect as movies get. What do you guys think of Rushmore?
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I really do need to see another Wes Anderson film, since I've only seen one of them, being The Royal Tenenbaums, which was average to me. But maybe I'd like something else?



I really do need to see another Wes Anderson film, since I've only seen one of them, being The Royal Tenenbaums, which was average to me. But maybe I'd like something else?
Try Fantastic Mr. Fox, Rushmore, and Moonrise Kingdom. Those are probably his most accessible.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is my favorite of his. I love it. It's a hard movie not to enjoy.



I really do need to see another Wes Anderson film, since I've only seen one of them, being The Royal Tenenbaums, which was average to me. But maybe I'd like something else?
I really do think the more Anderson you watch the more you like his movies. The wit and visual style really grow on you. Its OK is a pretty common thing to hear from a first time Anderson view. Swan is right, Mr Fox seems to be his most accesible. Bottle Rocket will give you a feel for his humor and characters without some of the other Anderson quirks. I love them all though. My most firm reco is to save Life Aquatic for last. It seems to be his least loved.





Cast:
Luke Wilson
Gwyneth Paltrow
Ben Stiller
Gene Hackman
Owen Wilson


"Anybody interested in grabbing a couple of burgers and hittin' the cemetery?"

"Well, everyone knows Custer died at Little Bighorn. What this book presupposes is... maybe he didn't."

" Hell of a damn grave. Wish it were mine."

"All memory of the brilliance of the young Tenenbaums had been erased by two decades of betrayal, failure and disaster."








Is it too late for me to join the fan club? I am a huge Wes Anderson fan and I have seen all of his pictures and own all of them except Rushmore and Moonrise Kingdom (even though I love both of those too) I have 2 Wes Anderson screenplays, Rushmore and The Grand Budapest Hotel. And if you look in my top ten, you'll see that Grand Budapest is on there. So please consider adding me to this quirky as cuss fan club, I would really appreciate it
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Your in mrtyler. Even though Rushmore isn't your favorite, I forgive you. Feel free to start up some discussions and post some clips and stuff. Anderson is my favorite director right now and I love talking about him.



Great thanks! Not sure if I will have time to start posting tonight but I will post whenever I can. I will start one discussion point tonight and check on it tomorrow. Someone needs to combine the bees scene from Rushmore with the bees scene from the Nic Cage version of The Wicker Man. That would be great lol.



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Rushmore remains my favorite Anderson film and has become one of my top ten films ever. It's tight at 90 minutes and non-stop funny. This is one of the great characters ever conceived. One of my favorite aspects of Max is that he is an intelligent nerd type but a horrendous student. It is a small change to a stereotype but one that I think changes the whole perspective on Max and thus the film.
We can start to see more of the Anderson visual style here that was lacking in Bottle Rocket. Absolutely brilliant movie. As perfect as movies get. What do you guys think of Rushmore?
I love all of Wes' stuff, including his newest works. I kind of hope he goes back to the more Rushmore/Tenebaum style though. A little moodier, and darker. Their style breeds a funnier atmosphere to me.
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I think The Grand Budapest Hotel is absolutely fabulous. One of his best. I need to pick up the DVD to see it again, but it was one of the best times in the cinema in recent memory. And I'm one who liked, but did not love, Moonrise Kingdom, and was starting to think his quirkiness might have run its course with me. We'll see if on repeat viewings The Grand Budapest Hotel beats out The Royal Tenenbaums as my favorite Wes Anderson movie.
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Royal Tenenbaums is my second favorite Wes Anderson picture after Grand Budapest. Grand Budapest is just so entertaining and has so many layers I just love it. But Tenenbaums has that real emotional element and that family story that is pretty relatable, despite the Tenenbaums being a rich and dysfunctional family, you can relate to them, and I think that's partly why the story is so powerful.



Do you wanna party? Its party time!


When I was an even younger man years ago I stumbled onto a movie by a director named Wes Anderson. The film was named Rushmore, and it came out in 1998, although I saw it a couple of years after its release. The movie had a large impact on my life, as I was in high school at the time and therefore related to the tale of a young man who lusts after a gorgeous teacher at his school. This was also one of my first experiences with Bill Murray, who at the time I only knew of through comedic works such as Groundhog's Day and later on Ghostbusters and Caddeyshack, among other famous movies that he's been a star of.



Rushmore though witnessed Murray showing a different side, a dramatic and tragic aspect of his acting that most, perhaps even himself included, didn't know he was capable of doing. However the film's star is fresh-faced, pimples and braces included, Jason Schwartzman, who became famous and who's character Max Fischer is one of those Anderson character types that have become typical of his films. Only after seeing Rushmore did I finally watch Bottle Rocket, which was his first movie, and thus like some of his films I went forwards first and then backwards, then forwards again.



Although many of his films are non-linear, Anderson primarily chooses to divide many of his films into book chapters, something that Quentin Tarentino has also done along with many other famous directors. To me Bottle Rocket was a rather fine debut, a first film that I eagerly revisited after purchasing it on Criterion a couple of years back. Own Wilson and Luke Wilson may have slummed it through some awful movies in their time, but their work with Anderson has been nothing but excellent and Own has properly assisted him at times in the writing and screenplay departments.

Although quite raw due to being Anderson's earliest work, Bottle Rocket properly establishes many of his themes and showcases also his ability to expertly work in classic rock populated soundtracks. It's also one of the handful of movies of his that is set in the present, although even in his modern-day films there are old devices and mediation upon the effects time has on us all.



Which brings me to The Royal Tenenbaums, one of his masterpieces. Gene Hackman is the centerpiece of a movie about a family that crumbles apart only to slowly piece itself back together. Anjelica Huston is marvelous as Royal's poor wife, a strong woman who has put up with Royal's lies and bumbling for far too long. I'm not sure which movie sports the better Luke Wilson performance: Bottle Rocket or Tenenbaums, yet he is excellent in both films. By this point Anderson had mastered the art of bringing together amazing and rather huge casts, as this film has everyone in it from Danny Glover to Ben Stiller-two actors by the way that I wish had been in another of his films.

In Tenenbaums Anderson also reveals his obsession and mediation upon wealth and power, ambition and fame, family and problems lurking beneath the surface. Class is an important aspect of all of his movies, and standing both social and imagined is noted by the characters in his films. Yet his next two movies take the viewer even further down his own special version of the rabbit hole, peering into new avenues and enlarging his own universe.



Some days I regard The Life Aquatic as his best film, other times I think its Rushmore. Featuring arguably Bill Muarry's best performance (out of the ones I've seen, anyways) and also featuring the wonderful Willem Dafoe and the properly grumpy Michael Gambon, among many distinguished others, The Life Aquatic is Anderson taking his drama-comedy style and adding action/adventure to the mix. Steve Zissou, the film's tragic protagonist, is wary and put upon, having sadly become a punch line even among his own people. The quest to destroy a shark is really Zissou having one last grand voyage before he is forced to hang it up for good, done in by time, lack of funding, and a diminished ability to create anything worthy of note.

This is Anderson going meta, and in the process the fact that it has a rotten rating under 60% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomotemeter is fitting and ironic considering what The Life Aquatic is about. I remember Roger Ebert's thumbs down review and after seeing this movie I think most of those critics missed the point, or they got the point and didn't like it. I love this movie: its one of his funniest, most entertaining, and delightful films.



Which brings me to a movie that at first I was not a huge fan of at first, yet a recent second viewing thanks to Criterion caused me to re-evaluate my opinion: The Darjeeling Limited is a difficult movie to consume and examine, particularly since I cannot thankfully relate to losing a parent. However the magnificent trio of Adrian Brody, Own Wilson, and Jason Schwartzman (naturally like all self-styled auteurs Anderson uses the same people in most of his movies) make this film a rather very good, almost near great, picture, one that I enjoy. At the same time I think its one of his lesser works, although I do love the soundtrack and the ending is rather fitting. Out of all of Anderson's movies I feel this one is dead set on moving on from the past and striving toward the future, which is interesting considering the next film he chose to make.



Even though I think its his weakest film, The Fantastic Mr. Fox is still really good and quite enjoyable. Considering how quirky and weird many of his movies are I'm a little surprised that Anderson did not direct an animated movie sooner; I suspect given the right material he will make another one in the future. I loved George Clooney and Meryl Streep in this, as they work well together and form the movie's emotional center. Also this film has one of Anderson's best soundtracks, which adds to the movie's mood and underlines the brilliant animation-I loved the waterfall shot, which was beyond gorgeous.

Unlike The Darjeeling Limited though this movie is more about not being able to escape your past, as Clooney's Mr. Fox gives in to his base desires and endangers his clan and friends in the process. I like that at this point Anderson uses largely the same actors not so much because he thinks he is an auteur but also because by this point in Anderson's career this group works incredibly well together. Oh and Clooney and Bill Murray's interactions in this movie are my favorite parts. "Are you cussing with me?" This is also the first Anderson movie I was able to see in theaters, and it was a delightful experience.



After two lesser movies I thought that Anderson was losing his touch, so when he created Moonrise Kingdom and it was a truly marvelous thing of beauty to watch I was revealed that he was back in a manner of speaking. Unlike his other films he centers this primarily around kids, with the adults taking a backstage. The aptly named Sam and Suzy are running away, embracing their own destiny having fallen in love over the course of a warm New England summer. With the adults in pursuit, the two kids end up going through an outlandish and comedic adventure that is thrilling and engaging. This film is also the Anderson debuts of Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Tilda Swinton, and Harvey Keitel. The last act is the most action packed out of any of Anderson's movies save for The Life Aquatic and The Grand Budapest Hotel, and the two young child actors Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward are naturalistic in their performances. It's a new favorite of mine.



Lastly, The Grand Budapest Hotel sports Ralph Fiennes in his first Anderson movie as M. Gustave, who is the hotel's concierge and who becomes the mentor a young lobby boy named Zero. Combing elements of 1930s Hitchcock films with elements from his other films, The Grand Budapest Hotel is hilarious, tragic, and beautiful-everything that I've come to expect from an Anderson movie. I'm glad that I've seen the last three movies of his in theaters, as seeing them on the big screen adds something that watching them on my TV does not. I also think that Hotel has what is arguably his most gigantic and best cast, and I loved F. Murray Abraham as the film's narrator. Also this is probably the most bittersweet out of all of Anderson's movies, and thus achieves an odd sort of grand status.



Despite other modern directors being better than Mr. Wes Anderson, I consider him to be one of the finest American auteurs-a true artist in the sense of the word. His movies are entertaining, funny, never boring, and rather colorful. I love the color schemes he chooses for his movies, and his style is rather distinctive. It is interesting how despite never experiencing great awards success his films are mostly well reviewed, which suggests that the Academy either doesn't understand his work or they fail to appreciate it. Too bad, although many great Hollywood performers over the years have failed to capture a little golden man. When Anderson retires the film world will be a little more empty, and I hope that I never witness the day when he makes a bad or dull film.
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Fantastic Mr. Fox

While I can't consider myself a Wes Anderson fan since this is only the second movie of his that I have seen, this film makes me believe that he is at the very least capable of doing great things. Fantastic Mr. Fox surpassed and exceeded my expectations. First, I thought that George Clooney was a perfect choice to voice the lead role of Mr. Fox himself. I've always that Clooney has been more talented than he is generally given credit for. The story is simple yet fun, as Mr. Fox gets his neighbors in trouble yet also gets them out of it. I've always been a big Roald Dahl fan, and while I can't picture myself having read this when I read his other works when I was little, it sounds just as intriguing of a read as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach. Anderson brought Dahls work to life, and the imagery was fantastic (no pun intended). Some of my favorite parts were the apple cider cellar scene and the scene where they are getting shot at by the farmers. I also thought the scenes where we see them digging from the outside of their tunnels were well done. There were just enough laughs to keep you engaged in the story. Overall, my second Wes Anderson watch I would deem as a success.

Anderson made all the characters interesting and I thought that the right actors were put into the right roles. Kristopherson, Ash, Badger, and Kylie were all great. I've heard that Anderson is very character driven, and even in an animation film he aims to please his audience in that capacity to. Overall, it's an animated film that can be enjoyed by both children and adults, and that's what I really enjoy about the film. Everything about the film works and I would recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it.



Fantastic Mr. Fox is my favourite Wes Anderson film. I'm glad you liked it Raul. Definitely agree about the voice casting, Clooney is an inspired choice.



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I started with Moonrise Kingdom, which I enjoyed. Then Grand Hotel Budapest nailed it for me. I love his deliberate, exquisite shots, visuals, and timing.
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I've seen a lot of videos that use Anderson's style inappropriately on purpose, but that one might be the best.
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My life's a disaster zone.
Life Aquatic and Darjeeling Limited are two of my favourite ever films. The latter particularly I find is quite underrated. Anderson is amazing.
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