Grand Budapest Hotel

Constructed in 1910, the Stadthalle had been closed for years when it was discovered by Anderson & Company. The production team then dramatically transformed the old city hall into the magnificent dining room we see on the big screen. To complete the set, Anderson commissioned artist Michael Lenz to paint a large backdrop in the style of 19th-century landscape artist Caspar David Friedrich.

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Moonrise Kingdom

(Mr. Anderson has the Kodachrome palette down pat)

What makes the film thrillingly different—in content and in affect, in emotional energy and in visual imagination—is its metaphysical and religious element. There’s an expressly transcendent theme in “Moonrise Kingdom” that raises the tender and joyous story of young lovers on the run to a spiritual adventure. The moral vision of the world, which was always implicit and latent in Anderson’s other films, here bursts out as a distinctive, ecstatic, visionary new cinematic dimension. Anderson has always been far more than just an exquisite stylist—his style is an essential part of a consistent spiritual vision. But in “Moonrise Kingdom,” his world view is projected beyond personal experience into a cosmic fantasy. It’s Anderson’s own counter-Scripture, a vision of a moral order, ordained from on high, that challenges the official version instilled by society at large—and he embodies it in images of an apt sublimity (as well as an aptly self-deprecating humor).   - Richard Brody

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The Darjeeling Limited

via GIPHY

The Life Aquatic

Let me show you my quirks

A few notes:

• Arguably the finest Moby Dick / Buckaroo Banzai mashup yet made
• Budget $50 mm, box office $35 mm
• Now considered a classic
• Uh, right?
• Resident film critic notes that in the final credits a figure that looks like the late Ned can be seen in the forward lookout nest of the Belafonte
• Todd VanDerWerff writes on Vox that "the director’s misunderstood classic knows that sadness can’t be defeated, only lived with."
• Official watch:  Vostok Amphibia
• Adidas now makes the shoes.
• This is a fine potential piece of home furnishing.
• Plenty more where that came from.
• "My rational mind informs me that this movie doesn't work. Yet I hear a subversive whisper: Since it does so many other things, does it have to work, too? Can't it just exist? 'Terminal whimsy,' I called it on the TV show. Yes, but isn't that better than half-hearted whimsy, or no whimsy at all? Wes Anderson's 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" is the damnedest film. I can't recommend it, but I would not for one second discourage you from seeing it.'" - Ebert

The Royal Tenenbaums

Q - Gene Hackman: it was always your dream for him to play Royal?

Anderson -  It was written for him against his wishes.


ALSO -

Q - There is a gravitas to Danny Glover that comes through even when he’s falling into a pit.

Anderson - Yes.


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Rushmore

An appreciation here.

Bottle Rocket

Wes Anderson was Wes Anderson before he was Wes Anderson.  None of this "you can see the artist emerging" crap.  He appears fully formed.

The movie doesn't get much respect, despite being beautiful and launching the careers of Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson, and Luke Wilson, and teeing up Lumi Cavazos for Like Water for Chocolate:

• Ranker has it #8 out of Wes Anderson's films.
• IndieWire has it #9.
• Taste of Cinema has it #8.

Here are the Wilson brothers at the 2006 Academy Awards:

Owen - Our first project together was a 13-minute short called Bottle Rocket.  We're incredibly proud of the fact that later on we got five million to expand it into a feature film that grossed almost one million dollars.  

Luke - And that was one million back in 1996, before inflation.

Even if you like it, it's hard not to damn it with faint praise.  Our resident film critic calls it a "solid little movie."  The first word that came to mind for me was "diverting."

Well, bullshit on that.  It is very very good.  Not because of what they all did later, but because if this came on TV right now and you watched it for the first time you'd have some laughs but also be asking yourself what are these guys up to (both the characters and the creators)? And feeling wistful, and admiring the performances and the cinematography.

This is a beautiful, human movie, and it's a kick.  Enjoyed viewing. Would watch again.  Two thumbs up.

Collider did a nice piece on the 20th anniversary of the film in 2016 (here).

Criterion Collection DVD available here.

We saw it. The rumors are true.

Isle of Dogs is fabulous.

Caveats:

• I have really liked every Wes Anderson movie I have seen (Rushmore and The Life Aquatic).
• I laughed throughout, not from joy but from bemusement and admiration.
• I really like movies that are mannered and stylized.
• I go into Japanese stationery shops, and when no one is looking I lick the notebooks.

The Atlantic unpacks the Japan angle here.