I love going on SG (you all know that) and I love IMing (at the very least, Tunnelslats knows thatand I have thankfully IMed most everybody etc etc) but I had a HUGE headache and a movie jones yesterday, so I decided to go rent. Morgan, braveliltoaster, and the charming vaj had inspired me to see The Royal Tenenbaums, and the mentions in the Irish movie thread made me get Boondock Saints.
I watched The Royal Tenenbaums and...it is extremely hard for me to grade, or rate, or whatever. Now, I loved Rushmore. I saw that one twice in the theater, bought the soundtrack (DA DA DANANA, MAKING TIIIME!) and bought the letterbox-VHS. Id also seen Bottlerocket years back, so its safe to say I know Wes Anderson...but I didnt go to see TRT when it came out cuz I didnt get a definitive vibe from the ads. It was hard for me to gauge what it was about, and in fact where it was coming from.
Id tried to rent it just a couple weeks ago, but it was still in the new releases section. The Video Vault employee told me, Its still popular, so we left it there... I generally rent two two-day movies at a time, so I waited til now to rent it...
Okay, where do I start? First of all, Im criticizing it with the implicit understanding that 1) I like it, 2) it isnt Hollywood crap. Hollywood crap defined as a) movies based on TV shows, b) sequels, c) movies with no specific director/cinematographer vision, d) a bunch of hooey youve seen before. To expand on point d) the film is a pretty straightforward presentation of a familys problems. In that, TRT isnt new. Also, the family is Q-U-I-R-K-Y; also not new. There is maybe a lack of standout dialogue. In fact much info is given through voiceover (by Alec Baldwin, as you will easily be able to tell) and onscreen text (Wes LOVES his onscreen text! He also loves signs in front of velvet curtains, and harpsichords and harps and other acoustic instruments, and music-video sequences, and formality broken by blunt swearing, and playwrites.) There are a couple things where I think Wes plays it safe. Example? Well, most of the cast is deadpan and quirky to the point where I think it hurt some of the drama, which didnt happen nearly as much in Rushmore. Ben Stiller is allowed to be fully dramatic, whereas in some scenes Luke and Gwyneth seems to be reaching for both laughs and sadness, and thats a tough one to pull off (this isnt to say Stiller out-acts anyone. I think Luke does a good job). More specifically, Royal uses some racist language at Henry (played by Danny Glover), but the terms are somewhat...silly (buck, Coltrane) so you dont, I presume, hate Royal a whole lot more. Now, Wes and Owen could argue that the movie is a comedy, and lord knows Im starting to sound PC, but I have to say it just seems a bit too having your cake and eating it too. Oh, hes racist, but its a silly, lovable racist. Maybe Im splitting hairs. Maybe Royal is just clutching at ways to get Henrys goat.
Having said all that...I L-O-V-E the look of the movie. I L-O-V-E it. This is quite possible the most seventies-looking movie of all time. Tunnelslats knows how I feel about this I think movies in earlier decades look kinda technologically underdone and stagey, while movies in recent years look technologically overbaked and artificial. (This should NOT be read as a blanket criticism of black n white films. Im getting more into old films, accepting that the acting style was different and the incidental music, that interchangeable blustery symphonic crap, and beyond that Im dying to see a good edit of Metropolis.) This movie has the mix of gritty reality and bizarre 60s-leftover and such. I felt at times like I could be watching Five Easy Pieces or Going Down the Road (for you Canadian SGers; for American SCTV fans, this was the movie they parodied where the guys move from the Maritimes to Yonge Street). And I found the movie emotionally resonant and like the overall focus on the family (isnt that some right-wing organization name?), the human story. This is a nice antidote to the special-effects action stuff. Perhaps the avoidance of poesy in the script is intentional; youre brought into the lives of a family and their emotional life is the theme, even if too deadpan at times. Also, the music is great. As I said, Wes Anderson does the music-video thing well. The guy digs up so many tear-jerky songs from the 1968-73 era its not funny...and more Mothersbaugh chamber music. If I ever see Wes or Owen anywhere, Ill have to lobby for some songs for their next one (maybe Presence of the Lord, guys?). And lastly, Wes does quirky flat out BETTER than anybody except maybe Lynch...and thats a maybe. Rushmore, I think, was better at it, i.e. quirkiness with emotional resonance and less goofiness, but Rushmore was a pretty simple love/jealousy story, compared to the wide-cast family-epic thing in TRT. Funniest scene when Elis drug problem reaches its, umm, logical conclusion. Saddest scene Margot and Richie in the tent (I thought She Smiled Sweetly was a folk song, since Billy Bragg covered it! But the second I saw the London Records label, I knew damn well what band it was gonna be...), or in fact any close-up of Richie. Luke looks so sad!
Give a rating, Cheech. Okay, okay...two stars for dialogue (Owen seems to have given himself the best lines!), three stars for ambition, four stars for look and effect averages to three stars.
Tomorrow, I hope to review Boondock Saints. Write about, I mean. Im no reviewer haha...
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PM ps -- Oh, I should point out that I, in NO way, think Wes is racist! In that misgiving above, it was strictly about the character of Royal. Wes has made three movies, in two of which the main characer ends up in an interracical relationship, and Tenenbaums has a main character, Angelica Huston, in one. That's a pretty great track record for Wes, I think.
Also, I meant to mention The Virgin Suicides in both seventiesness and music-videoness, but I see I have been beaten to it! I didn't go nuts for TVS when I first saw it, but frankly I had thought of re-renting it lately...
I watched The Royal Tenenbaums and...it is extremely hard for me to grade, or rate, or whatever. Now, I loved Rushmore. I saw that one twice in the theater, bought the soundtrack (DA DA DANANA, MAKING TIIIME!) and bought the letterbox-VHS. Id also seen Bottlerocket years back, so its safe to say I know Wes Anderson...but I didnt go to see TRT when it came out cuz I didnt get a definitive vibe from the ads. It was hard for me to gauge what it was about, and in fact where it was coming from.
Id tried to rent it just a couple weeks ago, but it was still in the new releases section. The Video Vault employee told me, Its still popular, so we left it there... I generally rent two two-day movies at a time, so I waited til now to rent it...
Okay, where do I start? First of all, Im criticizing it with the implicit understanding that 1) I like it, 2) it isnt Hollywood crap. Hollywood crap defined as a) movies based on TV shows, b) sequels, c) movies with no specific director/cinematographer vision, d) a bunch of hooey youve seen before. To expand on point d) the film is a pretty straightforward presentation of a familys problems. In that, TRT isnt new. Also, the family is Q-U-I-R-K-Y; also not new. There is maybe a lack of standout dialogue. In fact much info is given through voiceover (by Alec Baldwin, as you will easily be able to tell) and onscreen text (Wes LOVES his onscreen text! He also loves signs in front of velvet curtains, and harpsichords and harps and other acoustic instruments, and music-video sequences, and formality broken by blunt swearing, and playwrites.) There are a couple things where I think Wes plays it safe. Example? Well, most of the cast is deadpan and quirky to the point where I think it hurt some of the drama, which didnt happen nearly as much in Rushmore. Ben Stiller is allowed to be fully dramatic, whereas in some scenes Luke and Gwyneth seems to be reaching for both laughs and sadness, and thats a tough one to pull off (this isnt to say Stiller out-acts anyone. I think Luke does a good job). More specifically, Royal uses some racist language at Henry (played by Danny Glover), but the terms are somewhat...silly (buck, Coltrane) so you dont, I presume, hate Royal a whole lot more. Now, Wes and Owen could argue that the movie is a comedy, and lord knows Im starting to sound PC, but I have to say it just seems a bit too having your cake and eating it too. Oh, hes racist, but its a silly, lovable racist. Maybe Im splitting hairs. Maybe Royal is just clutching at ways to get Henrys goat.
Having said all that...I L-O-V-E the look of the movie. I L-O-V-E it. This is quite possible the most seventies-looking movie of all time. Tunnelslats knows how I feel about this I think movies in earlier decades look kinda technologically underdone and stagey, while movies in recent years look technologically overbaked and artificial. (This should NOT be read as a blanket criticism of black n white films. Im getting more into old films, accepting that the acting style was different and the incidental music, that interchangeable blustery symphonic crap, and beyond that Im dying to see a good edit of Metropolis.) This movie has the mix of gritty reality and bizarre 60s-leftover and such. I felt at times like I could be watching Five Easy Pieces or Going Down the Road (for you Canadian SGers; for American SCTV fans, this was the movie they parodied where the guys move from the Maritimes to Yonge Street). And I found the movie emotionally resonant and like the overall focus on the family (isnt that some right-wing organization name?), the human story. This is a nice antidote to the special-effects action stuff. Perhaps the avoidance of poesy in the script is intentional; youre brought into the lives of a family and their emotional life is the theme, even if too deadpan at times. Also, the music is great. As I said, Wes Anderson does the music-video thing well. The guy digs up so many tear-jerky songs from the 1968-73 era its not funny...and more Mothersbaugh chamber music. If I ever see Wes or Owen anywhere, Ill have to lobby for some songs for their next one (maybe Presence of the Lord, guys?). And lastly, Wes does quirky flat out BETTER than anybody except maybe Lynch...and thats a maybe. Rushmore, I think, was better at it, i.e. quirkiness with emotional resonance and less goofiness, but Rushmore was a pretty simple love/jealousy story, compared to the wide-cast family-epic thing in TRT. Funniest scene when Elis drug problem reaches its, umm, logical conclusion. Saddest scene Margot and Richie in the tent (I thought She Smiled Sweetly was a folk song, since Billy Bragg covered it! But the second I saw the London Records label, I knew damn well what band it was gonna be...), or in fact any close-up of Richie. Luke looks so sad!
Give a rating, Cheech. Okay, okay...two stars for dialogue (Owen seems to have given himself the best lines!), three stars for ambition, four stars for look and effect averages to three stars.
Tomorrow, I hope to review Boondock Saints. Write about, I mean. Im no reviewer haha...
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PM ps -- Oh, I should point out that I, in NO way, think Wes is racist! In that misgiving above, it was strictly about the character of Royal. Wes has made three movies, in two of which the main characer ends up in an interracical relationship, and Tenenbaums has a main character, Angelica Huston, in one. That's a pretty great track record for Wes, I think.
Also, I meant to mention The Virgin Suicides in both seventiesness and music-videoness, but I see I have been beaten to it! I didn't go nuts for TVS when I first saw it, but frankly I had thought of re-renting it lately...
VIEW 9 of 9 COMMENTS
Oh yeah, and the dog's more of a 'Timmy Sparrowhawk' standard...but one day he may learn how to skate with more flair...