The Darjeeling Limited **
Wes Anderson, 2007
US
@ BAM (w/ Amy)
It seems by now that everybody and their brother has discovered and pointed out the usual "flaws" in Wes Anderson's movies. They're too stylized, they're inwardly focused on camaraderie, or lack thereof, between white males, probably related. They're soundtracked largely, sometimes entirely, by British rock music from the '60's. If you can't deal with one or more of these things, it seems at this point like you might as well just give up.
However, it seems to me that this is still rich territory and that Anderson could probably continue to mine it for as long as he likes. What I'm more interested in are the differences or at least backgrounded by all the obvious repetition. Since Rushmore, the films have become more convoluted, expanding beyond or reaching for something besides cleverly plotted storylines and protagonists lunging after their goals. If you continue to assess Anderson's work simply by noting the absence of things he excelled at early in his career, you either are now or probably will in the future be missing out.
Certain scenes show that he hasn't lost his flair for sustaining our interest in a creative but traditional fashion, like the montage of distant people set in separate walled rooms on a train-like platform, or the sequence comparing the brothers' two different funeral experiences. As much as Anderson seems to mock the brothers on their ridiculous "spiritual quest," he may be slyly referring to his awkward exploration of spiritual themes, mood and beauty apart outside of the course of the narrative on its way from plot point to plot point. Not every spiritually meaningful filmmaker has been as strictly ascetic as Bresson or Bergman, and I hope Anderson won't discard his sense of fashion or visual flair just in an attempt to leap from one pigeonhole to another.
See also: IMDb | Metacritic
Wes Anderson, 2007
US
@ BAM (w/ Amy)
It seems by now that everybody and their brother has discovered and pointed out the usual "flaws" in Wes Anderson's movies. They're too stylized, they're inwardly focused on camaraderie, or lack thereof, between white males, probably related. They're soundtracked largely, sometimes entirely, by British rock music from the '60's. If you can't deal with one or more of these things, it seems at this point like you might as well just give up.
However, it seems to me that this is still rich territory and that Anderson could probably continue to mine it for as long as he likes. What I'm more interested in are the differences or at least backgrounded by all the obvious repetition. Since Rushmore, the films have become more convoluted, expanding beyond or reaching for something besides cleverly plotted storylines and protagonists lunging after their goals. If you continue to assess Anderson's work simply by noting the absence of things he excelled at early in his career, you either are now or probably will in the future be missing out.
Certain scenes show that he hasn't lost his flair for sustaining our interest in a creative but traditional fashion, like the montage of distant people set in separate walled rooms on a train-like platform, or the sequence comparing the brothers' two different funeral experiences. As much as Anderson seems to mock the brothers on their ridiculous "spiritual quest," he may be slyly referring to his awkward exploration of spiritual themes, mood and beauty apart outside of the course of the narrative on its way from plot point to plot point. Not every spiritually meaningful filmmaker has been as strictly ascetic as Bresson or Bergman, and I hope Anderson won't discard his sense of fashion or visual flair just in an attempt to leap from one pigeonhole to another.
See also: IMDb | Metacritic
Labels: 2 Stars, 2007, US, Wes Anderson
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