FauxNixon

Third in my ongoing Great Directors series is Wes Anderson, best known for Rushmore, and The Royal Tenenbaums. Anderson has a very unique and discernible feel to his movies that gives him something of a significant cult following, but his movies are of a high enough caliber to be easily appreciable by anyone tempted to view one.

Wes Anderson was born May 1, 1969, in Houston, Texas. He first met Luke Wilson and Owen Wilson while the three were studying at the University of Texas at Austin and would go on to feature the two heavily in his movie productions, beginning with Bottle Rocket in 1996. Anderson’s career blossomed from the modest budget of Bottle Rocket and its pleasant, but limited audiences, to a much more mainstream break-out when he released Rushmore in 1998 and a few years later into a very widely acclaimed director with the release of The Royal Tenenbaums in 2001.

He is widely known for his brilliant casting and direction and his movies tend to focus around very non-traditional families that may be described as quirky. He has a strong tendency to make usage of a very wide-angle anamorphic camera lens, which gives a lot of his shots a so-called barrel distortion. Wes also seems to enjoy include the use of a hand-held camera to move from one character to another and then back in one take.

The List:
(These are presented ranked in order of their overall quality in my opinion.)

1. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) — Likely based upon The Magnificent Ambersons, The Royal Tenenbaums follows the attempts Royal Tenebaum (Gene Hackman), the estranged patriarch of the family, to become closer to his family of three child-prodigies, their children, and his ex-wife Etheline Tenenbaum (Angelica Huston). His two biological children, Ritchie (Luke Wilson) and Chas (Ben Stiller) were child prodigies, indulged by their mother Etheline in tennis and investing, respectively. Adopted daughter Margo (Gwyneth Paltrow) was prodigal in her writing of plays from a young age, but has always felt like an outsider due to the cold manner with which she is treated by her father. Eli (Owen Wilson) is a friend who is almost a part of the family because he spent so much time with them and is an author of some significant value. Finally there is Henry Sherman (Danny Glover) the accountant and nearest thing to a spouse to Etheline, and Raleigh St. Claire (Bill Murray), the husband of Margo.

The cast of characters is detailed and the rich costuming, styling, setting and other devices are used to establish that the family seems to be trapped in the 1970s when all of the children were prodigies and not yet established. All of the characters, even the supporting characters not mentioned, are incredibly well-developed and portrayed by the cast. Richie lives an estranged life aboard a large ocean-going ship exiled since he burned-out of his tennis career, Margo lives a life of such secrecy that no one even realizes she’s been smoking since she was twelve, and Chas, since the death of his wife, is a nervous wreck who stages elaborate emergency drills to try to get his boys into a safer place. All three return to the house, or at the very least, to the area and Royal visits them and despite his terrible nature, self-centeredness, and other faults, he eventually begins to mend the ties which he has broken so many times with his children and tries to give what he couldn’t give at the time to his own children, to his grandchildren.

It is a touching narrative and can confidently be said to be the best of Wes Anderson’s work, though the competition is quite fierce for that title.

2. Rushmore (1998) — In many ways this was the true mainstream break-through for Wes Anderson as a director, though the film maintained that independent spirit that his earlier movie Bottle Rocket made such great usage of. Jason Schwartzman stars as Max Fischer, a character of enormous depth and knowledge, perpetually a creator of clubs and a masterer of hobbies, but also a terrible student at his private school, where he is content to remain for as long as possible.

When Max meets Herman Blume (Bill Murray) a wealthy speaker at the school who implores students to “take down” the rich students, Max begins a mature friendship with him, which contrasts incredibly with Blume’s biological children, also students at Rushmore, but almost adult brats. Max attempts to court the second-grade teacher at his school, Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams), who finds it difficult to keep her relationship with Max in the proper context and within acceptable limits due to his age. When Blume begins to try to court Rosemary also, Max and Herman begin a war of pettiness.

The rich characters that always appear in Wes Anderson’s movies are present here as well and much time is spent on the evolution and maturing nature of Max Fischer, the self-hating pessimistic misery of Herman Blume, and the middle-of-the-road melancholy of Rosemary Cross and how the various characters and their conflicts end up making each of the three different and better for having endured.  According to the IMDb the line in the movie, “Yeah, I was in the shit,” was voted #56 by Premiere’s 2007 “The 100 Greatest Movie Lines” list.

3. Bottle Rocket (1996) — Wes Anderson’s first film stars Owen Wilson and Luke Wilson as Dignan and Anthony Adams, respectively.   When Dignan is released from a mental hospital where he had been being treated for depression, Anthony Adams joins up with Dignan and the two begin practicing and planning to become criminals of some sort.  With Dignan passively participating in Anthony’s schemes, and a neighbor joining to fill out the criminal cast, the group performs a robbery of a sort on Anthony’s former boss Mr. Henry.  The group then flees to a motel to lay low and avoid the police.  It is here that the great part of the story begins as Dignan begins to develop an affection for one of the maids who hardly speaks English.

It is readily apparent that this movie is the first of the director’s and that the budget is extremely limited, but even with this, and a little awkwardness in directorial prowess, this movie is still a very positive aspect of Anderson’s directorial career.

4. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) — Bill Murray returns to another film with Wes Anderson, this time portraying Steve Zissou, an oceanographic researcher who seems to be based a bit on Jacques Cousteau.  Angelica Huston again appears in a Wes Anderson film as Eleanor Zissou.  The rest of the cast includes Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, and Owen Wilson.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou tells us the story of the famous oceanographic film-maker Steve Zissou losing a dear friend who is eaten by a shark.  Zissou then embarks upon a mission with a single goal: revenge.  After raising the necessary funding for his trip, journalist Jane Winslett-Richardson (Cate Blanchett) joins the party, as does a mysterious pilot who claims to be Zissou’s long-lost son.  The movie follows the great adventure of Zissou in his quest for revenge, his attempts to avoid a mutiny by his crew, being robbed by pirates at sea, and bonding with his son.

As with other movies from Wes Anderson, there is the always-present character development which helps to make the story so very interesting to the viewer.  This combined with the directorial skill of Anderson, and the acting abilities of Anderon’s regular cast members, and the newcomers, and just as expected, this movie is another great on Anderson’s resume of success.