The Darjeeling Limited

Written By Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola, and Jason Schwartzman

Directed by Wes Anderson (2007)

Starring: Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, Amara Karan, Anjelica Huston

When I think about The Darjeeling Limited almost two weeks after watching it, I mostly come back to the smaller moments.  How well-used The Kinks’ “This Time Tomorrow” is as they run for their train, the loving look Adrien Brody gives to his newly-purchased cobra, the fascinating movements in and around the train car.  And I keep thinking to myself “Well, maybe it’s all of these smaller moments that I like about the movie, instead of the film as a whole.”

Then I think about the weird motifs and themes: The white people coming to India expecting sudden spirituality, only spending their time getting high.  The year of mourning they take after their father’s death, but denial of their reactions on the way to the funeral.  Actually, it seems like it’s an entire movie based off of denial of emotions: Peter (Brody) doesn’t want to acknowledge whatever fatherly affection he has for his unborn child, but is automatically devoted to his new pet.  Peter (Schwartzman) is obsessed with his ex-girlfriend, but approaches all love and romance coldly, then turns these dramatic life moments into short stories.  I can’t even figure out what’s going on with Owen Wilson’s character at first blush.  Just that it was similar to his own life.

The movie is appreciative that making planned vacations is idiotic at best, although that’s putting it simply.  Francis pulling out a very exact schedule as compiled by his assistant Brendan (Wallace Wolodarsky) for his brothers to find spiritual enlightenment is hilarious.  The turning point comes when they get kicked off of the train and experience real India through a terrible river accident.  When facing death again, the movie shifts to the day of their father’s funeral which adds a lot of depth to the zany selfishness of the characters previously.  Instead of being a lark about American idiots using a saintly stereotype of India to excuse their own bad habits, the movie is about three flawed people who are in the middle of mourning.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

Directed by Wes Anderson (2004) Starring: Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Anjelica Huston, Cate Blanchett, Wilhelm Dafoe

When I saw The Darjeeling Limited, I was really happy that I had finally figured out Wes Anderson’s appeal.  I figured The Life Aquatic would be the same sort of movie, similar in tone and soundtrack, with the fun quirky characters and interesting plot.  Much to my chagrin, The Life Aquatic just wound up as a pretentious mess of celluloid.

I feel like Anderson was reaching too far with the French New Wave references.  I thought that it was nice to have the ship introduced like the factory in Tout va Bien, but I the slightly-off sound effects got on my nerves and I found the dialogue to be awkward rather than clever.  More than that, the film felt awkward and poorly paced for the entire run time.  For every witty line, there was a two to five minute awkward scene to get through.  The performances were fair, and I particularly liked Owen Wilson as Ned, but the over-the-top quirk factor for the cast as a whole was part of way it was so grating.

The high points are the Brazilian Portuguese David Bowie covers and the fact that Henry Selick got a paycheck, but other than that, I don’t have much to recommend about The Life Aquatic.

Rushmore

Directed by Wes Anderson (1998) Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams

So, awhile back I whined about not really understanding Wes Anderson hype.  I think I understand it a little better, to say the least.

Max Fischer’s (Schwartzman) only passion in life is to go to his prep school Rushmore.  However, he’s more interested in joining school clubs and putting on plays than doing well in school.  His sharp attitude helps him to befriend beleaguered Rushmore-Dad Herman Blume (Murray).  Added into the mess, he’s smitten with new teacher Rosemary Cross (Williams) and willing to go to extreme measures to get her affection.  Unfortunately, Blume and Rosemary have started dating on the sly.

There’s a lot to like about this movie, but its all the little things about it: the club montage, the elaborate stagings for Max’s plays, the falling-in-love over a Jacques Cousteau quote.  It’s all in a weird little world, where things tend towards whimsy and cleverness.  But you already know that.

I hate being last to the party on these sorts of things, but writing a movie-blog involves a lot of catch up to be done.  There are so many movies out there and only a lifetime to see them in.  That doesn’t even account that people have different lives, not even taking into account generation gaps.  I feel like Rushmore is a high school movie–that’s when people discover it the most and relate to it the best.

Max is earnest in both good and bad ways, much like the teenagers we’ve all been (or known).  He’s passionate, but stupid and really short-sighted.  But he is likable, if only for being clever and strangely charming.  Compare that to Herman, who’s really a man-child but is also kind, just more world-weary.  When it comes down to it, it’s the relationship between these two that bring the movie together.

 

Can Someone Explain Wes Anderson to me?

Out of all the filmmakers whose hype I just don’t get, Wes Anderson sits pretty high on the pile.

I just feel like I must be missing something after my film professor opened up his computer yesterday to show us the last scene from Rushmore, prefacing it by going “You’ve all seen Rushmore, right?  I’m talking to the right group of people here?”

I haven’t seen Rushmore yet.  The Anderson movies I have seen include The Royal Tenenbaums and The Fantastic Mr. Fox. While these don’t lead up to a firm judgment on Anderson’s filmography as a whole, it does leave me feeling out of the loop in a large sense.  I thought these movies were good, but they didn’t strike me as anything really amazing.

So what’s the reason behind the Criterion Collection DVDs and the high praise from everyone else in my generation?

Rushmore is on my queue, and maybe this is the movie where I see the Wes Anderson-light.