Wes Anderson

[therewillbeblus]

While we're on the subject of ranking, I never got why The Life Aquatic received such lukewarm reception.

It's plotting is eccentric and I think it's a less consistent vision as a result, which makes it esoteric to a portion of Anderson's fanbase looking for an airtight milieu with expected moods and narrative arcs, and alienates much of the rest. Having said that, I think it's one of his most humorous films in bringing the focus deeper into the absurd, and I've known a few people in my life who I would never expect to even look in its direction and yet consider it not only their favorite Anderson but favorite film, so who even knows.

[mfunk9786]

It's a strange one, for sure. Murray doesn't seem fully engaged (he wasn't), and the there are filmmaking choices (the questionably authentic piracy of the boat, for one) that don't always work for most viewers, myself included if I'm being honest. I still find it very funny, like therewillbeblus said, which means I'm a fan, but it's probably at the bottom of my live action list, just above the animated ones depending on when you ask.

Worth noting that it's Matt Zoller Seitz's (author of those handsome The Wes Anderson Collection hardbacks) #1 film of Anderson's.

[knives]

Not a fan of FMF? I thought that was a great use of his silliest tendencies.

[mfunk9786]

It's fine. I was very charmed by it the first time but it's... you know, a very minor piece of work when I catch up with it now, and I usually don't get to the end of it. And the third act is way too frantic and goofy for my taste. I think I just prefer to watch actors than puppets at a very baseline level.

[knives]

And I prefer the puppets over the people which might explain mine.

[mfunk9786]

One thing I absolutely miss that is an enduring hallmark of his earlier work: The pop music.

[knives]

Music still seems to play a big role even if it's not a Kinks fest anymore. FMF gave him an opportunity to explore different kinds of music while Moonrise Kingdom makes great use of Hank Williams.

[therewillbeblus]

Fantastic Mr. Fox is a wonderfully diluted exploration of existentialism that doesn't feel simple because of the emotional resonance much of the uncomplicated interplay elicits. It's a really subtle way to get at the intensity behind meaning in being. I absolutely love it, though like most of his films its place in a ranking order depends entirely on my mood of the day.

I'll second the draw of the soundtrack in his earlier works as a big plus, though his experimentation with more diverse musical choices other than his favorite pop songs is also an indicator of Anderson's maturity. That is not to say that the other films were immature, but he's clearly moving on from the idea of inserting his favorite cool tune that he foresaw amplifying a visual montage in his fantasies and onto different interests. Still, I'd love for him to discover some new pop music, get excited about it, and infuse that into his work again someday, and speaking for myself - those scenes cued to pop songs from his first handful of efforts will likely remain the moments in film that are permanently implanted in memory, more than most, for the rest of my life. I think of them often and they matched and affected my own emotional states too many times to forget, or not have my own nostalgic relationship of attachment to them.

[Michael Kerpan]

I thought the musical star of Moonrise Kingdom was Benjamin Britten (it inspired me to buy a big box set of his music -- which included Noyes Fludde).

[Never Cursed]

All of this Moonrise Kingdom legacy subtweeting is nuts

Just wanted to pop in here and express my agreement with this sentiment. I first saw Moonrise Kingdom around three weeks ago on a whim, and fast forward to now and my girlfriend and I are about to go trick-or-treating as Sam and Suzy. Yeah, it's the Anderson film whose material fits best within his affected style, and the child performances are some of the best put on film by anyone, but I love it most because it's every story a kid ever hears (books, records, operas, rumors swapped among scoutmates) brought to life as an introspective exploration of being a kid and hearing those things. None of Anderson's other movies (not even Tenenbaums, which I also think is masterful, or the endlessly entertaining Isle Of Dogs) and most movies in general don't get at something that great as effortlessly as Moonrise Kingdom (though to be fair, I am automatically more sympathetic to anything that reminds me of The Westing Game).

[mfunk9786]

I first saw Moonrise Kingdom around three weeks ago on a whim, and fast forward to now and my girlfriend and I are about to go trick-or-treating as Sam and Suzy.

my girlfriend and I are about to go trick-or-treating as Sam and Suzy.

about to go trick-or-treating

I mean, it is rated PG-13, makes sense that you'd just be catching up to it now

[Never Cursed]

I mean, it is rated PG-13, makes sense that you'd just be catching up to it now

Not that you meant that in mean spirits (or could have known this), but the embassies here in DC have always given out candy on Halloween. It's pretty common among college kids (such as myself) and twenty-to-thirty-somethings to hike on over to Embassy Row around sundown, which is what I was referring to.

[flyonthewall2983]

It's a strange one, for sure. Murray doesn't seem fully engaged (he wasn't), and the there are filmmaking choices (the questionably authentic piracy of the boat, for one) that don't always work for most viewers, myself included if I'm being honest. I still find it very funny, like therewillbeblus said, which means I'm a fan, but it's probably at the bottom of my live action list, just above the animated ones depending on when you ask.

Worth noting that it's Matt Zoller Seitz's (author of those handsome The Wes Anderson Collection hardbacks) #1 film of Anderson's.

I think it's his funniest work, but not his best. There were perhaps one too many characters getting in the way of a really interesting idea of seeing Murray play Cousteau but somehow also playing himself too.

[mfunk9786]

I mean, it is rated PG-13, makes sense that you'd just be catching up to it now

Not that you meant that in mean spirits (or could have known this), but the embassies here in DC have always given out candy on Halloween. It's pretty common among college kids (such as myself) and twenty-to-thirty-somethings to hike on over to Embassy Row around sundown, which is what I was referring to.

I didn't at all because I figured there was some cute explanation

[domino harvey]

Can’t believe Malkmus left the candy part out of the lyrics

[therewillbeblus]

Wes Anderson has apparently wrapped shooting Asteroid City and in the editing phase, with Yeoman reporting that they are immediately pivoting to work on another project in England next month

[Constable]

Has the forum ever done a collective ranking of WA films? I've seen other forums do threads in which they rank a director's filmography, IDK if that's ever been done here and with WA specifically. I'd be very curious to see where each film would fall.

[domino harvey]

Somewhere (in this thread, I think) a lot of us posted our rankings

[ChunkyLover]

Bottle-Darjeeling is the period I love the most and I'm a bit more mixed on his post-Darjeeling output. Even then, the only one I genuinely disliked/didn't care for (so far) was "The French Dispatch".

[Constable]

Somewhere (in this thread, I think) a lot of us posted our rankings

I mean like a thread where people voted and then a collective ranking was determined from everyone's votes.

[DarkImbecile]

We’ve done Auteur Lists for a handful of directors in our List Projects section; generally the rule of thumb is that we want at least 30 films in a filmography as a floor for a project.

[ChunkyLover]

generally the rule of thumb is that we want at least 30 films in a filmography as a floor for a project.

Damn, Robert Aldrich is just short one (unless you want to count "The Garment Jungle" but idk how much of his footage ended up in the final film).

[swo17]

Somewhere (in this thread, I think) a lot of us posted our rankings

I mean like a thread where people voted and then a collective ranking was determined from everyone's votes.

It was informal but I did this almost a decade ago

[Constable]

Somewhere (in this thread, I think) a lot of us posted our rankings

I mean like a thread where people voted and then a collective ranking was determined from everyone's votes.

It was informal but I did this almost a decade ago

Damn, Rushmore comes out on top. See, for me, Rushmore is near the bottom of my list, because what I love about WA is the style and that's basically completely absent in Rushmore.

I recently listened to a podcast in which they ranked the movies and they put Tenenbaums at #1 and Budapest at #2 for the reason that Tenenbaums had more of a human story. For me, Budapest is #1, because for me the stylistic pleasures and cleverness of Budapest is more appealing than the, admittedly, greater humanity of RT. On the first page of this thread, people were discussing two different camps of WA fans and it reminded me of my takeaway from the podcast - it was so clear listening to the hosts explain their picks that our sensibilities were different and the specific way in which they were different and you could understand on that basis why our rankings would differ.

The podcast I mentioned is here, if anyone is interested:

https://soundcloud.com/intercutpod/best ... stcast-117

While we're at it, what ARE everyone's WA rankings? Here's mine:

1. Budapest
2. Mr. Fox
3. Moonrise
4. Tenenbaums
5. Life Aquatic
6. French Dispatch
7. Isle of Dogs
8. Darjeeling
9. Rushmore
10. Bottle Rocket

As I mentioned earlier, the thing I primarily appreciate about WA is the style, but also the creative character and set design and the humor, so naturally GBH is #1, as it's so far the best instantiation of what he does, most packed with style and Wes Andersonyness. Mr Fox is not far behind at all, it almost could give GBH a fight for #1.

French Dispatch is also very style-laden, but I just found the stories weak and uninteresting. The bottom three are the bottom three mainly because of how light on style they are.

[mteller]

1. Tenenbaums
2. Fox
3. Rushmore
4. MK
5. Budapest
6. Isle
7. Aquatic
8. Bottle
9. Darjeeling
10. Dispatch