Bottle Rocket

Year: 1996
Director: Wes Anderson
Starring: Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, James Caan

If you read my review on Submarine you would notice I referred to my love of Wes Anderson quite a lot, so with the announcement of a new Wes Anderson film, Moonrise Kingdom, I decided to re-watch his films and do some reviews. And what better way to start than with his first film, Bottle Rocket.

This is the movie that started it all. Every distinguishable feature that Anderson employs started in Bottle Rocket and continues onto the rest of his film career. Now some do criticize Anderson for this apparent one dimension (as well as his typically dry sense of humor). I disagree with these claims as it's really just his style and it's a style that while not everyone "gets it", it works and is unique to him.

I will admit though that Bottle Rocket is perhaps one of my lowest rated Anderson Films although it may be tied with The Darjeeling Limited. It does have the typical quirky feel to it which I do love, but I think it's really the cast that gets to me. Own Wilson does good in his part as over enthusiastic and naive wannabe thief. I guess what I'm trying to get at is there was no real visible connection between the rest of the cast. Their respective storylines were great but just no connection to really care about the story as a whole. Luckily, I found the dry humor (my humor in general is pretty dry so guess that's why I appreciate it so much) to be excellent and does have a few scenes I would put at the top of any list.

Bottle Rocket may not be the home run that other Anderson films accomplished but it is a worthy watch if you love Anderson films and just the quirky "indie" (And I use that term sparingly) style that is prominent.

Score: B-

Submarine

Year: 2010
Director: Richard Ayoade
Starring: Noah Taylor, Paddy Considine, Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige and Sally Hawkins.

Submarine is your typical British independent coming of age movie that I would have loved to have watched and seen when well...when I was coming of age and still in High School. As of now I am in my third year of University and while I did heavily enjoy Submarine I do feel as its affect on me was significantly downgraded due to the unfortunate timing of my viewing.

The film follows a 15 year old boy named Oliver Tate, a pretentious "genius" among the likes of the audience watching this film, who then falls in love with a girl of his age named Jordana. The movie follows their relationship inside and outside their schooling and Oliver's own relationship with his parents who have recently fallen on some hard times in their own relationship. These are presented in unique "chapters" if you will much like a book with a prologue, three sections and with a closing epilogue.

Oliver and Margot Jordana

Oliver's character can be quite frustrating as in typical independent or "smart" coming of age stories, he is a young child who thinks too much and thinks he is much better than anything. I'm sure the writers across the board think this is a great approach but in recent times I'm starting to fall from this idea in modern films. It fails to be as quirky with me as it should and instead ventures into a realm of unrealisticness. It also irked me that throughout the whole movie all I could think about was the blaring similarities to all of Wes Anderson's films. Now don't get me wrong, Wes Anderson is one of my favorite directors and writers and I know my prior statement actually discredits some of his work, but still. Stylistically the usage of bold, solid colors was overly used which coincidentally happens to be one of Anderson's motifs. The title alone and also the marine biologist father bares much similarity to The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Oliver Tate reminds me of Max Fischer from Rushmore, and Jordana of Margot from The Royal Tenenbaums. Again this isn't bad as I do like Anderson's style just not as fresh to me as I would have liked.

Overall, however, the film was quite good. It touches on young love that so many other movies touch on but in it's own special way and throws some good comedy in their as well. If I was younger I would appreciate this movie much more than I do now although if I was younger I would not get past the style and appreciate that. So it's really a lose lose for me on this one.

Score: B+