To say that I haven't seen any movies lately would not be strictly true. In fact, it would be a downright lie. A downright lie. The reality of the situation is far different.

I have watched three Wes Anderson films. Twice. Twice each, I mean. Once without commentary and then once again with commentary. The films that I have watched are as follows: 'Rushmore', 'The Royal Tenenbaums' and lastly 'The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou'.

I've seen all of these films before, but after recently watching 'Fantastic Mr. Fox', I was keen to re-watch them in greater depth. I suppose what I got out of this was that Wes Anderson is very much the complete writer-director. He writes with a very clear visual sense of what the film will be like and executes it perfectly as a director. It is as though he sees the film as a whole, even at the writing stage. He also has a very strong sense of visual style. I think it would be fair to say that he is an auteur director, certainly.

Other than that, I suppose I consolidated in my mind my responses t0 all of his films.

To me, 'The Darjeeling Limited' is still my favourite. It's a simple film on the surface, but has a lot of depth and it's paced very well. The jokes aren't overt and yet it is still very funny in parts. It helps that it was co-written by Jason Schwartzman, I think. It has a Schwartzman sensibility that complements Anderson's style. This is what made 'Rushmore' such a great film. Schwartzman's lead performance in 'Rushmore' is great and just really suits the film, it has this real quirky feel. 'Rushmore' is probably my second favourite. The storyline is interesting and the relationships are very dynamic, constantly changing throughout the film.

'The Life Aquatic' is the weakest film, I reckon. There's something about it that doesn't quite work, perhaps it's that there are far too many peripheral characters that aren't really fleshed out. Maybe that dilutes the importance of the other characters. Or perhaps it's just too cute. Too much style over substance though and it makes it a little bit boring, even though it's visually so dynamic. I'm not sure, I mean, listening to the commentary track from Anderson and co-writer Noah Baumbach, it seems as though the focus of the film was chiefly on the relationships between the characters. Although, this aspect seems to get a little bit overshadowed by the overall look of the film, I feel. Bill Murray isn't used all that effectively either, he's great when he's playing off other actors but too often in this film he's a solitary figure, acting on his own.

'The Royal Tenenbaums' is somewhere in the middle for me. I'm a little indifferent towards this film. I think it's good, but a bit overrated. It looks great, has interesting characters, but again perhaps suffers from having too many characters. For instance, Bill Murray's character in this film is presented as a main character, but he isn't really. I wonder if this character and the Dudley character could have been cut, who knows. Anyway, there are some great sequences in this movie and I reckon Luke Wilson is excellent here. It just lacks a real emotional punch somehow. The closest is the scene with Angelica Huston and Gene Hackman in the street, near the start of the film.

As for the other films, 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' and 'Bottle Rocket', well I've only seen each of them once. 'Bottle Rocket' was pretty good, but it's Anderson's first film, it's low budget and so it's hard to rate it compared to the other films. I remember it being quite funny though and I'd like to watch it again. And 'Fantastic Mr. Fox', well I'd probably put it somewhere in the middle too, probably after 'The Darjeeling Limited' and 'Rushmore', maybe around about 'The Royal Tenenbaums'.

I know it's a bit of a pointless exercise in ranking films like that, but whatever.

So those are the only movies I've watched lately.

2010

First post of the new year. So, Happy New Year.

My new year was good, a fairly quiet night at my place with a few people over. A barbecue and a variety of alcoholic drinks.

I'm heading back to work tomorrow after two weeks off. It'll be good to get some structure back in my life. The last few weeks have been good but fairly uneventful. Can't really remember what I've done, although I went out for dinner the other night for tapas at Basque which was nice. I've been watching a lot of DVDs. Finished 'The Shield' season 7. That was great, a good ending to the show. 'The Shield' is a seriously good show, check it out, it's very cheap at JB HiFi at the moment. Also watched the first season of 'Breaking Bad'. It's a short season, but that show is unreal. I really liked it. I also re-watched all of 'The Office' (UK). I had forgotten how brilliant that show is. It's not just funny, but also very moving because you really invest in the characters. Just wow. I'm also slowly getting through 'Deadwood' and '30 Rock' season 3. Plus, this great show which some kind soul has uploaded all of on Youtube. It's called 'Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe'. Now this is my kind of show. It's basically a show that analyses and critiques TV and it's sarcastic, sharp, savage and very funny. It sometimes reminds me of 'The Angry Nintendo Nerd', a series of video game reviews that I used to watch on Youtube which were similarly sharp and hilarious.

'Fantastic Mr. Fox' (2009) directed by Wes Anderson

I'm a big Wes Anderson fan and I was really looking forward to seeing this. It's great fun and it looks amazing, the animation is very cool and it's stylistically got that obvious Wes Anderson touch. Lots of symmetry and balance, a tightly defined colour palette and trademark camera zooms. The script is offbeat and funny, and the characters are interesting. This film doesn't really make any bold statements or anything, but it's compelling nonetheless. One thing that surprised me was how many young children were in the cinema when I watched this. I suppose the fact that the film is based on a Roald Dahl book and it is an animation suggests that it's a children's film but I didn't think the script itself was geared towards kids. It's very much a Wes Anderson/Noah Baumbach script, dealing chiefly with dysfunctional relationships and family issues. There aren't really any concessions made for kids here (apart from the deliberate lack of swearing). In fact, the film could probably very easily have been a live action film, if you ignored the fact that the characters were written as animals. If this were the case, it definitely would have been an adult film. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the tone feels more adult, I imagine a lot of the charm of the film would have gone over the heads of young children. Anyway, it's cool, go see it.