I think his characters behave like they are autistic.
I don’t know if Wes Anderson himself is autistic, but his movies sure are. You’ve got limited outward expression of emotion, blunt dialog even for uncomfortable issues, echolalia (repetition of phrases), detailed coverage of niche topics, and a very structured, predictable aesthetic.
I personally love it.
The SNL parody of Wes Anderson movies, linked to upthread by @Just_Asking_Questions includes a (obviously fictional) pull quote from the film critic for The New York Times, “You had me at Wes Anderson.” The funny thing is that’s absolutely true for me, and I think some others.
Oh that’s, good! That was made with love. Gonna have to share that tonight at movie night.
Netflix added a whole bunch of Alfred Hitchcock related material in the past month and I spent the weekend diving into that. I started with the Hitchcock biopic from 2012; this is the one that chronicles the making of Psycho and stars Anthony Hopkins as Hitch, Helen Mirren as Alma Reville (Hitch’s wife), Toni Collette as Peggy Robertson (Hitch’s secretary), Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh and Jessica Biel as Vera Miles. The movie is told from Hitch’s point of view; there are fantasy sequences where he converses with a hallucination of Ed Gein, the real life murderer who inspired the Psycho novel by Robert Bloch.
I then switched to HBO Max and watched The Girl, another Hitchcock biopic that was released one more before the proceeding film. It stars Toby Jones as Hitch with Imelda Staunton as Alma and Sienna Miller as Tippi Hedren. The film reviews Hitch’s discovery of Hedren (in a TV ad for a diet drink), his casting of her in The Birds, and the making of that film and subsequently Marnie. The movie is told predominantly from Hedren’s point of view.
The two films are very different in their respective treatments of Hitchcock. Hitchcock depicts Hitch as demanding but also committed to making great film; a particular highlight is his battle with the censors in depicting things considered verboten in American cinema of 1960 (like a toilet flushing … and it hadn’t even been used for its intended purpose!).
The Girl is far less kind; it depicts Hitchcock as a pig and a wannabe Svengali who harasses and, at one point, outright sexually assaults Hedren. Hedren ultimately is forced to stand up to Hitchcock’s attempts at womanizing even at risk of her own career (the movie makes it seem like Hedren never worked again after breaking from Hitchcock, which of course is not true at all). There is some substantial debate about the veracity of this film’s depiction of Hitchcock. At the very least, Hitchcock, like so many great directors, was a very complex man.
The polite term is “deadpan” and I’m guessing it’s a lot harder than it looks.
After finishing the two Hitchcock biopics, I went back to Netflix and streamed Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo and Psycho. Each film was great in its own way.
Something interesting that I have observed: a surprisingly large number of “Hitchcock blondes” are still living. Tippi Hedren, Kim Novak and Vera Miles are still living in their 90s. You can also add in Eva Marie Saint (the female lead from North by Northwest) who will turn 101 on Friday. Doris Day only passed away in 2019, and lived to be 97 to boot.
I saw Dave Made A Maze.
An odd one, this. A man makes a cardboard maze in his living room and gets trapped in it, necessitating his girlfriend and a troupe of friends and hangers-on to rescue him.
It’s sort of a fun horror movie, but there’s no actual blood or gore—the maze and its monstrous denizens are all made of cardboard, so the blood and gore is all represented by paper streamers, yarn, silly string etc.
Actually, it has sort of a Community vibe to it, like someone wrote a spec script for the show and later developed it into a feature length film. (Certainly Dave could be Jeff, his girlfriend could be—actually is named—Annie, Jane is sort of Britta. And Gordon is so Abed, it’s hard to believe it wasn’t intentional.)
To quote Jessica Rabbit: “He makes me laugh.” I’m not sure why. It may just be that we have the same sense of humor.
His films are very absurd, and I enjoy absurdity.
Movie night tonight. My bright idea to watch Mandy. Noped right out as soon as they introduced the cult. So now my friends are watching it without me. There has been zero violence so far (as far as I got) but man is it freaky.
Thought I was gonna be brave tonight but I am not down with that home invasion shit.
There will be violence in it for sure. And it gets weirder. I love Mandy, though.
Maybe you should re-evaluate how you judge movies. Not everyone’s entertainment values are the same.
No, I’m just saying that A-list actors are happy to be in his movies, even in minor roles. You’re entitled to your opinion, but you should also consider that it defies a tsunami of critical opinion to the contrary about Anderson’s films. .Just like some major actors were happy to be in Woody Allen films despite being paid a small fraction of what they’d normally get.
Fans of Wes Anderson might also enjoy the movies of Peter Greenway and Roy Andersson. Similar highly-managed stagecraft and deadpan performances. And a bit more sophistication IMHO
Okay, so I screwed up my courage and returned to Mandy. The way the movie starts it feels very Arthouse horror home invasion, I was like, is this going to be rapey? Torture? No idea.
So I looked up some details on Common Sense Media and decided I would be okay.
After the Big Thing happens (which is not that bad in how it’s depicted) this movie goes off the fucking rails. I started laughing my ass off and didn’t stop. It’s a non-stop barrage of film and video game references all showcased by Cage’s unhinged performance (probably the craziest I’ve ever seen him.) Nothing makes sense. It’s violent, but it’s funny.
Is Mandy a good movie? Not particularly, no. But it was entertaining for the evening and I’d still pick this over Color Out of Space (admittedly that’s not setting the bar that high.).
At least I can say that I saw it.
The Flash 2023 and Man of Steel 2013
Max has several of the DCEU films.
I’ve avoided then until now. The two tonight were pretty good. I know the DCEU franchise is very successful.
I’ll probably watch the sequel next. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
I still feel protective of the comics from my childhood. But the movies are out there and modern fans want fresh stories.
I’m sure you don’t mean it to be but that sounds pretty fucking arrogant. My entertainment value says Asteroid City was completely unwatchable. I don’t need to re-evaluate shit. He’s getting more weirdly unrealistic and goofy. Leaves me completely cold. If he changes again I’ll be willing to give it a try but it looks doubtful at this point.
I watched some BAD sequels this week for some reason, I was like “I love the originals, maybe i should see if I’m missing anything”
Caddyshack 2 - An utterly pointless film, the only laughs come from Chevy Chase which makes sense as he’s literally the only returning actor from a film that was actually funny. What’s funny is just how blatant it is they expected to get EVERYBODY back for the sequel so everybody talks and acts like their original films version. Jackie Mason acts like Rodney Dangerfield, Dan Aykroyd acts like Bill Murray, and Robert Stack acts like Ted Knight, for absolutely no reason. It’s especially bad for Mason and Aykroyd because their joke delivery is atrocious, at least Stack is just the straight man for them so he doesn’t need to make jokes.
Ghostbusters 2 - I’ve somehow never actually seen this all the way through. Apparently there’s a reason, it’s just a bad remake of the first film with worse jokes. Who’s bright idea was it to literally reset the status quo for EVERYONE in the sequel? Why not just continue the adventures of the first but with Dana and Venkman married with a kid and have that be the plot? Why do I have to see them fall in love AGAIN.
The Birds 2 - okay I should have foreseen this one being bad, not going to lie though, I got more enjoyment from this film than the preceding 2. If you ever wanted to see what The Birds would look like if it was done by a back director and a straight-to-video budget, it’s pretty entertaining. I mean the first 60 minutes are boring family drama you can skip, but those last 20 minutes when it’s just bad bird puppets being thrown at people, VERY entertaining.
My first sentence in that quote was inappropriate and I apologize and withdraw it. The second sentence was my real message and, as I explicitly said, we’re all entitled to our opinions. Whether or not a particular film entertains us is entirely subjective, and as it happens, I mostly agree with you about Asteroid City.
To all, sorry about the kerfuffle over Wes Anderson. I just wanted to say that I watched The Phoenician Scheme and quite enjoyed the carefully crafted aesthetic. It’s an unusual film so it’s not surprising that it didn’t connect with those expecting perhaps a more conventional story line. This might be Anderson’s most artsy film but probably not his best one. I’d put either Grand Budapest Hotel or Moonrise Kingdom at the top.
One of the cool things about Anderson is that everyone who likes him, ranks his movies differently. For instance, while I love Grand Budapest Hotel (maybe my favorite of his), I didn’t like Moonrise Kingdom that much; instead, I consider the French Dispatch one of his best, and possibly his funniest movie, despite the fact that most fans aren’t that crazy about it.
I found that one nearly incomprehensible. I guess it was parodying The New Yorker, but I went in not knowing that, and I somehow didn’t get that the vignettes were news stories. I liked the first vignette with the artist. The other two just baffled me. I didn’t know what was being parodied, so for a long time I just felt like I wasn’t in on the joke.
But I can see how if you know the material it’s a different experience.
Would Wes Anderson be considered Arthouse? I find I have difficulty with that genre, often. Though I like most of his movies. I liked Asteroid City, even. I’ve been exposed to some Arthouse films from my friends who have more sophisticated taste, and often I don’t understand the hype.