At this point in the director’s career, it may be easier and more instructive to catalog how a new Wes Anderson film is different than its predecessors. For example, his latest, The Grand Budapest Hotel, is packed with all the … Continue reading What a beautiful dream that could flash on the screen in a blink of an eye and be gone from me
There are some movies that inspire adoration from their very first moments, that simply feel exactly right. That’s what happened when I saw Wes Anderson’s sophomore effort, Rushmore. I truly thought that would be a one-of-a-kind experience from the director, especially as his very particular brand of pinched emotion and tightrope whimsy became a little more strained with every outing. Oh me of little faith. From the very beginning of Moonrise Kingdom, with Bob Balaban calmly, sagely explaining the world of New Penzance, Anderson offers a pitch-perfect delivery of an enchanting tone, spirit and rhythm that is uniquely his own, … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2012 — Number One
And so we come to the end of another calendar year of reviews for Spectrum Culture. The site is already in the process of downshifting ahead of the holidays, so there was a little less new content going up this week. I still took my turn in the film review rotation, however, with an evaluation of a new drama that got wobbly wheels but is finally made steady by a couple of very fine performances. Most of my words this week were expended on our various “end of the year” lists. For the Favorite Books feature, I wrote about Richard … Continue reading Spectrum Check
Falling in love can be treacherous business. The flush of excitement when interest clicks over to happy infatuation is undeniably thrilling, but it also foretells all the moments in the future when it won’t quite live up to the earlier … Continue reading In the spiritual kingdom of love, you’re the one that I’m thinkin’ of
#2 — Rushmore (Wes Anderson, 1998) In Max Fischer’s dreams he can liberate his classmates from the tyranny of homework with some concerted strokes of a piece of a piece of chalk. In the waking world, triumph is a little more elusive. So begins Wes Anderson’s second feature, and, with a burst of ecstatically funny creativity, the life and aspirations of his main character are laid out. As played by Jason Schwartzman, Max believes in his own greatness with only the most simplistic idea as to what that means–the only occupations he considers viable aspirations are senator and diplomat–and he proceeds … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Two
#1 — Mason Gamble as Dirk Calloway in Rushmore (Wes Anderson, 1998) Around the time of Rushmore‘s release, Bill Murray went onto Charlie Rose’s PBS program to discuss the film. The interview covered a broad range of Murray’s career, and … Continue reading Greatish Performances #1
Around the time that The Darjeeling Limited was released, a good friend of mine, who knows a thing or two about movies himself, asked me if I was going to go see the “new dollhouse” from Wes Anderson. That struck … Continue reading Take a run and hide yourself away
#49 — The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001). For all the precision that Wes Anderson brings to his filmmaking–the carefully constructed shots, the pristine cinematography, the merging of imagery with the rock’n’roll soundtrack so complete that it feels like the movie itself is breathing in time with each song’s backbeat–it is the ungainly sprawl of The Royal Tenenbaums that impresses most. Anderson has been upfront about drawing upon the works of J.D. Salinger, particularly those involving the Glass family, for this film, and it indeed comes across as a wildly inventive, overstuffed novel. Set in a arch, Bohemian, colorful New York … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Forty-Nine
Coffee for Two 