I feel like so much has happened since I last posted. It feels like as if an entire summer just breezed by like a cane field in a high wind. A lot to talk about, not nearly enough time to do it. And since this will probably be the last post I write for another couple of months (I knew it, I AM like Salinger), I will try to get to the meat 'n mud of it all.
Something I would like to address right off the bat, I can not, CAN NOT wait for The Darjeeling Limited. If I had to go out on a limb, and with this blog I find that I most frequently do have to, I would say it's the movie I'm most excited for this summer. Followed in a close second by Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding (more on that closer to its release date). Anderson is my favorite director working right now and I suppose the reason for that is because he is the director I most aspire to rip off in my own work. After having just watched the Royal Tenenbaums, I realized just how comforting his movies are and how pleasant they are to re-visit. Darjeeling looks like all that and more, it feels like he's going after bigger emotional game here while sticking true to his obsessions and fantastic visual style. I've heard the complains that Anderson has made the same movie over and over again, but I feel like you could say that about a lot of great directors and Anderson is a GREAT director. They have obsessions, themes they can't seem to shake, and god forbid a visual style. If Anderson made a movie that looked like something Spike Lee had directed, I'd be kind of let down. It's a delicate tight rope to walk and I understand the complaint completely, I guess it just doesn't bother me. I think the reason is because Anderson's movies all take place within their own meticulously production designed universes. So all of the behavior and peculiarities of the characters are not meant to be mocked because to them in their world they are completely justified (listen up napolean dynamite). And that's the key to Anderson's work, he never talks down to his characters, he celebrates them in all refracted flaws and glories. They are capable of the best and the worst in and from each other. He also seems to cherish the notion that family is whatever you make of it, it's our job to make each other happy and to love each other. If he's not one of the most optimistic and hopeful voices in filmmaking I don't know who is? Plus he wraps it all up in some of the most sharply observed comedy in American filmmaking, he's not out to rub your face in shit because he thinks its good for you, nor beat you over the head with his pleas for forgiveness (take that Haggis). Okay I'm done, but go see Darjeeling, I would like to right a full review right here at this blog. And what's that you say? You would like to read it, okay if you insist. Will there ever be a rainbow?
Also a quick aside, I was saddened and upset at the news of Owen Wilson's health problems. It doesn't mean anything but I wish him the best and I hope he gets the help he needs and recovers quickly. I think the media coverage of this is disgusting, I wish magazines like People and US Weekly would just go away and never come back. Wilson has accomplished some great work in his career and I look forward to more, I hope he gets better.
The screening for ASD went over like gangbusters last week (ASD is what they will be calling it on JoBlo, Chud, and AICN when the time comes). I love it to death, I'm a little biased of course, but I think its a masterpiece. It felt at home up on the big screen and I think thats quite an accomplishment. And even after driving across country, pre-production, and being there every day for the shoot. I still find myself getting caught up, immersed, and watching the movie not as crew but as a fan. I think there's something to be said for the storytelling talent at work when you can pull somehing off like that. And Flip like Wilson, I can't wait to see what he does next. You'll get a better write up over at the REAL director's blog. It's quite an accomplishment, I tip my non-existant cap.
I feel like there's so much more to squeeze in here, Josh Ritter, No End in Sight, New York City, John Wells Productions, U.S. News and World Whatnot, Resignations, why Once and Zodiac are the two best movies of the year so far, how little has changed since All the President's Men, San Francisco, The Genius of Wes Anderson (oh wait I already covered that), the genius that was THE SIMPSONS MOVIE. Okay, I'm over stimulated, I better sit down here for a minute. Wait a minute, I AM sitting down.
...And her.
Au revoir,
I like fruit baskets because it gives you the ability to mail someone a piece of fruit without appearing insane. Like, if someone just mailed you an apple you'd be like 'Huh? What the hell is this?', but if it's in a fruit basket you're like 'This is nice!
I like sports; I like professional football. I like to get to the stadium and see the games live, you know. And I paint my chest before I leave the house. But I don't have many friends, you know, so I usually just do punctuation and tack on a group already in progress. But sometimes it works out kind of weird because we ended up on TV one time and it said 'JETS?'
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