The Royal Tenenbaums by Wes Anderson

The Royal Tenenbaums, 2002, directed by Wes Anderson, written by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson.

Wes Anderson has developed a certain unique way of doing things over his time. By many he is loved for it, and many hated. In this review by David Edelstein, he shows a more loving response to Anderson's style and the movie The Royal Tenenbaums.

I remember recently I viewed one of his previous films, Rushmore, and the opening sequence of playful music, cheap-looking titles, and just stupid stuff happening put me in a laid back, kind of happy mood. I think this is a great way for a director to get the audience closer to the characters. (Like Max Fischer in Rusmore)

In the film the Royal Tenenbaums, Wes Anderson really shows that style as it has developed. This is certain way about his movies is prevelant right from the get go. In an eriely simular opening sequence to the one found in Rushmore. Troughout the opening act you get a chance to embrace what is Wes Anderson's style with a narroration by Alec Baldwin, and introduction to "out there" characters, and a great intramental from everyone's favorite british band playing "Hey Jude".

Royal Tenenbaums Opening

This Royal Tenenbaums is movie about a family of geniuses. Headed by Mr. Royal Tenenbaum himslelf. He has 3 children. The first and favorite child is Richie Tenenbaum who is played by Luke Wilson. Richie has always been Royal's clear favorite. He also is a star tennis player at a young age. The second child is Chas Tenenbaum played by Ben Stiller. Chas has sucessfully breeded dalmation mice and has made enough money off of them to get into the real estate business where he has been a major success. He also accomplished these things at a young age. And last.. and but not first or second is Margo. Margo was adopted an Royal always mentions it. This gives margot zero self esteem and she has trouble succeeding like the others. Although she does end up getting a large grant for a piece of writing she wrote.



The plot of the story is that Gene Hackman (Royal Tenenbaum) splits ways with the wife and family, even though they never get a divorce. The children then grow up and run into their own problems after having such sucessful and problem-free childhoods. All of them seem to route everything back to their father even though he was gone for much of their lives. Hackman's character ends up faking he is sick to force his way back into the family. He tries to pry away his wife Ethiline from her new man Henry, although the whole family seems so distant and awkward around him. He gets frustrated that Henry is welcomed more than himself.

In this film Wes Anderson shows off his unique style with witty comedy intertwined with many "out there" characters and more than one central plot. These characteristics of his flow perfectly with the family that is the Tenenbaums. I really enjoyed this film and am starting to really appreciate this director's style. I am also starting to respect great directors as a whole, because I can see now how people believe in the theory that a great director will not make a bad movie. Two thumbs up for the Tenenbaums and two more for Wes.

Coen Brothers

I enjoyed the Coen Brothers more than any other directors this year. I like the way they incorperate some screw ball comedy aspects into their more serious noir-type films like Fargo and No Country for Old Men. This quality really gives the Coen Brothers a certain style that is unique to only them.

Now to review the films. Raising Arizona was an interesting one for me. The screw ball type attitude for this movie was really funny. I loved the narriration. It made you feel for Hi, even though you had no good reason to. But then towards the middle and the end, you dont really root for him at all, like in many of the Coen Brother's films. The narriration is eerily simular to that of My Name is Earl, the sitcom on FOX.

Fargo and Old Country for Old Men were both dark movies, but alos had that screw ball comedy mixed style. Both films had great plots. You find yourself watching the wqhole picture, not just one side of things, which is really cool. Fargo gets an 8/10. No Country a 9.5 and Arizona a 7.5. Overall the Coehn Brothers were my favorite director study so far.

My BOY Rob Altman

Robert Altman's films were overall very enjoyable to view. EXCEPT Nashville. Nashville made zero sense. I thoguht it was a lame attempt to have a good feeling ending with the "It dont worry me" thing. And the girl stripping in that bar scene?? completly unneccessary. The way he tries in incorperate all those characters is really frusterating. It makes it impossible to root for anyone or care about anyone. 0/10 for Nashville.
Now on the other end of the spectrum, Long Goodbye was aweosme. The Marlow character was soo easy to root for and his laid back style is just cooool. The story was old school and so was Marlow. The way the camera was always moving gave it that old godfather type style and i really liked that.
THe movie the Player kind of combined the two films in the sense that it had many many characters except.. it didnt stink. I thought this one had a great plot, and Altmans camera style helped me to really enjoy this one too.

Overall I liked Altman alot. I just didnt get Nashville but the other two would be movies i would watch again FOr sure.

Kurosawa

At first I thought Kurosawa was kind of a weird director. With the first film Stray Dog, I realy didn't like it at all. The plot was subpar, and it was hard to find yourself rooting for the main character to find his gun that was stolen. Going into Yojimbo I had low expectations and just wanted to get the unit overwith. BUT, Yojimbo hit a home run with me. SO many awkward funny moments. And unlike Stray Dog, you find yourself really wanting Toshiro Mifune to kick ass. And he does.... often. I also loved the music and sound effects in Yojimbo. Sometimes a good soundtrack can change the whole feel of a movie. I really, really enjoyed Yojimbo alot and then going into RAN, I didn't know what to expect, after Kurosawa hit a home run with Yojimbo but struck out looking in Stray Dog. With mixed emotions going in, I thought RAN was pretty good for the most part. Color helped a little bit, and doing a story that is based on the King Leer story made the plot better than the other movies. BUT MAN how depressing is the last seen in this movie. The blind brother is left on a cliff with nowhere to go and the camera keeps emphasizing his aloneless but zooming out over and over. Overall, I liked the Kurosawa unit becuase of Yojimbo and RAN. The thing is though, I dont know if I could take another movie of his with all the subtitles, foreign screaming, and pissy characters.

Stuck on YOu

The Farrelly Brothers did a great job again with Stuck on You. Stuck on You is a story about two brothers who are conjoined twins. The characters are played by MAtt Damon and Greg Kinnear. The two do everything together from picking up girls, to playing sports (gof, football, baseball). The two find ways to adapt and live their lives like normal people. The farrelly brothers use these awkward situations to make hilarious comedic moments. THe idea of a story about conjoined twins is a great idea i think becuase you already have your main conflict, with the solution ultimatly being surgery to detatch the two. This film is another funny comedy by the Farrelly Brothers. They really take advantage of this story, while not being disrespectful to the conjoined twins community. I loved it and gave it to thumbs up.

Hitchcock yo

I always heard about Alfred Hitchcock being regarded as one of the best if not THE best director of all time. with all this talk i had high expectations. The first hitchcock film we watched was the 39 steps. I thought this film didnt live up to the hype. I didnt like how the viewer doesnt find out the 39 steps until the end, and when we did find out, it had nothing to do with the plot of the movie. the second film, Rear Window was a great film. the story of Jeff and his injury reminds me of when I tore my ACL and had to find different things to keep myself busy. Jeff kept himself busy with his watching of other people in the community. I liked this film alot better because you felt like you were the one watching the people and you felt afraid of being caught. Vertigo was another good film that really showed Hitchcocks signature themes, like the "wrong man" concept where his main character is a man who is caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and ends up being a hero. I really became familier with his style by now and appreciated it alot more than in the begining.

Overall i really liked hitchcocks work and would definatly look into viewing some more in the future. Now, i see what all the hype was about

Shiznallow Hiznal by the Farrelly Brothers

Shallow Hal was a hilarious movie made by the Farrelly Brothers. The movie is about a guy who somehow seems to be dating some extremly hot women who would be considered by many "out of his league". Although he is loving it, hes not sure how he is doing it. Whats happening is Hal (played by Jack Black) is seeing these girls as gorgeous, fit, stacked young ladies. The the fact of the matter is, is that these women are actually overweight, and not considered "hot" by society. Hal eventually meets a girl named Rosemarry. Rosemarry and Hal seem to like each other alot, until Hal finds out she isnt as beautiful as he thought. Now Hal has to decide wheather or not to stay with Rosemarry, now that he sees here as overweight and "ugly". The more you get into the plot of the movie, the more you find yourself rooting for Hal to make the right decision and realize that peoples inner beauty is more important than the outside. Hal does realize this and stays with Rosemarry. It is a great end to the movie, and leaves the viewer feeling good about themselves.

Throughout this film the Farrelly Brothers do a great job of getting aacross a good point about society, while making it hilarious to say the least. The way they transistion from the girls being slim to them being pudgy is pretty funny and they incorperatye it well into the story. Good job by them on this film... 2 thumbs up.. yo