Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) dir. Wes Anderson
Voices by: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwarzman, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe

****

By Alan Bacchus

Upon seeing this film for a second time, which makes for an experience as glorious if not more than the first, I’m convinced ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ is Wes Anderson’s best film. In fact, it might be my favourite animated film since the Disney Golden Era of animation in the late 30’s early 40’s.

I get frustrated every year with each new Pixar release generating near unanimous critical praise and gobbling up loads of money. Despite the clever writing and technically proficient computer animation each and every one of these films (including the other studio knock offs) are the same - the same tone, same mix of characters, and even the same visual look. Which is a shame considering the creative possibilities open to the CG medium.

This is why ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ makes for a marvellous experience. Since Wes Anderson brings his unique auteur live action cinema perspective to a medium primarily operated by committee than by the creative mind of a single director we get a wholly unique animated film unlike anything we’ve seen before.

As written by Anderson and co-writer Noah Boambach, who would seem as the most unlikely pair of writers to do this type of children’s story, the cinema version of Roald Dahl’s story is perfectly enhanced by the feature film medium. In the special features Anderson admits, though he loved the book as a child, as a standalone film, the story doesn’t work and so even the Dahl family themselves acknowledged bookending the original material with new first and third acts were the necessary addition to elevate the story to a feature film.

Though its Dahl’s story, Wes Anderson’s thematic fingerprints are in the every corner of the story. Outside of the rambunctious action plotting, at core the film again brings up Anderson’s career predilections with the relationship of father to son. George Clooney is perfectly cast as the swashbuckling shit-disturber who just can’t help himself from being the sly fox he was born to be. While he’s selfishly expressing his own inner desires he doesn’t realize he’s alienating his teenage son who unfortunately just doesn’t have the same guile as his father. This connection further expands on the relationship between the Tanenbaum children to the father, same with Owen Wilson to Bill Murray’s characters in “The Life Aquatic” and the three brothers on the Indian journey in “The Darjeeling Limited”. And the fun comic robbery shenanigans perpetrated by Fox's family brings us back to the silliness of the heist plans in 'Bottle Rocket'.

Wes Anderson’s visual style and idiosyncratic tone is front and centre as well, and while his immaculately-framed tableaus seemed repetitive in his last few pictures under stop motion animation it feels as fresh and inspired as his early work. So if Wes Anderson gave up live action and only made stop motion movie, I probably wouldn't complain.

The texture achieved from stop motion technology is also a marvel, the real world feeling we get from the tedious frame by frame advancement of the animator’s models, cannot be replicated by computer. The last time animation felt this invigorated is 1993’s ‘A Nightmare Before Christmas’, another stop motion film authored by a live action feature auteur.

‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ is available on Blu-Ray and DVD from 20th Century Fox (who else) Home Entertainment

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) dir. Wes Anderson
Starring George Clooney, Meryl Streep and Bill Murray

****

By Blair Stewart

Joining Tim Burton and Spike Jonze on their forays into youthful material, Wes Anderson raids the farm with Roald Dahl's "The Fantastic Mr. Fox". Featuring a knock-out cast of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray and Michael Gambon, Anderson takes liberties with the classic book yet still maintains the wily essence of the original.

After renouncing his status as the best thief in the valley, refined family man Mr. Fox (Clooney) pulls off one last heist from the three nastiest farmers in the land, Boggis, Bunce and Bean. His looting goes over a tad too well, with the farmers tearing up the land (and taking his tail as a prize) to get at Fox and his family in an upstairs/downstairs battle. As his fellow evicted animals come knocking in Mr. Fox's bomb shelter our hero must win the day while bonding with his wary son Ash (Jason Schwartzman).

After diminishing returns since the success of "Rushmore" and "The Royal Tenenbaums", Wes Anderson comes back with his style and pace seamlessly grafted onto the children's standard. Employing exceptional stop-motion animation from the likes of cinematographer Tristian Oliver of "Wallace and Gromit" and production designer Nelson Lowry from "The Corpse Bride", the fields of Dahl's story are uncannily realised.

"Mr. Fox's" setting is so beautifully lit in deep blues and browns that I hope the camerawork is noticed come awards season over most live-action fare. The script by Anderson and Noah Baumbach goes off on American-ized tangents that have irked British fans but the snappy chemistry of the cast breezes along, in particular Clooney with Streep as Mrs. Fox. An appearance by Willem Dafoe in an iconic role caps off a memorable year for him as well. Surprisingly, some of the humour and subject matter of the script makes this more ideal for older children and grown-ups than toddlers, mostly due to a litany of explosions
and the odd knife fight.

A great autumn season surprise, and if Hayao Mizazaki or Nick Park (or both!) ever tackle Dahl's "The BFG", my head would explode. Enjoy.

THE DARJEELING LIMITED

The Darjeeling Limited (2007) dir. Wes Anderson
Starring: Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, Adrian Brody

***

Warning: Spoilers contained here:

After going big with “The Life Aquatic” Wes Anderson has wisely scaled back his latest production to tell an intimate story of three brothers struggling to get through the baggage of their past and rekindle their friendship while on a spiritual journey through India. The stunning visuals make up for a story that starts off well but loses momentum in the second half.

The opening scene is a fun action sequence. The camera is following Anderson’s favourite actor Bill Murray through the streets of an unnamed Indian city. He’s racing to catch the “Darjeeling Limited” train. He’s running down the platform but not fast enough to make the jump on the last car. Just as he gives up, a more fleet of foot Adrian Brody emerges beside him and successfully makes the jump. Murray is left off the train, and off the film. It’s a neat piece of misdirection from Anderson.

We then follow Brody, playing Peter Whitman, who joins up with his two brothers, Jack (Jason Schwartzman) and Francis (Owen Wilson) who are on the same train taking the same journey. The ride is organized with obsessive detail by Francis and his assistant Brendan as a way of reconnecting after the death of their father one year before.

It’s clear there’s much baggage between the three and so Jack and Peter are suspect of Francis’ motives. His intent is meaningful but immediately Francis’ commanding presence over the two starts to annoy each other. One of Francis’ many petty annoyances is his habit of ordering food for his brothers at restaurants. There are a couple of wonderful scenes that showcase this with great comic timing of the actors.

Brody, Wilson and Schartzman are a great trio. As brothers they are completely different in appearance (a 5-6 inch difference between Brody and Schwartzman), but they have a report and a common manner of speaking that is realistic for brothers. And while the dialogue zings like a Hawks film, there are moments of silent glances that say more about brotherly relationship than any line of dialogue.

The characters are typically Andersonian – privileged men who act like children stunted from absentee parenting. The backstory of their younger lives are not fully fleshed out, but with a Wes Anderson film they don’t need to be. Anyone familiar with his films knows his characters’ frailties. And in “Darjeeling” they are much the same. At the midway point in the film, Francis’ plan is halted and the trio are forced to deal with their problems ad hoc without the security of the train and Francis’ itinerary.

Thematically, getting off the train is a great metaphor for the next step in the mending of the lives, but cinematically the film suffers and loses direction. When they eventually meet up with their mother (Angelica Huston), these scenes fail to pay off the set up in the previous two acts. The film then slowly loses steam and deflates without a whimper. At this point only the beautiful imagery and music were keeping my attention.

Like all his films Wes Anderson and his DOP Robert Yeoman shoot the film with wide angle anamorphic lenses. There’s something to look at in every part of the shot. When the camera is framed for its close-ups the actor’s faces jump out of the screen giving each character a larger than life persona. As customary Anderson’s camera movements are kept to parallel and perpendicular patterns. With the wide angle lens the movements are exaggerated and so the camera becomes a character in the film - the wonderful opening scene as prime example.

Since this is Anderson’s fifth film, I was somewhat disappointed he couldn’t expand his storytelling skills and give us something we hadn’t seen or heard before – the quirky compositions, deadpan humour, intellectual dialogue, super slo-mo set pieces, mod music etc. While I do appreciate a director who can create a consistency in style across his or her body of work, as mentioned, the similarities go beyond the style and into story, character, theme and tone.

Years from now when we look back on Anderson’s films, we may be calling him a genius, but I doubt we’ll be able to remember the difference between Owen Wilson’s four main characters: Dignan (Bottle Rocket), Eli (Royal Tenenbaums), Ned (Life Aquatic) or Francis (The Darjeeling Limited). I’ll let him off the hook now, but next time…

Enjoy.

P.S. Wes Anderson advises you to watch his short film prologue “Hotel Chevalier” starring Natalie Portman and Jason Schwartzman before viewing the film. I've seen it. It's really boring and pretentious - don't bother.

THE DARJEELING LIMITED

The Darjeeling Limited (2007) dir. Wes Anderson
Starring: Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, Adrian Brody

***

Warning: Spoilers contained here:

After going big with “The Life Aquatic” Wes Anderson has wisely scaled back his latest production to tell an intimate story of three brothers struggling to get through the baggage of their past and rekindle their friendship while on a spiritual journey through India. The stunning visuals make up for a story that starts off well but loses momentum in the second half.

The opening scene is a fun action sequence. The camera is following Anderson’s favourite actor Bill Murray through the streets of an unnamed Indian city. He’s racing to catch the “Darjeeling Limited” train. He’s running down the platform but not fast enough to make the jump on the last car. Just as he gives up, a more fleet of foot Adrian Brody emerges beside him and successfully makes the jump. Murray is left off the train, and off the film. It’s a neat piece of misdirection from Anderson.

We then follow Brody, playing Peter Whitman, who joins up with his two brothers, Jack (Jason Schwartzman) and Francis (Owen Wilson) who are on the same train taking the same journey. The ride is organized with obsessive detail by Francis and his assistant Brendan as a way of reconnecting after the death of their father one year before.

It’s clear there’s much baggage between the three and so Jack and Peter are suspect of Francis’ motives. His intent is meaningful but immediately Francis’ commanding presence over the two starts to annoy each other. One of Francis’ many petty annoyances is his habit of ordering food for his brothers at restaurants. There are a couple of wonderful scenes that showcase this with great comic timing of the actors.

Brody, Wilson and Schartzman are a great trio. As brothers they are completely different in appearance (a 5-6 inch difference between Brody and Schwartzman), but they have a report and a common manner of speaking that is realistic for brothers. And while the dialogue zings like a Hawks film, there are moments of silent glances that say more about brotherly relationship than any line of dialogue.

The characters are typically Andersonian – privileged men who act like children stunted from absentee parenting. The backstory of their younger lives are not fully fleshed out, but with a Wes Anderson film they don’t need to be. Anyone familiar with his films knows his characters’ frailties. And in “Darjeeling” they are much the same. At the midway point in the film, Francis’ plan is halted and the trio are forced to deal with their problems ad hoc without the security of the train and Francis’ itinerary.

Thematically, getting off the train is a great metaphor for the next step in the mending of the lives, but cinematically the film suffers and loses direction. When they eventually meet up with their mother (Angelica Huston), these scenes fail to pay off the set up in the previous two acts. The film then slowly loses steam and deflates without a whimper. At this point only the beautiful imagery and music were keeping my attention.

Like all his films Wes Anderson and his DOP Robert Yeoman shoot the film with wide angle anamorphic lenses. There’s something to look at in every part of the shot. When the camera is framed for its close-ups the actor’s faces jump out of the screen giving each character a larger than life persona. As customary Anderson’s camera movements are kept to parallel and perpendicular patterns. With the wide angle lens the movements are exaggerated and so the camera becomes a character in the film - the wonderful opening scene as prime example.

Since this is Anderson’s fifth film, I was somewhat disappointed he couldn’t expand his storytelling skills and give us something we hadn’t seen or heard before – the quirky compositions, deadpan humour, intellectual dialogue, super slo-mo set pieces, mod music etc. While I do appreciate a director who can create a consistency in style across his or her body of work, as mentioned, the similarities go beyond the style and into story, character, theme and tone.

Years from now when we look back on Anderson’s films, we may be calling him a genius, but I doubt we’ll be able to remember the difference between Owen Wilson’s four main characters: Dignan (Bottle Rocket), Eli (Royal Tenenbaums), Ned (Life Aquatic) or Francis (The Darjeeling Limited). I’ll let him off the hook now, but next time…

Enjoy.

P.S. Wes Anderson advises you to watch his short film prologue “Hotel Chevalier” starring Natalie Portman and Jason Schwartzman before viewing the film. I've seen it. It's really boring and pretentious. Visit http://www.hotelchevalier.com/.

RUSHMORE

Rushmore (1998) dir. Wes Anderson
Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Brian Cox, Olivia Williams

****

“Rushmore” was Wes Anderson’s brilliant sophomore film after 1996’s “Bottle Rocket”. Anderson affirmed himself as an American auteur, creating a uniquely personal and entertaining film about a young man whose dreams of grandeur are hopelessly stifled by the mere fact that he is only a 15 year old adolescent.

Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman), a young private schooled high school student from Rushmore Academy is one of the most original protagonists of recent years. He’s 35 year old man in a 15 year old body. He speaks with the eloquence of a university professor, and breathes the air like an upper-classman, but sadly disowns his father for leading an underachieving life of lowly barber. In fact, this theme of father-son alienation is the common theme with all of Anderson’s work.

In the brilliant portrait-style montage of Max’s varied extra-curricular endeavours, set to “Making Time” by Creation, Anderson establishes Max as the jacks of all trades and master of none. Max Fischer is the king of his own insular world, but unfortunately he doesn’t manage to fool the professors. As Dr. Guggenheim says, “he is one of the worst we have here at Rushmore”. Max falls in love one of the teachers, Rosemary (Olivia Williams) and uses his faux intellectual skills to court her. But Rosemary doesn’t give in and she’s forced to give Max the cold hard truth. At this low point, Max’s world totally crumbles when he’s expelled from his beloved Rushmore and forced to go to public school. But Max makes the best of it and goes about his extra-curricular activities at Grover Cleveland High with the same gusto as he did at Rushmore.

Meanwhile Rosemary has developed an attraction to Max’s mentor and best friend, Herman Bloom (a delightfully disheveled Bill Murray). Thus forms one of the oddest love triangles we've seen on film. Despite a 40-year age difference Max and Herman’s rivalry becomes a childish game of quid pro quo. Max dumps a hive of bees into Herman’s hotel room, then Herman runs over Max’s bike with his car, then Max cuts Herman’s brakes on his car. Max and Herman eventually make up and together they join forces to stage a hilariously-serious high school play based on “Apocalypse Now”, called “Heaven and Hell.”

The film lives in the world of Max’s plays. The melodramatic dialogue and staging of his plays spill over into the dramatization of the actual plot of the film. When Herman and Max bond over their loss of Rosemary, their exchange is a romantic-comedy-moment – Herman: “She was my Rushmore”; Max: “I know she was mine too”. Or Max’s declaration of revenge against his nemesis Magnus, “Tell that stupid Mick he just made my list of things to do today”.

Anderson uses the 60’s mod music of The Who, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, Cat Stevens to wonderful effect. In fact, I’d argue Rushmore to be “The Graduate” of our generation with Max’s skewed point of view of the world similar to that of Ben Braddock’s. And in addition to the music they are both absurdist comedies told with dead-pan humour.

Visually “Rushmore” is told with the simplicity of a Whistler painting. He frames his images with vibrant colours and dynamic background and foreground activity. There’s so much life to the film, it takes a several viewings for it all to sink in.

I think “Rushmore” is still Anderson’s best film. “Royal Tenanbaums” and “A Life Aquatic” opened up the canvas for more characters and grander scope, but “Rushmore” is his most focused and most accessible. Enjoy.

Buy it here: Rushmore - Criterion Collection