And posting on THE DARK TOWER has got me thinking that I should have said at least a few words about THE LIFE AQUATIC, which Buttons 'n me and some pals saw on Xmas day, and about Wes Anderson flicks in general.

It's a good'n, for sure, and I think that I prefer it over THE ROYAL TENNEBAUMS (which is probably mostly 'cause Bill Murray was just plain ol' kickass and Jeff Goldblum gets shot), but really what it comes down to is this: NOBODY LIES IN WES ANDERSON FLICKS. Mostly. I mean, Max Fischer kept saying his dad was a brain surgeon and Margo Tennenbaum hid any number of things from her friends and family, but with few notable exceptions, everybody answers questions with the utter screaming painful truth and they wear their hearts, minds, opinions, fears, anquish and lacks on their sleeves.

It's very comforting, while watching one of Anderson's movies (for the uninitiated, whoever you are, those would be: BOTTLE ROCKET, RUSHMORE, THE ROYAL TENNENBAUMS & THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU), to know that whatever huge scary truth that's skulking around in the background will come out at some point and it will be funny, sad and shocking, all in the same moment. Billyhank like.

One note, however, on THE LIFE AQUATIC: Music. Uh, Wes? You kinda fucked it, friend. The soundtracks to RUSHMORE and THE ROYAL TENNEBAUMS are in regular rotation in my CD player, but I can't imagine that I'll enjoy a whole albumful of Seu Jorge covering Bowie songs in Portuguese. It's pretty, certainly, but previous choices of music (The Who, Cat Stevens, The Kinks, Lou Reed, Mark Mothersbaugh) were a helluva lot better. Sorry man. Better luck next time.

All right, out for drinks, salmon dip and whatever whacky shit 2005 will bring. Have fun, y'all.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hey! How about a spoiler alert next time??? Some of us east coasters w/ a baby on the way haven't gotten around to seeing The Life Aquatic yet, and now I know Goldblum gets shot. :)

The Royal Tennebaums kicks ass. Great fucking movie. I put it up there with PTA's movies (which, to me, are all perfect!)

mikE

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