Wes Anderson's 'Bottle Rocket' Review

This past week, I watched Wes Anderson's debut feature film, Bottle Rocket. It was the actually the last film of his I still had to see, so now I'm all caught up. My initial reaction to Bottle Rocket was that it was a solid start to Anderson’s large and high quality filmography. It stars Owen Wilson and his lesser known brother Luke Wilson who play young thieves trying to plan a heist. It was also co-written by Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson, who went to film school together and initially made a short film of the same name. They had an idea early on and continued to build it as they got funding for it, which was inspiring to me as I am someone that may want to do something similar one day. What I really liked about the film was that even though it wasn’t that professional and had a lot of flaws, you could still see Anderson’s unique directing style that is so famous today. The whip shots and symmetrical frames are just as fun in this as they are in his later works. In general, the highlight was the visual style and  stunningly organic the project looked, despite inconsistencies with the story and pacing. There were plot points that weren't fully explored, and loose ends that I don't think were tied up by the end. Even though these inconsistencies are in the plot, I will say that parts of this story directly translate to his later work, and the ending to this film was on par with his usual movies. I want to also comment on Luke Wilson's performance, because it was another highlight of the film. He had a romance plotline in the middle of the film and it really showed the range he has that I’ve never really seen in any of his other movies. There’s no doubt that this is Anderson’s weakest film. However, considering he has such an impressive filmography, it is really not that bad. Looking into how the project was made and how it was received by critics, was very interesting to me. I suggest anybody that sees the film, researches the story afterwards. 

In terms of Andersons other work, my top 3 films by him would be 'Fantastic Mr. Fox', 'The Royal Tenenbaums', and 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'. All of these three, are considered to be peak for him visually. TGBH especially, is hailed as his masterpiece simply because of the colorful and dynamic nature of his sets and camera work in the film. All three also have so much more real and significant emotion that can be extremely relatable at times. My favorite part about Anderson and his films, is that they are so similar, yet each has such a unique and personal identity at the same. He is definitely one of the most consistent filmmakers of this generation. One of my favorite youtubers, Karsten Runquist, made a ranked video for all of Anderson's films (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBP7tS4jODo). I found that we share a lot of the same opinions about his work, especially in the top half of the list. For some reason, Karsten hates 'Moonrise Kingdom', which I don't understand but it's whatever. A common theme in Karsten's video is about how Anderson's films have a strong adolescent connection that doesn't seem to fade when the viewer grows up. I completely agree with this sentiment and feel that it's an important thing for filmmakers to try to focus on, especially when playing around in the more fantastical genre. 

Another video that I think is necessary to view for anyone that wants to fully understand Wes Anderson's unique style as a director, is StudioBinder's analysis of his work (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q45m7RYy7-4). My favorite part of the video, is the description they give on Anderson's use of color. Most people that view his work will frequently talk about how great the colors are in his films. They will go into how the pastels of TGBH look spectacular, but StudioBinder goes into the specifics of how the color elevates and experiments with the narrative. The go into how desaturation can be a plot device of sorts and how specific color schemes can represent a certain feeling, the passage of time, or a specific character. There is a ton of other great things to be unpacked from this video, as they go into the specifics of music, sound, cinematography, production design, and editing.