Jack and I adored this story of young love between a pair of 1965 prepubescent misfits directed by one of moviedom's kings of quirk, Wes Anderson, co-starring Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, with cameos by Bob Balaban, Harvey Keitel, Jason Schwartzman, and Tilda Swinton, as well as newcomers Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman in the romantic lead roles. I profiled Anderson, Murray, and Schwartzman in Anderson's last feature, the animated Fantastic Mr. Fox, and all are in fine form here. The scene from the trailer where a shirtless Murray is going outside with a bottle of booze and an ax, "looking for a tree to cut down," makes us smile every time we think about it.
Anderson co-wrote the script with Roman Coppola (Francis' son, Sofia's brother, he had a small voice part in Fantastic Mr. Fox and also worked on the script for Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited (2007)). My aunt Mary commented that this one is a little strange, but that's one of Anderson's many trademarks (here's a long list)--I think Mary was referring to the deadpan dialogue, which just adds to the comedy. McDormand (three Oscar nominations: for Mississippi Burning (1988), Almost Famous (2000), and North Country (2005); one win: Fargo (1996); still best known for acting in her husband Joel Coen's pictures with his brother Ethan, e.g. Blood Simple (1984), Raising Arizona (1987), Fargo, Burn After Reading; but I also loved her in Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993), Curtis Hanson's Wonder Boys (2000), Lisa Cholodenko's Laurel Canyon (2002), Nancy Meyers' Something's Gotta Give (2003), and Nicole Holofcener's Friends with Money (2006)) is a great foil to Murray, playing his wife. I profiled Norton in Stone, and here he goes against type as a soft-spoken "Khaki" scout leader (I imagine the Boy Scouts didn't want anything to do with this strange little indie involving runaways). The cameos (I spotted Keitel before Jack did) also go against type and the kids are great, too.
The spectacular photography is by Robert D. Yeoman (Anderson's Bottle Rocket (1996), Rushmore (1998), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), and Darjeeling Limited (2007); as well as Drugstore Cowboy (1989), Permanent Midnight (1998), Dogma (1999), The Squid and the Whale (2005), Martian Child (2007), Whip It, Get Him to the Greek, and Bridesmaids), and he has really topped himself this time. Jack commented that every shot is like a painting, with interesting, often symmetrical, composition.
For a nice change, the songs are listed on imdb, including some by composer Alexandre Desplat (last covered in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close). If you stay for the bonus aimed at music lovers, you will learn what I've been wondering for years, how to pronounce Desplat. Unlike traditional French words, he pronounces the S in his last name (the T is silent, as to be expected)--dayz-PLA. I also enjoyed the trivia.
Nominated for the Palme D'Or at Cannes earlier this year, this is a delight and suitable for most children, as long as you can explain what not to try at home and why. It's rated PG-13 for some mild sexual exploration on the part of the kids.
This post is unusual in two ways. First, I've never been so far behind in posting, with six other movies in the hopper (one hasn't been released yet so I'll wait until it gets a distributor to write about it), and will get farther behind fast, as we're planning to see one tonight and another Tuesday. Second, my area is in a massive, prolonged power blackout since Friday night, so I'm writing from the grocery store (it's a nice one, with tables and chairs, electrical plugs and wi-fi). The last time I had to do that was almost four years ago for In Search of a Midnight Kiss, when Hurricane Ike did it to us. This storm has no name but will surely go down in history. All that is a long way of saying that I definitely won't be prompt in getting the other five, er, seven up on the world wide web. Please be patient.
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