The O Factor - Was Owen Wilson the key to the Wes Anderson phenomenon? By Field Maloney
This article presupposes a lot.
The O Factor - Was Owen Wilson the key to the Wes Anderson phenomenon? By Field Maloney: "Once upon a time, a young filmmaker from Houston, Texas, put together a yellow submarine of sorts—an enclosed cinematic world with a style and affect that was entirely his own, peopled with his friends and screen heroes. USS Wes Anderson delivered a couple of films that were small-scale but brilliant in a modest, eccentric way. They had what fiction writers call 'voice'—a coherent and distinct cinematic language and sensibility. Anderson seemed poised to become the next major American director. Certainly, the eyes and hopes of a generation of sneaker-wearing, thrift-shop dandies, young men and women who cultivate affectlessness but have sentimental hearts, were fixed fast upon Anderson and his merry band.
True, USS Anderson had some nagging tics, and each film seemed more enclosed in the storybook boundaries of Anderson's fantasy world than the one before. After being rescued by Gene Hackman's performance in The Royal Tenenbaums, USS Anderson finally ran aground last winter, with The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. Rather than develop as a storyteller, Anderson appeared to have floated off to an adolescent never-never land where everyone wears Lacoste, colorful and quirky toys abound, and a vintage emo soundtrack gets piped in whenever a little poignancy is required—a Michael Jackson ranch for the Salinger set.
The disappointment was widespread, yet the critics at the major papers and the hipster blogs all overlooked one important fact: The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou was the first Wes Anderson film in which Owen Wilson didn't share the writing chores. What if Owen Wilson, America's resident goofy rou?with the broken nose and the lazy nasal drawl, was the rudder keeping USS Anderson on course, steering its captain away from solipsism and ironic overload?
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posted by miguel at 7/27/2005 11:32:00 AM
1 Comments:
i just watched the life aquatic for the first time on tuesday night. i loved it. i felt that bill murray alone justified the film. i felt that owen wilson and anjelica houston and cate blanchett lent some damn fine work as well. i felt that the visual aesthetic was stunningly evocative and fun fun fun. i thought the music was a stroke of genius, especially when coupled with bill murray. it wasn't the best movie i've ever seen, but i loved it while i watched it, and the more i think about it the more impressed i am. i like that i got to spend a couple hours in a world that felt like the submarine ride at disneyland.
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