It took me some time to get over my rage at Wes Anderson and learn to enjoy the quirky preciosity of his movies. Now I’m good with him. I’m still trying to suss out what I expect from movies, novels and, well, art in general, so I’m not going to hold my dissatisfactions with his storytelling against him. And far be it from me to goof on someone else for being precious.
Now that I’ve checked out the five installments of Matt Zoller-Seitz’s analysis of Anderson’s work and influences, The Substance of Style (parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), I appreciate Anderson a lot more.
I also learned a bunch about Hal Ashby (the subject of part 3), who had an awfully good 10-year run of movies: The Landlord, Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo, Bound for Glory, Coming Home and Being There.
(Note: If you go to these articles, click on the video links, because those include the entire text of each installment, along with great images and movie clips to illustrate MZS’s points.)
(Bonus! It’s Wes Anderson without Wes Anderson, but with Rachel Weisz!)
I figured out that I was liking Wes Anderson films according to how many Wes Anderson fans were in the audience when I saw them. The fewer people in the audience beaming at the screen, the more I liked the film.
The ’70s had a really deep bench, Gil. Even a mainstream entertainer like George Roy Hill busted out like eight quality films in a row at one point.