The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - 92nd Best Movie
productDirector Wes Anderson Cast Billy Murray, Seu Jorge, Angelica Huston Part of my 100 Best Movies in History Series.
Ok, I'm taking a big risk on this one, and I'll probably lose a lot of people here, but fuck it. I like this movie. I like it a lot.
See, the problem here is that this one came with a lot of pre-conceived notions and baggage. A whole lot of people thought that this was going to be just another Wes Anderson film. Even though I'm a fan of his, I'll admit this: He's a stupid snob and he makes movies about rich people, the most boring topic on earth. That is fucking annoying as hell, but, in my opinion, his movies are still good in spite of that. Except Rushmore. Rushmore was the crappiest movie I've ever seen.
On the other hand, a lot of Wes Anderson fans thought this thing was a total sell-out. They watched Rushmore and Tenebaums and were hoping their pet genius would follow his same, annoying formula. When their pet genius tried something different, they fucking freaked. I don't understand that insane mentality, but I'm glad Wes didn't collapse under the weight of his idiot fans like Scorsese did, and just start pumping out generica.
I'll admit this, too: The first time I saw this movie, I thought it was boring as hell. The second time I watched it, though, my eyes were glued to the screen. It's kind of a weird movie, and it really takes getting used to. But what I'm saying is that if you didn't like it the first time, give it another chance. There's a lot here, and it's pretty fucking rewarding once you get into it.
Aside from that, Bull Murray is a fucking god. Save, maybe, Garfield, even his shittiest movies are still worth watching, because he's the fucking master. Even if you really hate this movie, you've gotta admit that Murray is convincing and funny as hell. I heard the next Wes Anderson film wont have Murray in it, so that'll be the test: Does Anderson actually have talent, or is Murray just pulling him through?
One last thing: Like I've been hinting, you can't go into this movie with any pre-conceived notions. About Wes Anderson, or about movies in general. This is an adventure movie at heart. But there's comedy, and there's great, interesting characters and drama. A lot of people like one kind of genre or the other, so I think the way this movie mixes it up is the reason it's gotten such mixed reviews.
