Zissou Petals

[Tref]

Originally Posted by Eliza Hodgkins 1812

I saw it a couple of months before it was released and am sorry to say that I was really disappointed. I think maybe Anderson requires the writing talents of Owen Wilson. I always thought the structure was entirely Anderson, but the story just sprawled out of control this time around. And I didn't care enough about a lot of the relationships, or the ones I cared about weren't explored enough. Houston and Murray. Murray and Defoe.

I really didn't care for Cate Blanchett's performance at all. And I didn't care at all about her character's romance with Wilson's.

I wanted another Tenenbaums. I guess I wanted too much.

But, as always, I loved the music. And there were a plenty of moments that made the movie completely worthwhile. Best action sequences ever! Defoe gives one of my all-time favorite performances. The stop animation was delightful.


I did love The Big Lebowski, however.

Want to see A Very Long Engagement. Loved, loved, loved Delicatessen, City of Lost Children, and Amalie. Though Alien Resurrection? Well, I can forgive them the one, I guess.

Hmm, I disliked Tenenbaums. So dull and lifeless. Sort of like Napoleon Dynamite, TRT seemed like cookie cutter weirdness. After awhile I thought, OK, I get it -- they're (he's) eccentric. But, so what? Napoleon was a good character in search of a better movie.

Amalie, on my other hand, is a film for the ages. I was never taken much by the director's previous efforts. I liked them all (including AR) but to me those early fims are more a winding path that lead towards his masterpiece. Amalie had many of the same elements/styles/themes at play from his previous films, only it tightened and improved upon them all. I believe that from this point forward Jean-Pierre Jeunet's work will be judged solely by how it compares with Amalie -- which, to me, is more then just a good movie, but an authentic masterpiece. The real deal.

TLQWSZ is the same. It was as if he lifted the cast out of TRT and said, All right, I think I've got it this time. And he was right. TLQWSZ made me cry. And not just a little whimper. What's funny is that I didn't see it coming, either.

I stand by my previous late night blurry eyed partly stoned review.