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04 March 2007
Me, You and Everyone We Know.....→[More:]Holy Gods, what a heinous film that was. I invite your commentary.
Avoid, avoid, avoid - this movie is everything that makes indie films bad: shock tactic plotting, a pace that is gla-c-ial, everything is drenched in ironic detachment, shitty camera angles and framing, and characters that have no soul. It's a miserable, miserable movie.
I loved Me and You and Everyone We Know. . .we own it, or at least Daughter does. I guess it comes down to whether you are into Miranda July and her art, or not.
So one voice here that it's worth renting. . .There are no space battles in this film, so that might be a putoff for some people.
(And I hated I heart Huckabees and Lost in Translation)
I loved Magnolia. After the first time watching it, the music grates on my nerves. The music is beautiful, but I hated that it lasted more than half of the movie. My brain was exhausted.
I liked Lost in Translation. The Royal Tenenbaums? Awesome. I haven't seen I Heart Huckabees. The husband loves Life Aquatic, I think it's watchable, not my favorite. I think one of the writers of Life Aquatic wrote The Squid and the Whale. Squid is a great movie.
The "pooping back and forth" salvaged it for me, but then i adore Wes Anderson, was disappointed by Magnolia, amused by huckabees and mildly enchanted by LiT except i kept thinking it need to be on a big screen as i was missing out on something.
People who hate I ♥ Huckabees are the reason I could never make it as a successful philosopher-clown. Chuckles, the Existentialist Goofball, we hardly knew ye.
Life Aquatic is on the list of "WTF this sucks, eject, ejeeeeect" list. LiT was slow, but I thought it was interesting. But not interesting enough to watch more than once.
1. I Heart Huckabees - Hollywood tries for indie weirdness, fails, bores. Smarmy film.
2. Lost in Translation - slow, but graceful. Like watching old people dance to the standards. Loved it.
3. The Life Aquatic - a miss for Wes Anderson. Everything else he's ever made was fantastic. Tenenbaums, Rushmore, Bottle Rocket: must-owns, every one.
4. Magnolia - a decent enough movie that sorely needed an editor. You could have hacked an entire reel off of that turkey and made a passable movie.
5. Me, You, and Everyone We Know - an angry little movie. I cringed at it or was alternately bored. One of the rare films where I just wanted everyone in the movie to just stop talking. I could find more alienation and despair by going to my local laundromat.
While the filmmaking, technically was not great, here is what I really liked about it:
1. The scene where the two protagonists are walking down the street, having just met, and they are playing out their relationship. I thought it was brilliant.
2. Anyone who has ever felt that they have reached a point of intimacy with someone online can relate, and cringe, I think, while watching how it plays out here. I think it was fall-on-the-floor funny, including the ultimate rl meetup.
I think one of the writers of Life Aquatic wrote The Squid and the Whale. Squid is a great movie.
Yeah, Noah Baumbach co-wrote Life Aquatic with Wes Anderson and wrote and directed Squid. I liked Squid too. But I have no love for Life Aquatic. However, I've dug Anderson's other movies--I tend to agree with this Slate article's take on what Owen Wilson brings to as a co-writer to Wes Anderson (FYI: Wilson co-wrote Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums and Bottle Rockets with Anderson).
I've tried to enjoy "Bottle Rocket" on several different occasions. And while there are parts of it that I like, the whole movie leaves me somewhat wanting.