“Bottle Rocket” (1996)
Bottle Rocket was the feature-film debut of oddball director Wes Anderson and his childhood friends Luke and Owen Wilson, the latter of whom shared writing duties, on this and Anderson’s subsequent critical darlings Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums. They began with a short they showed at Sundance to get financing and went on to make this film.
As usual the Criterion Collection has done a bang-up job on the dvd of this film. The images are sharply transferred, the cover art is well matched to the film’s weird tone, and the plentiful extras include copies of Owen Wilson’s character Dignan’s hilarious notebook. (link from I Watch Stuff)
Dignan plans to pull off a heist and go on the lam with his recently released-from-the-nuthouse friend Anthony (Luke Wilson) and his curiously named friend Bob Mapplethorpe. The dialogue is fast and strange in a story more about the long-term realities of childhood friendships than armed robbery.
Here are just a few of the key ingredients: dynamite, pole vaulting, laughing gas, choppers - can you see how incredible this is going to be? - hang gliding, come on!
Dignan tries hard to act tough. Anthony projects vulnerability but clearly wants to protect Dignan from further injury in life. And Bob gets regularly beaten up by his older brother, played by a third Wilson brother, Andrew. This is sweet, funny, and just sad enough. I was thoroughly charmed.
April 7th, 2009 at 9:56 am
CA-CAW! CA-CAW!
April 7th, 2009 at 10:13 am
Happy birthday, Kirk.