From ‘Bottle Rocket’ to ‘Moonrise Kingdom’: Ranking the Films of Wes Anderson

Before re-watching all of Anderson’s films this was the only one I had never seen all the way through. In fact, some time back in 2003 or so, I sat down with a friend that loved this film and within 15 minutes had lost all interest. He was laughing, I was not. I’m not sure if I wasn’t in the mood or what the reason was, but I wasn’t feeling it.

Fast forward to 2012 and I still hadn’t yet seen it, a problem remedied by my little project here and I can safely say now this is my least favorite film by Wes Anderson, but I don’t say this with any measure of dislike. One thing I learned watching all seven of his films back-to-back was how much one feeds into the next and how great Anderson is with characters. He loves his characters and understands and respects them. Each is given enough time to be liked, disliked and appreciated and with a cast of characters such as The Royal Tenenbaums carries that’s important.

Outside of my thoughts on the film, I think the one thing that struck me watching Tenenbaums was the performance of Gene Hackman, an actor that left his mark on cinema and stepped away before ever devolving into the kind of paycheck performances we see from the likes of Robert De Niro nowadays. I also couldn’t help but wonder if Luke Wilson is only best suited for Anderson films. The guy is great here, in what I’d say is Anderson’s darkest feature for sure, and a lot of that comes from Wilson’s character when Gwyneth Paltrow isn’t pouting around as Margot.

I could continue… I love Danny Glover and the “fight” between his Henry Sherman and Hackman’s Royal in the kitchen is excellent and even Ben Stiller is agreeable in this flick. Like I said, I don’t dislike it, it’s just the one that falls on the bottom of my list.

I have a good feeling this film doesn’t rank higher for me primarily because of how a different friend of mine told me how much he loved it. In fact, before I ever saw Rushmore, he had recorded his favorite line from the film off his television, onto his cell phone and used it as a ringer. You couldn’t understand a word of what was being said, but when someone loves a film that much you can’t help but build it up in your mind, almost guaranteeing a major letdown.

To no surprise, the first time I saw Rushmore was a letdown. I found it humorous, but I was waiting for the guttural laughs. The problem is, this is the wrong way to approach any of Anderson’s films. They aren’t about big hearty laughs and punchlines that are good only once. It’s more about timing, curious characters, different and yet the same as all of us. He creates films you can return to and not necessarily find something new, but continually find the same amusement in scenes that worked well the first time and likely additional entertainment in areas where you first weren’t all that interested.

Rushmore, I’m convinced, will be a film I will grow to love more and more the more I see it. I did find one thing out while watching this once again. After I finished watching, I listened to the audio commentary on the Criterion Blu-ray and it is a knock-out. Give it a listen if you haven’t already.