The Royal Tenenbaums

The Royal Tenenbaums
January 4, 2002
Touchstone
Comedy
DVD
B

This is the only Wes Anderson movie I own, though I've seen others.  At that, this Criterion edition was a gift.  I liked the movie when it came out and I still like it.  I admire the attention to detail and the offbeat sense of humor, and sense of everything else.  But it's not really a movie I can warm up to.  In fact, I probably like it better in pieces-- from the game closet to individual lines-- more than I do as a whole.    Anderson wanted to make it a New York movie in a literary, almost fairytale, way, and so this is and is not the New York that was or was about to be shattered by September 11th.  It is a very visual, almost theatrical movie, and yet it also feels like J.D. Salinger and John Irving collaborated on a reboot of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

Luke Wilson is almost unrecognizable here compared to in Legally Blonde, particularly when he's got long hair, a beard, and sunglasses.  Gwyneth Paltrow is much better here than she was as Emma, with a very deadpan delivery.  Bill Murray's role as Paltrow's husband, Raleigh St. Clair, is far from my favorite, but as always he adds something to the proceedings.  I don't have Owen Wilson in any of my other movies, but it is interesting how he (in a script he cowrote with Anderson) plays a family friend, while Ben Stiller (in a curly wig and red jumpsuit) plays the other Tenenbaum child.

William Sturgis was Elliot's Analyst in Hannah and Her Sisters and is Franklin Benedict here.  Andrew Wilson (older brother to Luke and Owen) was a School Guard in Never Been Kissed and plays both Farmer Father and Tex Hayward here.  Kevin Kean Murphy, who's an Archaeologist here, would be an Interview subject in Kinsey.  Lian Moy is a Patron here and would be a Student in School of Rock.  Amir Raissi, who's one of Eli's Egyptian Friends, would be a dancer in Enchanted.

The real star of the movie is the house.

High Fidelity

High Fidelity
March 31, 2000
Touchstone
Comedy, Romance
DVD
A

As I said in my review of the book, http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2013/09/high-fidelity.html, this is an example of how sometimes the movie is better than the book.  I have seen this movie in a revival theater with a very appreciative crowd and I have seen it by myself, and I think I've seen it with one or two boyfriends.  It remains wise, silly, romantic, cynical, and endlessly quotable.  ("Kathleen Turner Overdrive" is funnier in itself than the average full-length comedy, and that's just one throwaway gag.)  Now that I have my own (failing) business, I can appreciate the film on yet another level.  The performances are great, not just those I tagged but just about everyone in the movie.  But, yes, John Cusack, who also co-wrote and co-produced the film, manages to be Everyman and a music geek at the same time.  His sister Joan is perfect as his sort of ex's friend Liz.  Jack Black gives a tour de force (and force of nature) performance as over-the-top Barry (one of the "musical moron twins" who work in Rob's store).  And Tim Robbins, in a ponytail, hits just the right notes as Ian/Ray.

In fact, the film is so wonderful I really don't know what to add except that I thoroughly enjoyed it.  As with the other two A's (Some Like It Hot and Groundhog Day), I don't know what would make it into an A+.  Maybe if the ending were a little tighter (or rather the lead-up to it), since it feels like the movie is going to have a neat Hollywood ending, but then it changes gears to give a more complex and happier ending.  This is a quibble though, and I could make others, but if the film teaches us anything it's that things don't have to be perfect to be wonderful.

Marilyn Dodds Frank plays Alison's Mom and would be Woman Who Bought Television in The 40-Year-Old Virgin.  Penny Marshall allegedly is one of the people at the funeral.

Note, as with my book blog, I'm using "2000s" to mean anything from Y2K onward, because I honestly haven't even seen that many new movies in the last few years, so I understandably don't own many from the current decade.

10 Things I Hate About You

10 Things I Hate About You
March 31, 1999
Touchstone
Comedy, Romance
VHS
B

This is a very '90s teen rom-com, based on The Taming of the Shrew, and even that inspiration is very '90s.  (Cf. not only Clueless, but She's All That, She's the Man, etc.)  Because it's the '90s, the "shrew" is refreshingly the most sympathetic character and she's not so much tamed as gentled by being treated with respect and affection, as well as a marching-band-backed serenade.  It helps that "tamed" and "tamer" are played by a charismatic and intelligent pair, Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger (before he hit it big and then died young).  Also the dialogue and acting are above average for the genre.  (Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith would also co-write Legally Blonde.)  I would've of course liked to have seen more of Allison Janney as Ms. Perky, the guidance counselor who writes bodice-rippers on her office laptop.  The Seattle setting and the soundtrack are also uber-'90s, from the sight of the Space Needle and the sound of Bare Naked Ladies' "One Week" onward.  There are a lot of Renaissance/Shakespeare touches in the film, from sets to dialogue to last names.  If I can't rate the movie higher, it's that it never reaches the dizzy heights of Clueless or Romy & Michele.  However, it will look like, well, Shakespeare compared to the next movie....