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1-20 of 119 articles from 2009 « Prev | Next »
Best of the Decade #4: Lost in Translation (2003)
24 December 2009 10:16 AM, PST
| FilmJunk
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After a promising directorial debut with The Virgin Suicides, Sofia Coppola proved it was no fluke when her follow-up film, the 2003 masterpiece Lost in Translation became something of a phenomenon. It opened in just 23 theatres, but it ended up grossing almost $120 million worldwide. Coppola had officially stepped out of her father's shadow and found her own voice, but she also established herself as one of the most exciting and prominent female directors working today.
A lot of disparate things came together to make this movie such a huge success, but there's no question that one of the most important decisions Coppola made was casting Bill Murray as washed-up movie star Bob Harris. The story goes that he was a difficult man to track down, despite the fact that his career had been revived (and somewhat transformed) with Wes Anderson's Rushmore, but Sofia Coppola's persistence paid off (both for
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- Sean
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Their Best Role: Bill Murray
23 December 2009 10:20 AM, PST
| Cinematical
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At first Bill Murray was a goofball, a lounge singer or a guy that tried to blow up a gopher. Graduating to movie stardom, he soon found a style of detached cool that worked like gangbusters, or ghostbusters. In movies like Stripes and Ghostbusters, he would make wry comments while the rest of his co-stars acted their parts; he rarely got involved in the drama. But it worked. A decade later, however, he could be seen giving an actual performance in Wes Anderson's Rushmore (1998). He was still funny, but he found a real emotional connection with his co-stars, and he was touching. From there, you could easily look back and find other moments of greatness: his bit parts in films like Tootsie, Ed Wood, Kingpin and Wild Things, his abrasive gangster in Mad Dog and Glory, in the very dark, anxious and underrated Quick Change, which was his directorial
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- Jeffrey M. Anderson
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Best of the Decade #7: Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
21 December 2009 10:20 AM, PST
| FilmJunk
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The #7 film on Film Junk’s list is a recent favorite, and as such is probably at a higher ranking than it would be had it come out years before. Regardless, I am very pleased that despite the gang’s split votes regarding the decade’s animation, Fantastic Mr. Fox has emerged as a consensus pick, allowing us one more chance to pimp this thing out while it is still in theaters.
As the decade began, Wes Anderson was King Shit of Indie Mountain, coming off of the modest success of Bottle Rocket and the breakout of Rushmore. While The Royal Tenenbaums was still well loved, for others it opened the door to the criticisms that continued to dog the new auteur throughout the decade: a reliance on the same themes of rich kids with daddy issues, Futura, old LPs, and senseless character quirks. To make things worse, Wes was
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- Goon
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The Fantastic in 'Mr. Fox'
17 December 2009 6:15 PM, PST
| The Wrap
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By Mali Perl
I think that Wes Anderson, and in particular Wes Anderson movies, are a love-it-or-hate-it kind of thing.
Either you find his point of view unique and charming or irritatingly precious. There’s really no in-between.
While I’m firmly on Team Anderson (the shirts are artistically rendered and the cheers are quite literate), I can see the other point of view.
"Bottle Rocket," his first movie, stands alone in look but has the same tone and topics as his other movies. "Rushmore" was the opening act, a taste of things to come.
"Th
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- Lisa Horowitz
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Best of the Decade #13: The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
11 December 2009 7:11 AM, PST
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After his initial breakout in the '90s with Bottle Rocket and Rushmore, Wes Anderson went into the beginning of this decade riding high on critical acclaim and ready to break into the mainstream. For his third feature film, he would deliver his most ambitious and emotionally complex project to date: The Royal Tenenbaums.
A massive cast jam-packed with talented actors that had largely been forgotten (Gene Hackman, Danny Glover, Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray), along with some current stars (Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller), and a few familiar faces from Anderson's previous films (Kumar Pallana), made for an amazing ensemble of characters based loosely on J.D. Salinger's Glass family.
Some have called this Wes Anderson's ultimate masterpiece, and while I don't entirely agree, there is a lot to appreciate in this melancholy yet darkly comedic tale of a dysfunctional family trying to sort itself out. It became clear with
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- Sean
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Film Junk Podcast Episode #246: Steven Seagal: Lawman
7 December 2009 12:50 AM, PST
| FilmJunk
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0:00 - Intro / In-House Stuff
3:25 - Top 20 Films of the Decade: Spider-Man 2, Anvil! The Story of Anvil, Little Children
22:25 - Headlines: Paul Greengrass Drops Bourne 4, Spielberg Drops Harvey Remake, Entourage Movie, The Birds Remake Gets New Director, P.T. Anderson's Next Film, Tim Burton's Frankenweenie Remake, The Black Hole Remake, Universal's Blu-ray DVD Combo Discs
37:00 - Review: Steven Seagal: Lawman
57:10 - Other Stuff We Watched: Amores Perros, George Washington, The Brothers Bloom, The Limits of Control, Dragonheart, Turtles Forever, ** Greg's Story **, Huie’s Sermon, Shadows, Day for Night, Contempt, Rushmore
1:38:55 - Feature: The Films of Wes Anderson
2:10:00 - Junk Mail: Jay Dismisses Fantastic Mr. Fox, Antichrist as Porn, Movies That Tell a Story Without Dialogue, CG vs Practical Effects, Krull Board Game, People Who Give Good Commentaries
2:41:20 - This Week's DVD Releases
2:42:22 - Outro
» Download
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- Sean
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Top of the class: the five best boarding-school movies
5 December 2009 4:10 PM, PST
| The Guardian - Film News
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If… (15) Lindsay Anderson, 1968 Starring Malcolm McDowell
Made in the heady days of global unrest and protest, Anderson's boarding-school flick caught the mood of anti-establishment disaffection. Its exotic flourishes – making out with a libidinous waitress; gunning down the faculty with weapons stolen from the cadet force armoury – fuelled the fantasies of rebellious schoolboys everywhere.
Best scene
College House listens in uncomfortable silence as Travis (McDowell) is given a brutal caning by the head whip.
Flirting (15) John Duigan, 1991
Starring Noah Taylor, Thandie Newton
"One thing about boarding school, 24 hours a day, you're surrounded," begins misfit Taylor, stuck in a rural Australian boys' school in 1965. "Either you abandon yourself and become a herd animal, or dig deeper into your head and skulk inside." Taylor finds a different path when he discovers love with Newton from a nearby girls' school.
Best scene
Taylor defends his girlfriend's honour, in the boxing ring against the school's top pugilist.
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Movie Review - 'Fantastic Mr. Fox'
4 December 2009 1:45 AM, PST
| GetTheBigPicture.net
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Fantastic Mr. Fox
Starring George Clooney, Meryl Streep, and Jason Schwartzman
Directed by Wes Anderson
Rated PG
Somehow, Wes Anderson has brought a very familiar story by Roald Dahl into his own idiosyncratic filmmaking style, and while
Fantastic Mr. Fox is a stop-motion animated story of a fox and his war with three human farmers, this is as much a Wes
Anderson movie as Rushmore or The Royal Tenenbaums.
That also means it's a bit of a reworking of Dahl's original, but as with any good adaptation, it does exactly that:
Fantastic Mr. Fox is Wes Anderson's interpretation of the story, refitted to his own unique approach.
The nuts and bolts of the story are mostly unchanged: Fox (George Clooney) robs three evil farmers, Boggis, Bunce, and Bean of
their wares. It's primarily stuff you'd expect a fox to steal, like chickens, but Fox loves the art of the
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- Colin Boyd
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Fantastic Mr. Fox Review
2 December 2009 4:35 PM, PST
| ScreenRant.com
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Short Version: Fantastic Mr. Fox is a pleasantly surprising film that is odd, witty, and probably more fun for adults than kids.
Screen Rant Reviews Fantastic Mr. Fox
I am not a Wes Anderson fan. Rushmore didn’t make me swoon; The Royal Tenenbaums made me groan; The Life Aquatic was no “masterpiece” far as I could tell and I didn’t even bother with The Darjeeling Limited. In fact, everything Anderson has done after Bottle Rocket has ultimately fallen on my cinematic bad side. Hearing his name brought up in classrooms and discussed as if he is the Shakespeare of cinema has only compounded that antagonism. If we were to play the word association game and you said “Wes Anderson” my immediate response would likely be “Pretentious and overrated.”
I went to see Fantastic Mr. Fox because, frankly, somebody on the site needed to review it. I wasn’t expecting much.
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- Kofi Outlaw
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New TV Shows To Be Thankful for In 2009! ABC Brings Us 4 New Shows We Love But Fox’s Glee Takes Top Spot!
29 November 2009 5:34 PM, PST
| FusedFilm
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Well ABC seemed to be out in the lead for having the most shows we were thankful for in 2009 with 4 of their new shows making our list. In second place was the USA channel with 2, while Syfy, Fox, HBO and NBC all had 1 on the list as well. I was surprised that CBS didn’t make our list but with so many already good shows previous to 2009 they didn’t have to add a lot to their programming schedule. Glee got our top spot while Flashforward barely made the list.
1. Glee
Couldn’t think of any other show to go here than this one. A complete surprise this musical dramedy series from of all people, Ryan Murphy, the guy who brought us Nip/Tuck. This series is a massive 180 from his repetoire but thats okay because we love it. Everything from the weekly musical selections, to the talented group of
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- Kevin Coll
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New Fantastic Mr. Fox TV Spot
28 November 2009 11:01 PM, PST
| ShockYa
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Watch a brand new TV spot for the film “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” by director Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums) based on the book by Roald Dahl. The film featuring the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, and Jason Schwartzman.
Synopsis: “Boggis and Bunce and Bean, One short, one fat, one lean. These horrible crooks, so different in looks, were nonetheless equally mean.”
Mr. Fox, Mrs. Fox, and all their fox babies live under a hill under a tree, along with Badger, Rabbit, Weasel, and all of their families. To make ends meet, every night, Mr. Fox steals a meal from one of the three crooked farmers–Boggis, [...]
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- Brian Corder
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Fantastic Mr. Fox Review
28 November 2009 11:57 AM, PST
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After a short scene in 2004’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou utilizing the stop motion animations of Henry Selick, filmmaker Wes Anderson aimed to combine the technique with his usual cleverness for a full-length narrative. Anderson’s first animated film and an adaptation of British author Roald Dahl’s beloved book is short of fantastic.
Fantastic Mr. Fox frolics somewhere in between Anderson’s signature style and a mainstream production, an awkward mix of dry humor and childlike whimsy that tiptoes the line between age groups. It’s not without its plucky delights, but the gags are scattered through a wholly self-indulgent farce.
Written with Life Aquatic co-writer Noah Baumbach, the eccentric tone and vibrant, artistic flourishes are characteristic Anderson, and it’s autumnal color scheme is a nice touch for the vintage look and indie feel.
The painstaking craftsmanship is to be appreciated. A crew assembled incredible sequences
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- Jeff Leins
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Wes Anderson Interview Fantastic Mr. Fox
27 November 2009 2:41 PM, PST
| Collider.com
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I absolutely loved director Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. The film is his first foray into stop-motion animation and it’s like he brought the genre to him rather than attempting to adapt to the genre. Trust me; if you’re a fan of his previous work like Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, you’re going to love this movie.
As most of you know, Fantastic Mr. Fox is based on the best-selling children’s book by Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach) and it features the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Wally Wolodarsky, Eric Anderson, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe, and Owen Wilson. But unlike some animated movies that cast famous actors to help sell tickets, everyone who provides a voice is perfect in this film. Again, this is a great movie
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- Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub
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The Fantastic Mister Fox Review
26 November 2009 8:23 AM, PST
| Twitch
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[What can I say ... there are a lot of people here with opinions on Wes Anderson's latest creation. Our thanks to regular reader and occasional contributor Charles Webb for the following.]
Twelve years ago (fox years, that is) Mr. Fox (George Clooney) swore to Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep) that he would give up stealing chickens and settle down on account of the little one in the Missus's belly. Flash forward to the present and Mr. Fox has his sights set on a new home and one last score in this adaptation of the Roald Dahl story by Wes Anderson. Does this stop motion animated tale work within the rarefied universe of Anderson's other works or does it just come off as stiff?
To be honest the movie just works. An astute synthesis of technique and talent brings to life what could have easily been another "bad dad" tale (Rushmore, Royal Tennebaums, The Life Aquatic) from Anderson. Anderson's output has consisted of fractured or at least damaged families in crisis with a subset of films centering on a father or father figure
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Interview: Wes Anderson Talks Fantastic Mr. Fox
26 November 2009 3:00 AM, PST
| Slash Film
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Last month, while I was in London, I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to filmmaker Wes Anderson (Rushmore, Bottle Rocket, Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic) about his new film, the stop-motion animated adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox. Yesterday we posted our interview with Jason Schwartzman. Today I bring you my interview with Wes, in which he discusses how he discovered Roald Dhal's book, the decision to shoot the film using stop-motion animation, the set of ruls he created for this film, and Anderson's take on the 3D movie craze.
This was filmed as a TV interivew at the London Film Festival junket, so it's much shorter than I'm use to, and a much different pace than a normal one on one print interview that has appeared on the site previously. Also of note, the interview was filmed at the Roald Dahl's esstate, The Gipsy House in Great Missenden.
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- Peter Sciretta
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Fantastic Mr. Fox
25 November 2009 9:44 AM, PST
| The Scorecard Review
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Fantastic Mr. Fox
Directed by: Wes Anderson
Cast: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Eric Anderson, Michael Gambon, Bill Murray
Running Time: 1 hr 27 mins
Rating: PG
Release Date: November 25, 2009
Plot: Based on the novel by Roald Dahl, and written for the screen by Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach comes the tale of Mr. Fox (Clooney). He tried to change his ways, but still wants to steal chickens and his actions get all the animals in town in trouble, even his own family.
Who’S It For? This film has the rare chance to impress the parents and entertain the kids. If you’re a Wes Anderson fan, you won’t be disappointed. I cuss you not.
Expectations: Rushmore is my favorite Anderson film, and I figured added voice work by Clooney and Streep couldn’t possibly be a negative. Yeah, I was excited.
Scorecard (0-10)
Actors:
George Clooney as Mr.
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- Jeff Bayer
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Review: Fantastic Mr Fox
25 November 2009 4:05 AM, PST
| WeAreMovieGeeks.com
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Fantastic Mr Fox is very mildly fantastic. That’s not a knock. The film is great, but it’s great in a subtle kind of way. It’s an understated comedy that can satisfy audiences both young and old. Adapted for the screen from Roald Dahl’s classic children’s book. He’s also the writer who concocted such great classic tales as Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and James And The Giant Peach, both of which have had their moments on screen as well.
The film also takes on the uniquely awkward and quirky dimensions that form within the mind of writer-director Wes Anderson. In case you have no idea who that is, Wes Anderson is the marvelous filmmaker who began with Bottle Rockets (some of you may still have puzzled looks on your faces) but went on to make Rushmore. There we go! That’s the big “Aha!
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- Travis
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Fantastic Mr. Fox Whackbat Featurette
23 November 2009 11:35 PM, PST
| ShockYa
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Producer Jeremy Dawson describes the evolution of whackbat, the sport of choice. “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” by director Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums) is based on the book by Roald Dahl. The film featuring the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, and Jason Schwartzman.
Synopsis: “Boggis and Bunce and Bean, One short, one fat, one lean. These horrible crooks, so different in looks, were nonetheless equally mean.”
Mr. Fox, Mrs. Fox, and all their fox babies live under a hill under a tree, along with Badger, Rabbit, Weasel, and all of their families. To make ends meet, every night, Mr. Fox steals a meal from one of [...]
»
- Brian Corder
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Jason Schwartzman Interview for "Fantastic Mr. Fox"
23 November 2009 10:19 AM, PST
| Manny the Movie Guy
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I love "Fantastic Mr. Fox!" And I equally love talking with Jason Schwartzman ("Rushmore," "The Darjeeling Limited"). He provides the voice of Ash, the son of Mr. Fox (George Clooney) and Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep).
We talked about:
His involvement with the film
His character Ash
The moral of the story
How long did he work in the project
The secret of the production
Working with Wes Anderson in an animated setting
Have Fun!
Here's more info about the film from Yahoo:
Cast and Credits
Starring: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Wallace Wolodarsky
Directed by: Wes Anderson
Produced by: Steven M. Rales, Arnon Milchan, Scott Rudin
Mr and Mrs Fox live an idyllic home life with their son Ash and visiting young nephew Kristopherson. But after 12 years, the bucolic existence proves too much for Mr Fox's wild animal instincts. Soon he slips back into his old ways
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- Manny
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Interview: Jason Schwartzman
22 November 2009 11:02 AM, PST
| Cinematical
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Personally speaking, I've been a fan of Jason Schwartzman since he and writer-director Wes Anderson collaborated on Rushmore and created what I still think is a definitive portrait of the beautiful torment of teenage life. While of course Anderson and co-writer Owen Wilson conceived the ideas, Schwartzman fleshed them out both literally and emotionally, offering a character that was weird and idiosyncratic but also remarkably relatable, not the least of which because it seemed like the actor was going through many of the same things as his on screen counterpart.
Eleven years later, Schwartzman has matured into one of the most versatile and interesting actors in Hollywood, even if, as he himself puts it, he isn't yet able to "get a part like someone can order a pizza." His latest film reunites him with Anderson for the fourth time, playing another kid who's growing up way too fast in Fantastic Mr. Fox.
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- Todd Gilchrist
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