TheRetroCritic

The Squid And The Whale was Noah Baumbach's first big hit as director and put him on the map as one of the new indie filmmakers to look out for. The film, which was co-produced by Wes Anderson, was a short-and-sweet look at a dysfunctional family in the 80's. This was obviously a personal story for Baumbach to tell and he puts the awkwardness of having your parents go through a divorce and having to grow-up during that time across extremely well. These characters are, in part, cruel and selfish and, in part, likeable and naive so you can't help but identify with them a little bit, even when they're at their worst. As the pretentious loser father Bernard, Jeff Daniels is spot-on: the character's sheer inability to not think about himself for one second, the fact everything he says to his kids is wholly inappropriate, that he doesn't even treat his son's new girlfriend to lunch and his questionable relationship with Anna Paquin's student makes him pr

Wes Anderson's debut feature, Bottle Rocket may have very little to do with bottles or rockets but, what it is, is a cool cult indie movie which introduced us to both Owen and Luke Wilson so that should soothe your bottle and rocket disappointment. Based on the director's own short of the same name, Bottle Rocket is actually a heist movie with a difference. That difference is that it involves two quirky dudes mostly in the game for the hell of it. They treat robbing like it's a legitimate career and get off on the rebellious thrills when they're clearly not cut out for a life of crime. We're first introduced to Luke Wilson's character Anthony as he gets ready to leave a psychiatric hospital: he's a mild-mannered, harmless-looking guy with nothing in his life except the will to make his career as a burglar work, even if he does mostly steal from family members, and his over-keen brother Dignan (Owen Wilson). The latter takes every single thing very seri

Ever since Rushmore , Bill Murray has starred in every single Wes Anderson film to date. Sometimes fleetingly, sometimes, like in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou , in the main role. Re-watching the latter, you really do wish that the actor tackled more roles like this one these days. The film sees a Jacques Cousteau-esque oceanographer, Steve Zissou (Murray), announce at a film festival that he's planning to seek revenge from a "Jaguar Shark" whom, he claims, ate his friend Esteban. His faithful red hat-wearing team and new recruit Ned (Owen Wilson), who may or may not be Zissou's biological son, follow him on this quest which proves to be his biggest challenge yet. The Life Aquatic is Wes Anderson at his very best as an all-star cast brings his razor-sharp script (co-written by Noah Baumbach) to life and he, with the help of stop-motion maestro Henry Selick, creates a unique visual style that's both more down-to-Earth than, say, the more obviously cartoon