THE BEST OF 2012: THE RUNNERS UP

Well, there goes another twelve months.  Just like last year, I've put together a top 20 film list, but--yet again--that's not nearly enough space to fit in all the great films from last year (truth be told, I winnowed that list down from well over 40 films worthy of consideration), so here are, in no particular order, the runners up.

Some readers may point out that a few of the titles on this list AND the top 20 list were produced and/or released somewhere in 2011.  Here's the thing: this blog is being written in Portland, OR.  So, sure, some of these films toured the festival circuit in 2011 or had an Oscar qualifying run in NY or L.A. in final weeks that year, but, unless it opened in PDX before 2012, it's eligible for the best of 2012 list.  Yup.  Well, now that we've covered that minor detail, on with the show.


Bullhead (dir. Michaël R. Roskam):

Michaël R. Roskam's Bullhead subverts expectations surrounding how a mob film should play out, emphasizing the damage that lies in its protagonist's past over any of his present concerns, no matter how largely they may loom.  Matthias Schoenaerts portrayal of hormone addled mobster Jacky Vanmarsenille, as a lumbering giant with scars that will never heal, powers the film.  Bullhead dons the wardrobe of a crime thriller, but its concerns are that of a character-driven drama.

Read my review of Bullhead here.

Bullhead is available on DVD & Blu-ray and can be streamed via Netflix and Amazon Instant Video.


The Deep Blue Sea (dir. Terence Davies):

  
The level to which The Deep Blue Sea visually approximates the emotional distress of Rachel Weisz' Hester is both astounding and profoundly disturbing.  Terence Davies' camera spins frightfully fast down an ecstatic whirlpool as Hester falls deeper into an affair that threatens to be her undoing.  Elsewhere, all sense of time is frozen in amber as an unyielding depression overcomes her.  The Deep Blue Sea is romantic in the same way that Romeo and Juliet is, describing a feeling of love so intense that the suggestion of its denial is synonymous with one's own death.

Read my review of The Deep Blue Sea here.

The Deep Blue Sea is available on DVD & Blu-ray and can be streamed via Netflix and Amazon Instant Video.


Moonrise Kingdom (dir. Wes Anderson):

Wes Anderson's films tend to be overly designed, and that's at times both the major strength and weakness of his work.  His best films match the fussy visual organization with an equal amount of emotional heft, raising the material to awe-inspiring levels of storytelling.  Moonrise Kingdom offers a well-balanced recipe of both ingredients, resulting in Anderson's best film since The Royal Tenenbaums.

Moonrise Kingdom is available on DVD & Blu-ray and can be streamed via Amazon Instant Video and VUDU.


The Queen of Versailles (dir. Lauren Greenfield):

The nouveau riche have never looked so vulgar as they do in Lauren Greenfield's documentary The Queen of Versailles.  But the harsh truth is that the Siegel family is uniquely American in their desires.  The film ends up being a spot on (and oddly amusing) indictment of consumer drive flying in the face of bottom line truths, something that just about any post-recession American can relate to, even if the levels of excess on display here are particularly outsized in their grotesquery.

The Queen of Versailles is available on DVD & Blu-ray and can be streamed via Netflix and Amazon Instant Video.

  
Declaration of War (dir. Valérie Donzelli):

   
I've found it really difficult to convince people that they should give Valérie Donzelli's second feature a chance.  It's not because tons of viewer saw her first film as a director (2009's Queen of Hearts) and didn't like it.  Nope, it's due entirely to three little words: kid with cancer.  

Yeah, that's a scary prospect and a topic that most folks would rather not think about at all.  But Declaration of War does an amazing thing with the premise; it doesn't make it about the kid.  The entire film rests on the relationship of the adults dealing with this crisis and it's a refreshing, energetic, sometimes heartbreaking, but often funny turn away from the standard tropes employed in just about any film dealing with illness and terminal diseases.  Plainly put, this movie rocks.

Read my review of Declaration of War here. 

Declaration of War is available on DVD and can be streamed via Netflix and Amazon Instant Video.


The Imposter (dir. Bart Layton):

Bart Layton's non-fiction film The Imposter pissed more than a few people off last year.  Constructed out of reenactments matched with interviews, the film strategically discloses the details of its story in guarded chunks that only tell part of the story.  Layton uses this method of delaying information to pile up the twists in the plot and that's where he got into trouble with some audience members.  Personally, I found the technique perfectly matched to the material, so I didn't mind the manipulation at all.  In its finest moments, The Imposter resembles Errol Morris' Tabloid, even as it aspires to be a 21st century version of The Thin Blue Line.

Read my review of The Imposter here.

The Imposter will be released on DVD on January 22nd and can be streamed now via Amazon Instant Video.


We Need to Talk About Kevin (dir. Lynne Ramsay):

It had been nearly a decade since Lynne Ramsay released Movern Callar, only her second film after her 1999 debut with Ratcatcher.  I'm not really sure what other people expected of her third film, We Need to Talk About Kevin, but, while working my final months as a video store clerk, it became pretty apparent that many viewers were disappointed by the film.  

I found We Need to Talk About Kevin to be pitch perfect, as it traces not only the contours of the specific relationship being described here--a terrible proximity to an inexorable violent atrocity--but also captures a hint of what it is that we're all unable to come to grips with when facing down such tragedies.  It all plays out like an unending nightmare where time is rendered an ineffective healer and the unspeakable continually loops back into memory.

We Need to Talk About Kevin is available on DVD & Blu-ray and can be streamed via Amazon Instant Video.


The Color Wheel (dir. Alex Ross Perry):

Alex Ross Perry's The Color Wheel isn't just a harbinger of great things to come from its director.  It's a pretty damn perfect stab at the big time from all the way down in the mumblecore gutter.  Featuring sometimes brilliant, sometimes shaky performances from Perry and co-star/co-author Carlen Altman, it's the writing, sense of timing, and chemistry between the leads that launches the film beyond the limitations of its budget and the experience of its makers.  A very funny film that I've thought about often throughout the year.

Read my review of The Color Wheel here.

The Color Wheel is due out on DVD soon and can be streamed currently via Amazon Instant Video.


Love Free or Die (dir. Macky Alston):

Mediated events on the national and/or international scale are so often blown out of proportion that they lose all trace of the human element.  Macky Alston's Love Free or Die, about Gene Robinson's ordination as the first openly gay bishop of the Episcopal Church, rescues its story from the dehumanizing effects of the sound byte.  The tale of a everyday individual becoming something much more.

Read my review of Love Free or Die here. 

Love Free or Die is scheduled for release on DVD and VOD (video on demand) in 2013.


Snowtown (dir. Justin Kurzel):

Snowtown, or The Snowtown Murders, as it's been renamed for its release on home video, was probably the most disturbing film I watched during 2012.  It didn't help at all that I went into it with absolutely no idea that it was a serial killer flick (so, maybe, adding the word "murders" to the title is an appropriate move?) and that the only image I had to go on before the screening was a still from the film of kids eating ice cream on a street corner.  It was also undeniably well made, perfectly acted, and sported incredibly self-assured direction from first-timer Justin Kurzel. 

Read my review of Snowtown here. 

Snowtown is available on DVD & Blu-ray and can be streamed via Netflix and Amazon Instant Video.


Footnote (dir. Joseph Cedar):

Footnote locates a dark strain of comedy in the competitive (some might say spiteful) relationship between a father and son, Eliezer and Uriel Shkolnik, both of whom are Talmudic scholars.  Eliezer, the elder Shkolnik, is a hardcore researcher whose life-long efforts were undone by a competitor having stumbled upon the fruits of his labor through happenstance.  His son, Uriel, despite being more of a pop philosopher in his academic aims, is the Shkolnik gathering accolades while his Eliezer's contributions are all but forgotten.  The already nasty strain of resentment between them gets kicked up a level when an award intended for the son is mistakenly promised to his father.

Footnote is hilarious and uncomfortable, often in the same moment.  It's a focused, well-orchestrated comedy with more than its share of twists and turns.  Director Joseph Cedar (Beaufort) knows when to play up the drama and when to slice through it with a lunge of sharp-edged humor.

Footnote is available on DVD & Blu-ray and can be streamed via Amazon Instant Video and VUDU.


The Cabin in the Woods (dir. Drew Goddard):

Joss Whedon's The Avengers might have kicked up some dust at the box office this summer, but The Cabin in the Woods was the best movie he was involved with in 2012.  Directed by Drew Goddard and scripted by Whedon, Cabin takes the conventions of the standard horror film and turns them upside down, injecting both new life and a whole lot of intelligence into the proceedings.  This is one film where it's best to go in without knowing a single, goddamn thing in advance; all the better to discover its pleasures as they unfold across the screen.

The Cabin in the Woods is available on DVD & Blu-ray and can be streamed via Amazon Instant Video and VUDU.

 
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RING IN THE NEW YEAR WITH THE GRINDHOUSE SECRET MOVIE MARATHON

What better way to soothe your post-New Year's Eve noggin' than with a round of exploitation, grindhouse, and kung fu shot straight into your visual cortex via the Hollywood Theatre's 35mm projector?  Co-presented by the Grindhouse Film Festival and Kung Fu Theatre (both the creation of Hollywood head programmer Dan Halsted), there's a mysterious trio of cinematic treats awaiting all who assemble within the Hollywood's large downstairs auditorium--the New Year's Day Grindhouse Secret Movie Marathon!  3 films, 6 hours, a ton of old trailers, and there's absolutely no word in advance of what will be screening tomorrow.  But the mystery is all part of the fun.  Trust me, local movie nerds will be talking about this for months.

Here's what up, according to the folks behind the event:

The Grindhouse Film Festival and Kung Fu Theater present the New Year’s Day Grindhouse Secret Movie Marathon! Come spend your hangover with a triple feature of mind-blowing 70's cinema! We’re not telling anyone what’s playing, but it will all be from extremely rare 35mm prints. 

We’ll give a couple of clues: First up will be a movie with giant monsters battling and tearing the planet apart! The second movie is a gritty crime film that is one of the most underrated movies of the 1970's. The last movie will be an extremely rare kung fu film. 

Plenty of 35mm exploitation trailers before each movie too (blaxploitation trailers, horror trailers, kung fu trailers and more). There will also be a giveaway for one free pass to all Grindhouse Film Festival and Kung Fu Theater screenings in 2013! In order to win, you must watch all three movies. Tickets are only $10 for all three movies. The movies start at 3:00, 5:00 and 7:15.

The six-hour long Grindhouse Secret Movie Marathon happens on New Year's Day at the Hollywood Theatre beginning at 3pm.  More info available here.

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NOW, FORAGER: THERE'S A FUNGUS AMONG US

Now, Forager doesn't go a lot of new places.  Yes, as the title hints, it's about a couple who forages for wild mushrooms as a means of meager support, and I can't recall seeing any films about mushroom hunters in the past (no, I did not see Shrooms, but I get the impression it's about something else entirely).  But, much like the characters in their film, directors Jason Cortlund and Julia Halperin seem intent on returning to familiar patches of fertile ground; in the case of the filmmakers, it's earth that's been well plowed by similarly contemplative indie directors like Kelly Reichardt, Carlos Reygadas, Pedro González-Rubio, and others working within what A.O. Scott has termed the neo-neo realism movement. 

Lucien (Cortlund) and Regina (Tiffany Esteb) are moving in different directions in their marriage.  She's begun to tire of the small rewards that mushroom hunting brings them and is considering taking on a regular job in a small restaurant.  Meanwhile, Lucien stubbornly deflects Regina's dissatisfaction, hatching plans to risk what little stability they enjoy on a road trip to forage in unknown territories.  Cortlund and Halperin avoid hinging the film on the drama between the characters, choosing instead to display the couple's incompatibility through slow observation rather than with outward displays of their anger over it.  Now, Forager allows us to see these characters together and alone, offering up access to both private and shared moments.

The long periods of time spent solely with Lucien or Regina yield a sense that the problems they have together are present in their individual struggles outside the relationship.  Lucien, it seems, just doesn't play well with others,  while Regina's flexibility only goes so far when working an out-of-state cooking gig.  In both cases, these divergences from what appears to be the main story thread--the slow dissolution of their relationship--enrich our understanding of what's not expressed through words.  For a film with only a few small degrees of plot development, it's surprisingly effective at wielding those micro-shifts in the dynamic between the characters, their environment, and each other.

In many ways, Now, Forager unfolds as a paint-by-numbers, quiet indie meditation on the reasons why some relationships just don't pan out.  As it borrows liberally from a wealth of contemporary, low budget influences, many viewers won't be able to shake the feeling that they've seen multiple versions of this film before, but an overfamiliarity with the patterns and modes at play here won't spoil the best parts of an earnest little film that steers clear of being overwhelmed by the indie cliches it so wholeheartedly embraces.  It's a worthy, if not entirely original, view.

Now, Forager begins its run at Living Room Theaters on Friday, December 28th.  More info available here.

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THIS IS 40: SMUGGLING IN THE SERIOUS WITH THE VULGAR

With his latest film, Judd Apatow veers away from bromance-informed genre that he helped create with films like The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, but no one is going to mistake This is 40 for the work of anyone else.  The identifiable touchstones of Apatow's oeuvre, including the way the actors all seem to be ad-libbing their way through much of this loosely structured film, are all in place, as is his usual ensemble cast of friends and family.  Surprisingly, even though This is 40 may be the least focused film that Apatow has directed, it's rarely boring.  On the contrary, it's downright funny and, if the success of a comedy is measured in laughs (which, obviously, it should be), Apatow is still capable of churning out a guffaw-inducing winner.

Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann reprise their roles as Pete and Debbie from Knocked Up.  The handful of people who didn't see that earlier feature won't be left out in the cold; This is 40 operates as a stand-alone piece and absolutely no prior knowledge of the characters is necessary to follow the action.  As the film opens, Debbie's turning 40.  No one in her family (or at her ob/gyn's office, for that matter) is allowed to acknowledge this rite of passage.  As far as she's concerned, she's turning 38.  At the same time, Pete's stubbornly holding on to a dream from his youth, running a music label, which, unfortunately for him, means running it into the ground.  All of this leads to some serious friction in the couple's relationship, each one denying their own part in the mess that their marriage has become.

Like in most relationship comedies, the bad is exacerbated by lying (about money, parenting, etc.) and unreasonable expectations while the good drifts further out of sight.  For a film laid out in comedic dressing, there's quite a lot of serious adult issues being bandied about here.  Peter Pan syndrome, the loss of sexual spark, and issues of abandonment and resentment all get an airing and there are several times when things are more "real" than straight up funny.  What keeps it all afloat is the palpable suggestion that, despite their problems, Pete and Debbie have more together than just shared history and a couple of kids.  Rudd and Mann are fascinating to watch together, even when the material and the running time feels a little stretched.  They're supported by winning performances from Albert Brooks, John Lithgow, Jason Segal, and, especially, Chris O'Dowd.

The film ends up being less about how to resuscitate your life from what it's become and more about gaining perspective on what you might have been taking for granted.  There aren't a lot of raunchy comedies being made in Hollywood about entering middle age, but This is 40 suggests that there's more than enough material worth mining there.  Neither overly romantic, nor completely flighty in its aims, Apatow smuggles in the serious with the vulgar, producing a mixture that's characteristically juvenile while forwarding a more mature model of what he's previously made.  It's not perfect, but This is 40 is far from nonessential, proving worthy of a look, especially where his fans are concerned.

This is 40 opens at the Portland area theaters on Friday, December 21st.  More info available here.

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IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: IT'S A WONDERFUL SOCIALIST FANTASTY

In the past, I've shared a couple of old pieces that pre-date the blog.  There was this essay on one of my favorite films, Days of Heaven, that I'd completed as a student.  I also posted a rumination on Drugstore Cowboy that was cobbled together for a purpose outside of the blog.  Since the Hollywood Theatre is about to embark on a four day run of It's a Wonderful Life,  I've decided to go ahead and offer up an analysis of that film, written while in my final year at Marylhurst.  

Like the Days of Heaven piece, this one's definitely not a review, more of an examination of identifiable themes running below the surface of the film.  Reexamining the piece, I still like a lot of things about it and agree with most of what I had to say at the time, but it's definitely written in a voice that I rarely use anymore and it's hard to imagine that, if I were to write about the film again, I would employ the same strategy. 

Oh, and if you're one of the 3 or 4 people who have never seen the film, don't read this post until you've had a chance to watch it this holiday season, as there are MANY SPOILERS throughout it. 

In Frank Capra’s 1946 film, It’s a Wonderful Life, the character of George Bailey serves as an all-American “everyman” whose existential quest for home and community provides viewers with programmatic strategies for living in American society.  Essentially, the tension facing George down throughout the film is the choice between living out his dreams of world exploration or settling into a role as a reliable cornerstone of his community and family in sleepy Bedford Falls.  In the contrast between George’s objective reality in Bedford Falls and the dystopian reality of Pottersville, we, along with George, are given the opportunity to examine the difference between, on the one hand, living in a community based in connection and, on the other, the isolating effects of a money-driven world where everyone is out for themselves.  Below the surface of this simple fable of a man losing and rediscovering purpose, there courses an instructive rumination on the friction between the competing strains of individualism and collectivism under capitalism that lie at the base of the American mythology.  It’s a Wonderful Life, in its particular consideration of this strain, offers viewers an alternative and utopian reading of the possibilities present for enriching the experience of the individual through participation and action in the interests of the social collective.

Throughout the film, George is depicted as Bedford Falls’ only buffer against the exploitation of Mr. Potter.  Potter, in his relentless move to buy up all valuable interests in the town, is the living incarnation of capitalism.  He consistently verbally disparages the working class citizens of Bedford Falls, all while making his fortune off of their misery.  The bust of Napoleon in his office hints at both his status as the town’s principal landowner/grabber and his many attempts to destroy the building and loan. During the scene where George begs Potter for mercy, the statue even casts a shadow not unlike the shape of a buzzard, strongly hinting at Potter’s treatment of the working class as mere carrion for his unquenchable appetite for wealth and power.  Beyond just signifying the imperialistic tendencies of industry and capital, Potter functions as the force that keeps class divisions in Bedford Falls from melting away, as his business practices are focused primarily on keeping the poor from ever rising above their lowly social position.  This is what makes Mr. Potter the perfect foil for George. Everything that is good, decent, and charitable about George’s character is countered in the miserly, “twisted,” and self-obsessed caricature that is Potter.

After Potter is able to unethically secure the upper hand in the struggle, sending George spiraling into a crisis of faith, we are given the opportunity to view Potter’s unchecked capitalist ambition in the form of Pottersville, an alternate version of Bedford Falls where the socially progressive advocacy of George and the Building and Loan never came into existence.  Without the class solidarity that George brought to the working class citizens of the town, Pottersville resembles nothing less than the real world in its depiction of cold, neon-lit spaces of consumption and depressed urban dwelling spaces.

It is in the disparity between Pottersville and Bedford Falls that the political didactic of the film is forwarded.  On the surface level of the plot, we are asked to identify with George’s personal struggle as he is given the opportunity to see the value of his life in relation to the lives of his family, friends, and community.  However, if we are willing to dig a bit deeper, it is not difficult to acknowledge that the interconnectivity that we witness between George and the other citizens of Bedford Falls makes life in Pottersville appear drab, miserable, and meaningless.  The latter version of the town speaks to the alienating and competitive byproducts of capitalism while the former suggests that a more equitable distribution of wealth might lend itself to an increasingly vibrant, proud, and socially rich climate.  This simple message could be dismissed as unsubstantial and tangential if it were not for the fact that the film was produced less than a decade after the Great Depression.  With residual social anxiety and animosity focused upon financial institutions and the Potters of the world, it is not difficult to regard this pressure within the film as a polemic against the exploitation and abandonment of the working classes to the terrors of listless poverty.  As such, Pottersville is an uncaring landscape littered with the deeply bruised ambitions of its agitated and morally bankrupt citizenry.  Because there are no connections between the people, there are no options available to them outside the dismal status quo.

Which is why the outpouring of community support surrounding George, after his reinstatement in the “real” world of Bedford Falls, speaks so loudly to the need for opposition against the more dehumanizing aspects of the capitalist economic model, the endorsement of the community illustrates the integration of the individual into a symbiotic relationship with the larger social body.  In this utopian display at the close of the film, the effect of a single member is validated, reflected, and reinforced by the supportive safety net of the people of Bedford Falls. George’s Building and Loan, continually recognized throughout the film as being focused towards building the community versus the profit building model upon which Potter’s bank is firmly established, becomes the paragon upon which sustainable strategies of community can be devised.  The film optimistically hints that those who are willing to fight for their ideals in Bedford Falls will keep this best idea at hand.

It's a Wonderful Life plays for four days at the Hollywood Theatre beginning on Friday, December 21st.  More info available here.

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HYDE PARK ON HUDSON: FDR MEETS ROYALS, BAGS DISTANT COUSIN

Roger Michell's Hyde Park on Hudson suffers from being a single film that operates as if it were three separate stories built around a single historical event.  Or rather, the audience is made to slog through having their affinities for the characters in Michell's movie abused as the narrative unpredictably flits from one character's perspective to another and then back again in a messy and incoherent fashion, abandoning Daisy (Laura Linney), the film's established protagonist, for so long that it's easy to forget that it's her story that's being relayed.  Daisy's modeled after Margaret Suckley, a distant relation of President Franklin Roosevelt, who had a love affair with FDR that went undiscovered until after her death.

The historical event in question is the 1939 private summit between King George VI (Samuel West) and Queen Elizabeth (the always great Olivia Colman) with FDR (Bill Murray) and Eleanor Roosevelt (Olivia Williams) at President Roosevelt's mother's (Elizabeth Wilson) estate in Hyde Park, New York.  The royals are there to ask for Roosevelt's support against the axis powers in war effort.  Each side knows the purpose of their assembly and, yet, the dictates of etiquette force a calculated dance around the issue.  The meeting presents many interesting possibilities and, on its own, may have made for a fine enough film; the obvious, but accentuated differences between American and English cultural mores constitute most of the better observations that the film has to offer.

Were this the only ambition of Hyde Park on Hudson, to move back and forth between each parties ruffled sensibilities as each endures the other for a higher purpose, it just might have worked as a picture.  Instead, the filmmakers seem to think that they can have its cake and eat it, too, attempting to have the film filtered through Daisy's recollections before jumping into sections that not only don't involve her, but also depict events that she couldn't possibly have witnessed.  The effect of these departures is that, when the story does finally slam back to acknowledging Daisy as its teller, the viewer no longer identifies enough with her to care about the major conflict that develops when she learns an uneasy truth about her president/lover.

Hyde Park on Hudson is an undeniably weirdly structured film.  Everything about it suggests that Bill Murray as FDR is meant to be the focal point of the story, but there's little access to that character, even when the script forces the film to embrace what feels like Roosevelt's objective viewpoint.  It operates as a love story, but with little apparent spark between Murray and Linney, not that it's their fault; the problems are all present in the script, not the performances. Beyond that, the pacing is unhurried to the degree that, although it's barely over 90 minutes, it's a movie that ends up feeling like it has an overly padded running time.  Even though there are several sequences that do work (the interactions between King George and Queen Elizabeth, in particular), it's hard to imagine anyone becoming too enthusiastic over this clumsily told, flat, and unromantic film.

Hyde Park on Hudson opens at the Regal Fox Tower on Friday, December 14th.  More info available here.

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HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY RUSHMORE CHRISTMAS WITH A WES ANDERSON HOLIDAY TRIPLE FEATURE

Cinema 21's still in the midst of A Bit of the Old Ultra-Kubrick, their four film Stanley Kubrick series, which comes to a close on Thursday.  I was thrilled to see last night's DCP screening of the digitally restored Dr. Strangelove last night and still hope to make it a 35mm showing of 2001: A Space Odyssey after catching an advance screening of Hyde Park on Hudson tomorrow night.  And while news of their upcoming bookings of the 4K digital restoration of David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia as well as Sergio Corbucci's spaghetti-western classic Django (nicely timed to take advantage of the holiday release of Q.T.'s Nero-indebted latest film, Django Unchained) are bound to thrill film fanatics, it's pretty likely that a whole bunch more excitement is going to be generated when folks hear that there's a Wes Anderson series a comin' to Cinema 21 this holiday season.

The announcement certainly comes at an interesting moment in Anderson's career.  His latest, Moonrise Kingdom, has done much to illustrate a critical and popular divide between those who revile his style and the fans who lap it up.  Personally, I liked Moonrise Kingdom quite a bit and really don't agree with the all-too-often cited issue that some have with Anderson's work--the notion that he's just making the same film over and over again.  Still, I'm not as enamored with some of his films (The Life Aquatic, though it has its fervent defenders, felt pretty flat to me) as I am with what I feel are the true highlights of his career.

The upcoming holiday series at Cinema 21 nicely sidesteps this debate, which mostly seems centered on his post-Tenenbaums work, by programming Anderson's initial three releases.  Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and The Royal Tenenbaums are, in my opinion, truly solid films that even the most miserly of film goers would have to concede as having sprung from the imagination of a creative and talented original.  There might be plenty of films out there approximating Wes Anderson's moves (Thumbsucker, Rocket Science, Boy, Submarine, etc.), but few sport the authenticity suggested by his considerable influence.

Here's what Cinema 21 owner Tom Ranieri has to say about the Anderson triple feature:

He is the origin of several parodies and even more copy-cats.  He is an oeuvre unto himself.  He is, according to Martin Scorsese, "the Next Martin Scorsese." 

Cinema 21 is exceedingly proud to announce: 

A VERY WES ANDERSON CHRISTMAS His first three feature films on vibrant 35mm prints. 
-Bottle Rocket (1996, 91 mins.) 
-Rushmore (1998, 93 mins.) 
-The Royal Tenenbaums (2001, 110 mins.) 

Starting Christmas Day! Don't take this for granted! In a very dark room, on a big, bright screen. The colors, the music, the charm, the humor, the nostalgia, the dysfunction, the obsession, the outright joy! It will bowl you over. This is the perfect opportunity to re-discover the birth of the most unique voice in American cinema over the last two decades. 

-$6 for one film, $9 for two, or $12 for a triple feature! 
Celebrate the holidays watching relationships even more dysfunctional than your own.


Now on to the trailers:

As a bonus, here's the original 1994 Bottle Rocket short that Anderson made prior to his feature debut:

And here's Anderson in conversation with director Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding) on the subject of how Bottle Rocket was seen as a failure on its initial release:

A Very Wes Anderson Christmas begins on Tuesday, December 25th and runs through Sunday, December 30th.  Keep an eye on the Cinema 21 webpage for soon to be announced showtimes (TBA) and more.

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