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Fantastic Mr. Fox: Lives Up to Its Title

BuzzSugar — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:30:00 -0800

For the past five years, Wes Anderson's wide fan base has been waiting for his first fully animated film. Would his adaption of Roald Dahl's children's book, Fantastic Mr. Fox appease the same crowd that holds Bottle Rocket and The Royal Tenenbaums near and dear to their hearts? The answer is an emphatic yes, and the best news is that you don't even have to enjoy Anderson's other work to fall in love with this film.

The story follows the wily Mr. Fox, a professional robber turned family man (er, fox) who just isn't satisfied with his quiet life working as a newspaper columnist. Even a move to prime real estate isn't enough to satiate his appetite for a little trouble making, and Mr. Fox (or "Foxy" as his friends call him) decides to take on the biggest adventure of his life. That's just the tip of the iceberg though, so read more.

Mr. Fox isn't your average wild animal; in fact he's just the opposite. He lives a civilized life with his wife Felicity (Meryl Streep) and 12-year-old son, Ash, making an honest living as a newspaper columnist. Like a kid who can't sit still, Mr. Fox has trouble curbing his desires to rebel and go back to his life stealing squab and running into trouble. Against his wife's wishes, Mr. Fox convinces his dim-witted but trusty sidekick Kylie (Wally Wolodarski) to take on one last hurrah. The crime? Ripping off the three biggest (and meanest) farmers around - Boggis, Bunce and Bean. When Mr. Fox starts an all-out war, he is forced to join forces with his family, friends, and neighbors - and that's where the fun begins.

The film's brilliance lies in the fact that Fantastic Mr. Fox is a movie for grown-ups disguised as a kiddie flick. Even with Anderson's name stamped all over it, there's no denying the furry animals dressed as humans. The animation makes the plot play out like a story book come to life; we're taken deep into the fox hole and beyond in a world that looks like a dollhouse made for fuzzy creatures. Kids will love the adventure and the colors, but the witty dialogue and quirky characters are made for the grown-ups.

The movie features a crew of lovable characters who deliver hilarious one-liners when they aren't breaking into impromptu dances. There's nothing new about a movie featuring animals acting like humans, but the actors make the movie the gem that it is. Jason Schwartzman playing a crabby 12-year-old but using his regular deep voice is genius. Clooney and Bill Murray (as badger, Mr. Fox's lawyer) bantering back and forth but replacing swears with the word "cuss" never gets old (as in "This place is a cluster cuss" and "What the cuss is wrong with you?").

Rare is the animated film with this much wit, cleverness, and chemistry between characters, but Fantastic Mr. Fox hits it right on the head. Score one more for Mr. Anderson.

(Don't forget that if you see a movie that you'd like to review, you can post your write-up in the Movie Review Group in Community - I may even post it here on the site!)

Season One of Bored to Death: Yay or Nay?

BuzzSugar — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:30:00 -0800

This week marked the finale of Bored to Death's debut season, and I'm wondering what you all thought of the show. It took me a few episodes to warm up to the comedy, but my love for Jason Schwartzman can't be stopped.

We already know that Bored to Death will be back for a second season, but what do you think of the first - yay or nay?

Pilot Watch: Bored to Death

BuzzSugar — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 05:30:00 -0700

The networks have announced their Fall schedules, but which series will actually be worth watching? Note that a lot can change before a show actually makes it to air, so these aren't reviews, just quick thoughts on how the shows look now. Today's pick is HBO's new comedy Bored to Death which will team up with Curb Your Enthusiasm on Sunday nights, starting September 20.

What's it about? Bored to Death opens as Jonathan Ames watches his girlfriend move out of their apartment and begins to assess his life as a single, 30-year-old struggling writer. As he contemplates how to win her back and what to do with his free time, Jonathan poses as an amateur private detective after a little inspiration from his favorite crime novels. Hijinks ensue.

Who's in it? Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson, Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig, Olivia Thirlby.

The good: The star-studded cast alone is enough to draw an audience, and fans of Schwartzman will enjoy his portrayal of yet another lovably quirky character. The humor isn't in your face, but the subtle jokes and offbeat characters keep the story afloat. Plus, the first season boasts a handful of special guest stars including Parker Posey and Patton Oswalt.

The bad: If I wasn't a Jason Schwartzman devotee, I'm not sure how I would feel about the pilot. Like I said, the humor can be dry and viewers may be disappointed by the lack of laugh-out-loud moments. The first episode isn't bad, but I fear that it may not live up to expectations.

Will I watch? I'll probably watch most of the first season, but I don't envision myself rushing home on Sunday nights to check it out in real time.

To see photos and watch a preview for the show, just read more.

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First Look: Schwartzman, Galifianakis in HBO's Bored to Death

BuzzSugar — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:30:37 -0700

A weekly dose of Jason Schwartzman and Zach Galifianakis on my TV? Yes, please! HBO has released a teaser for its newest half-hour comedy series Bored to Death, which will premiere in September. Zach Galifianakis was recently added to the show, which is pretty brilliant casting given the success of The Hangover. The comedy star power doesn't end with those two - as you'll see in the trailer the series also features Ted Danson, Parker Posey, and Kristen Wiig. So great!

Schwartzman plays Jonathan, a struggling writer living in Brooklyn who drinks a lot. For no apparent reason he decides to become a private detective. Galifianakis plays his friend who writes comic books. The whole thing looks pretty funny and full of promise. To check out the trailer and tell me what you think, read more.

Movie Preview: Judd Apatow's Funny People

BuzzSugar — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:24:06 -0800

The trailer for Judd Apatow's new comedy, Funny People, has arrived, and it looks like a bittersweet mix of Apatowian humor and genuine emotions. Apatow's wife Leslie Mann stars as the love interest of Adam Sandler's character, with an ensemble filled out by Eric Bana (sporting an all-natural Australian accent), Seth Rogen (naturally), Jason Schwartzman, and those two adorable daughters of Apatow and Mann. It looks like this movie could contain everything I so enjoyed about Knocked Up: a lot of laughs but also a lot of heart.

To check out the trailer, read more.

Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures

Jason Schwartzman Gets Bored to Death by HBO

BuzzSugar — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:32:21 -0700

Jason Schwartzman excites HBO.
No, the actor who was once Max Fischer isn't yawning every time he channel-surfs past the network that once brought you The Sopranos (at least not that we know of). Bored to Death is just the name of the network's new half-hour comedy pilot that just cast Schwartzman in the lead.

It doesn't sound boring at all.
The show centers on Schwartzman's character, Jonathan, a 30-something struggling writer living (and drinking heavily) in Brooklyn. After he breaks up with his girlfriend, he decides to refashion himself as a private detective in the vein of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett heroes. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Jonathan "takes out an ad pretending to be a private detective and starts taking cases - solving some and making others worse."

Maybe it will be better than his last TV jaunt.
Besides being one of Wes Anderson's favorite players, Schwartzman has tried TV once before - in a short-lived 2004 Fox comedy called Cracking Up, from School of Rock writer Mike White. The show, which also starred Molly Shannon, was a midseason replacement that didn't even quite finish out its own season and was canceled after nine episodes. The show is scheduled to start filming in September in New York. If it became a series, do you think you'd check it out?

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The Darjeeling Limited: Another Study in Dysfunction

BuzzSugar — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 07:20:00 -0700

For years, director Wes Anderson has had his finger on the pulse of severely dysfunctional families. His latest film, The Darjeeling Limited, is no exception. The film tells the story of Francis, Peter and Jack Whitman, three brothers who haven't seen each other since their father's funeral a year ago. Francis (Owen Wilson), the compulsive planner of the group, convinces the other two to join him on a train trip across India, on a half-baked spiritual quest "to become brothers again, like we used to be."

It's a convenient excuse for Peter (Adrien Brody) and Jack (Jason Schwartzman) to escape their own frustrating lives: Peter is feeling increasingly estranged from his pregnant wife, while Jack has just broken up with a girlfriend. (For the record, there are several small nods to Hotel Chevalier, the short focusing on Schwartzman's character, but seeing the short isn't crucial to understanding the movie.) For his part, Francis has just crashed his motorcycle into a hillside, leaving him with a bruised, bandaged face (and viewers with an uncanny reminder of Wilson's own troubles).

The first half of Darjeeling is typical Wes Anderson fare: character quirks galore, amusing yet nonsensical plot points, gorgeous colors and camera work, and witty - if emotionally stunted - dialogue. The characters are kept at somewhat of a remove, more pill-popping, cough syrup-swilling collections of neuroses than actual, relatable human beings. The bickering over belts and poisonous snakes that takes up the first half of the film is amusing, if somewhat insubstanitial. But the movie quickly takes a somber turn, so read more

Something happens about halfway through - something big and tragic - and it changes the course of the brothers' trip. It's a shocking event, especially since we've been zooming along in this perfected, stylized, Wes Anderson world for so long. The weight of the event falls on Brody's shoulders, and that was a wise choice - both Schwartzman and Wilson do fine work, but Brody has a leg up on them acting-wise, and his reactions seem more rooted and real. The movie uses that moment as a catalyst to flash back to the death of the brothers' father; only in the aftermath of another tragedy can the Whitmans start figuring out what's kept them apart for so long.

I tend to like Anderson's work, even when it's overly precious; it's worth noting that his detractors will probably find more problems with the movie than I did. But I do have a couple of quibbles, both of which were big enough to hurt my overall impression of the movie. For one, there's an absolutely perfect ending that comes about 20 minutes before the real one; the ultimate conclusion is satisfying, but the material in between didn't feel as vital to the movie as it should have been. The much more egregious issue comes when that gorgeous Louis Vuitton luggage gets enlisted into one of the least-subtle "shedding baggage" metaphors I've ever seen. Anderson usually conveys so much with so little; I expected more subtlety from him. But while it's uneven, Darjeeling is still an oddly affecting movie, worthy of its spot in Anderson's canon.

Photos courtesy of Fox Searchlight

Darjeeling Limited Prequel Hits iTunes

BuzzSugar — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:59:57 -0700

Hotel Chevalier, Wes Anderson's prequel to the forthcoming Darjeeling Limited, has been getting quite a bit of press this week - both because it's pretty unconventional to release a prequel like this and because Natalie Portman (briefly) gets naked in it. The 13-minute short film is available free on iTunes, and if you're a fan of Anderson, Portman, Jason Schwartzman or any combination of the three, it's worth checking out.

The short, which was made a year before Darjeeling started filming, takes place entirely in the Paris hotel room of Schwartzman's character. Portman plays his toothpick-chewing ex-girlfriend, who tracks him down in the hopes of a possible fling. It's a quiet little story - translation: not a whole lot happens - but it's certainly intriguing. It made me wonder what happened between the two of them in the past, and I wonder whether that will be explained in Darjeeling proper.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Anderson once considered making shorts to fill in the back stories of the other two main Darjeeling characters, who are played in the movie by Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody. Now, I really wish he had; if Hotel Chevalier is intended to raise my interest in Darjeeling, it definitely worked. Check it out, then come back and let me know what you think.

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First Look: Darjeeling Limited

BuzzSugar — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 06:30:00 -0700

I was so thrilled yesterday when the trailer for the latest Wes Anderson project, Darjeeling Limited, hit the Internet. Starring the adorable Adrien Brody with his all-innocence-all-the-time-eyebrows, along with Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson, the movie looks more outright funny than some of Anderson's works (like The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou), but less obnoxious than, say, a typical Owen Wilson movie (You, Me and Dupree, I'm looking at you... all three of you).

From the trailer it looks like the three men are playing brothers who embark on an adventure together. When someone asks what made them want to do so, there's a vague reference to a spiritual journey. It's a pretty slow-moving trailer until the part involving a can of mace, which made me laugh out loud, but it has that distinctively weird-cool Wes Anderson vibe to it throughout.

My favorite line: "I wonder if the three of us could have been friends in real life. Not as brothers, but as people." Who hasn't wondered that at least once about one's siblings? I can't wait to see Darjeeling Limited when it opens September 28. To watch the trailer, read more

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Movie Preview: The Fantastic Mr. Fox

BuzzSugar — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:30:31 -0700

Some of my favorite directors are just rollin' out the trailers today - first the Coen brothers with A Serious Man, now Wes Anderson with his forthcoming project The Fantastic Mr. Fox. This animated film is based on the Roald Dahl book of the same name and follows a family of foxes and their animal associates as they struggle against the farmers who want to dig out their neighborhood.

I'm not sure whether the first word to describe this trailer should be "bizarre" or "hilarious" - but either way, I know I want to see this movie. George Clooney as Mr. Fox and Bill Murray as the "demolitions expert" badger seem like particularly inspired bits of casting, and Meryl Streep as Mrs. Fox isn't far behind. The trailer really won me over about halfway through, when the foxes start doing things like making bandit masks out of spare tube socks and drugging beagles with blueberries. Not unlike Where the Wild Things Are, it looks like a cross between a children's classic and a film hipsters will adore.

The movie - which Anderson co-wrote with The Squid and the Whale's Noah Baumbach - will be opening the London Film Festival in October and then hitting US theaters on Nov. 13. To check out the trailer, just read more.