The Royal Tenenbaums

"It’s really hard to be roommates with people if your suitcases are much better than theirs." - J.D. Salinger

With the suggestion of class envy, this quote would apply more aptly to Anderson's first two films, Bottle Rocket and Rushmore. All of Wes Anderson’s films, however, have been about outsiders trying to penetrate these semi-exclusive worlds; the plots of each powered by the insecurities and aspirations of the outsider. Although Royal gave his family their name, he still feels like an outsider amongst them. When Eli Cash tells Richie “I always wanted to be a Tenenbaum” Royal adds “Me Too.” At first his motives to maintain the status quo are purely selfish but we witness his transformation, eventually becoming the only person with the ability to mend his family's sinking ship (Making his epitaph, which reads ‘Died Tragically Rescuing His Family From The Remains Of A Destroyed Sinking Battleship,’ really not that far fetched)

"A man's got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book." - Ernest Hemingway

Royal Tenenbaum shoots his son in the hand with a Bebe gun. Dudley can’t tell time. Raleigh St. Clair asks where’s that red one gonna go, Pagoda is Pagoda. This movie is funny. It is quirky, amusing, and charming. It is also painfully tragic at times. The comedic elements in The Royal Tenenbaums are really a means to an end; used to get us to drop our defenses as Wes Anderson sucker punches us as Richie Tenenbaum slits his wrists. There is a similarity between Hemingway and Anderson’s writing style. Both write short and stripped down sentences with the purpose of driving home a painstakingly emotional moment near the end (I could lie and say that I don’t tear up when Chas tells Royal “I’ve had a tough year dad” but well I would be lying)

"There are no second acts in American lives." - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Perhaps the most appropriate quote to describe this movie. The movie takes place when the Tenenbaums return to live under the same roof where they grew up as precocious prodigies. Posters of “The Baumer,” Playbills from Margot’s plays and Dalmation Mice scurrying around the Archer Avenue house are ever-present reminders of the Tenenbaum childrens’ former greatness. Beaten down from years of being known as former geniuses, Richie, Margot, and Chas wear the emotional baggage (literally in the form of red track suits and tennis headbands) that has come with their inability to escape their past failures. The movie’s resolution seems to defy the Fitzgerald quote, as each child begins to write their second act.

Sidebar - I think I’ve sucked all the fun out of this movie; flipping it on it’s back exposing a dark underbelly usually hidden underneath a pastel colored shell. But what do you expect when I am quoting authors who are reclusive, suicidal, and alcoholic.

Addendum - No filmmaker working today takes care of the details better than Wes. The sets and costumes are impeccable. Where Rushmore might not have gone far enough and The Life Aquatic went a little too far, Anderson hits a perfect balance of whimsy, fantasy, and eclecticism, creating a version of New York that I desperately want to live in. The soundtrack is once again flawless; songs by Vince Guaraldi, Nico, Nick Drake, The Velvet Underground etc and the score by Mark Mothersbaugh all fit so nicely in the film and always hit the right note; no small task for a film that shifts from eccentric to sentimental to gloomy at the drop of a hat.

The 400 Blows

The 400 Blows is the story of Antoine Doinel, a 12-year-old kid who is equal parts rebellious rabble-rouser and misunderstood youngster. Doinel cuts class, gets in fights and robs from his parents and appears to commit these acts without remorse. Truffaut, however, depicts Doinel as a troublemaker we can sympathize with; at school he is no different than his classmates, just the one who gets caught, and his parents are indifferent and selfish. Despite his transgressions, we grow to like the little scalawag because of how resilient he is. When he gets in trouble at school for telling his teacher that he missed class because of the death of his mother (the lie is discovered when his mother, alive and well, shows up at school that day) he runs away from home, telling his best friend that he can't return home with dead pan sincerity and confidence you might expect from someone twice his age (he sleeps on stacks of newspapers in a printing press and bathes himself in a fountain.) The most poignant moments of the film come at the end, when his parents sign over their parental rights to the juvenile court system after he is caught stealing a typewriter (he was actually caught while trying to return the typewriter.) While he is being transported to a prison, along with prostitutes and hardened criminals, Doinel lets a couple tears escape; it is the only time that Antoine exposes his hurt. He is sent to an observation center for delinquent boys. Here he speaks with a psychologist where he describes in detail his parents and his upbringing. He is once again composed and seemingly unaffected as he tells the psychologist about not knowing his biological father and being sent away to live with his grandmother. The movies ending is one of the most famous in cinematic history. After escaping from the observation center, he runs to a beach (the first time he saw the ocean.) As Antoine's footprints are washed away by the tide, Truffaut zooms in and freezes on Doinel's face, one that emits a haunting ambiguity. Considering everything we have seen up until this point, the last shot offers a to be continued moment; what will become of young Antoine Doinel?

I can't really write about The 400 Blows without mentioning Truffaut's fluid camera work. Truffaut's camera, which frolics along the streets of Paris, was a revelation. It introduced a documentary style of moviemaking, trading the rigid Hollywood aesthetic for one that was fresh, energetic and real. The influence of his moving camera can not be overstated. Many films of the American New Wave were shot using hand held and constantly moving cameras and Martin Scorsese, the most influential filmmaker of contemporary directors, can draw a straight line connecting his style with that of Truffaut.

Trill

I was listening to Clipse, relaxing in a meat tub, and sipping on some Patron when some cracker kills the mood by asking why all rap music has to be about the same things; bitches and bling. Even though the cracker was incorrect suggesting that all rap music covers the same territory, Clipse's narrative doesn't stray far from a coke slinging odyssey; they sell drugs, they make money, they spend money:

"So international, French Riviera
Love for foreign cars would explain my Carrera
Who cares when these fools talk
Don't mean jack til that tool gotta talk
Icy wrists help me to cool off
And the second hand on this bitch it moon walk
Reminds me of how I applied myself
And why I now ride with Tiptronic help
Bankroll on overload
I eeny meeny miny moe them hoes, I'm so trill"

I realize that thematically they aren’t really breaking new ground here. Where Clipse differs from every other rapper singing about their Rolls is that their songs are brutally honest; every bar of music is drenched with the realities of street life. When listening to Clipse you hear the anger and resentment fostered by growing up on the streets (the album cover features an open oven, a not so subtle reminder of what poor families must resort too to heat their homes) and also the jubilant celebration of people who escaped a near inescapable situation (It doesn’t matter that they bought their “diamond size Reese's Pieces” using dirty money.) Ironically Hell Hath No Fury, one of the truest depictions of the urban poor, is overlooked by the people it was made for yet devoured by upper class white kids (Clipse recently played at Columbia.) Hopefully the exposure of this album to kids of privilege will reveal and defend the anger of the people who must live with these gross inequalities everyday. Trill is the best song on the best album of 2006 and while Bill O’Reilly rants about the dangers of hip-hop, it is a reminder that at its best rap music can be a staggeringly powerful art form.