The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Directed by Wes Anderson
Royal Tenenbaum and his wife Etheline had three children and then they separated. All three children are extraordinary --- all geniuses. Virtually all memory of the brilliance of the young Tenenbaums was subsequently erased by two decades of betrayal, failure, and disaster. Most of this was generally considered to be their father's fault. "The Royal Tenenbaums" is the story of the family's sudden, unexpected reunion one recent winter.
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24 films that influenced The Royal Tenenbaums
What critics say influenced The Royal Tenenbaums
They may be unfair, but I prefer Orson Welles' method in The Magnificent Ambersons, one of the obvious inspirations for the Tenenbaums.
Inspired by Orson Welles' "The Magnificent Ambersons" and stories by J. D. Salinger, Anderson and co-writer Owen Wilson locate their family story in a tall New York house.
The Tenenbaums are funny and strangely touching in the same way Miss Havisham is in Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations," as she holds onto her decaying wedding cake and refuses to wind her clocks.
To contrast, take Sturges' Oscar-winning screenplay from The Great McGinty, his first film, and William Demarest's line, "If you didn't have graft, you'd have a lower class of people in politics!"
P.T. Anderson followed his magnificent 1997 breakthrough Boogie Nights with 1999's Magnolia, a star-studded, messy, overreaching, ultimately compelling ensemble drama in the vein of ambitious masterpieces like Hannah And Her Sisters and Short Cuts.
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One can't help but have high hopes for a movie directed and co-written by Wes Anderson, whose previous Bottle Rocket and Rushmore struck just the right notes with a fascinating slew of oddballs.
After all, with his first two films, Anderson managed to subvert two common film genres the crime caper comedy (with 1996's sleeper success "Bottle Rocket") and the angst-ridden teen comedy (with 1998's even more adored "Rushmore").
Director Wes Anderson and his co-writer Owen Wilson (the two also worked on "Bottle Rocket" and "Rushmore") have fashioned a wonderful world.
In his first two films, Bottle Rocket (1996) and Rushmore (1998), both co-scripted with Luke Wilson, Anderson established a one-of-a-kind style and tone, a twisted whimsy and sunny irony like Hal Hartley or Jim Jarmusch with a spritz of Looney Tune anarchy.
Each featuring their own eccentricities and problems dangling from them like so many fragile Christmas tree ornaments, the film arrives from the mind and hands of writer/director Wes Anderson who, with the one of the film's co-stars, Owen Wilson, previously fashioned the equally quirky but highly enjoyable films, "Bottle Rocket" and "Rushmore."
Real-life quirky siblings Owen and Luke Wilson are on hand as rivals for the affection of Tenenbaum daughter (adopted) Gwyneth Paltrow and "Rushmore" alum Bill Murray mugs his way through the role of Ms. Paltrow's neurosurgeon husband.
After all, with his first two films, Anderson managed to subvert two common film genres the crime caper comedy (with 1996's sleeper success "Bottle Rocket") and the angst-ridden teen comedy (with 1998's even more adored "Rushmore").
Director Wes Anderson and his co-writer Owen Wilson (the two also worked on "Bottle Rocket" and "Rushmore") have fashioned a wonderful world.
In the tradition of "Rushmore" comes "The Royal Tenenbaums," writer/director Wes Anderson's follow-up to his 1998 hit about a nerdy prep school genius who vies for the attentions of a first grade teacher with a wealthy industrialist he has befriended.
The Breakdown Consistently quirky and original filmmaker Wes Anderson ("Rushmore") delivers his most accessible film yet.
In his first two films, Bottle Rocket (1996) and Rushmore (1998), both co-scripted with Luke Wilson, Anderson established a one-of-a-kind style and tone, a twisted whimsy and sunny irony like Hal Hartley or Jim Jarmusch with a spritz of Looney Tune anarchy.
(You will find a much simpler version of the same tale, for example, in Neil Simon's "Max Dugan Returns" from 1983.)
To be sure, The Graduate is better known to current audiences for its influence on Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums), most obviously in his continual use of water imagery and expert incorporation of pop rock songs.
Pointedly, the film that arguably appropriated this picture the most precisely in terms of dialogue, performance, and execution, Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums , tackles the father/son dynamic with unparalleled sensitivity whilst repositioning the Ben/Elaine (Katharine Ross) relationship as, appropriately, vaguely incestuous.
P.T. Anderson followed his magnificent 1997 breakthrough Boogie Nights with 1999's Magnolia, a star-studded, messy, overreaching, ultimately compelling ensemble drama in the vein of ambitious masterpieces like Hannah And Her Sisters and Short Cuts.
Anderson's take on New York, to quote Woody Allen's introductory voice-over from Manhattan, "Romanticize[s] it all out of proportion."
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It's a sort of "You Can't Take It With You" pushed beyond the bounds of believability.
Mostly Anderson just packs every frame with lots of stuff and the result turns out strange and fun, like You Can't Take It With You set to the Velvet Underground and The Ramones.
Like Paul Thomas Anderson�s Magnolia, Tenenbaums goes for broke from the very beginning.
I must say, I think this is probably the best ensemble cast for a movie since Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia."
P.T. Anderson followed his magnificent 1997 breakthrough Boogie Nights with 1999's Magnolia, a star-studded, messy, overreaching, ultimately compelling ensemble drama in the vein of ambitious masterpieces like Hannah And Her Sisters and Short Cuts.
P.T. Anderson followed his magnificent 1997 breakthrough Boogie Nights with 1999's Magnolia, a star-studded, messy, overreaching, ultimately compelling ensemble drama in the vein of ambitious masterpieces like Hannah And Her Sisters and Short Cuts.