Review of Bottle Rocket (1996) by Al M — 14 Aug 2010

I first saw Bottle Rocket back in the late 90s in High School, and I still find it delightful charming and hilarious. A quirky deconstruction of both buddy comedies and heist films, Wes Anderson's first film may not be as overtly great a film as his later works, but in many ways it is equally brilliant in its understated, subtle form of humor and its tender investigation of the modern American male who has been raised without any guiding parameters in life where it is because of a poverty stricken, broken home or because of an overly privileged upbringing.

The film presents both types of characters, each of which have no channel markers to guide them through life and hence are left floating adrift and at sea.