Review of Bottle Rocket (1996) by Jesse O — 04 Aug 2011

With the exception of Rushmore, I believe I've seen every Wes Anderson movie. To say that I've never seen the appeal of his movies (with the exception of The Royal Tenenbaums, which was excellent) is an understatement.

They do have an indie charm about them that probably endears them to a certain audience. And that's fine, there needs to be something for everybody out there and Wes fills that particular niche. And that's the thing, he appeals to a niche audience, I'm not saying that as a knock against him, but it's the truth.

And I've just never liked his style. This movie being his first full-length feature means that he was still finding his own voice, which means this movie is not indie for the sake of being indie, which is what I don't like about Wes.

But regardless, this movie is good, I didn't think it was great. The writing is good and the chemistry between the characters is good and that's it. I just felt that shit was going on in the movie for no reason whatsoever, and that's what drug the movie down.

It, to me, just has no sense of direction. But it's still a good movie regardless, I could think of worse ways to spend 90 minutes.