Review of Bottle Rocket (1996) by Paxton H — 13 May 2009

I still like it about the same as when I first saw it, which is to say, not very much. Those who say it's Anderson's best film are just being pretentious. Still, it's fun to see the elements of his style that are still in place even this early in the game - jump cuts, elegant camera moves, distinctive use of soundtrack, quirky humor. It just lacks the well-developed characters and tight plotting of Anderson's later films. It feels like it would be an amazing short film, because there's a good hour where nothing remotely interesting happens.

On the other hand: "They'll never catch me...because I'm fucking innocent!" <- Best line ever.