The latest entry from Wes Anderson is another pretty great work for his filmography as Moonrise Kingdom might be his weirdest and most exciting film yet. [Read more...]
Film Review: Moonrise Kingdom
06/12/2012 by 2 Comments
Looking Ahead to 2012: Quarter 2 (April – June)
04/01/2012 by Leave a Comment
Hello internet perusers! We are back with round 2 of the four part year break down of things to come. Between April and June, the writers on HST have plenty that we are looking forward to in movies, music, and games,, and we want to share them with you. No, none of these are April Fool’s jokes. Zac is actually really excited to see a movie about male strippers. [Read more...]
Review: Fantastic Mr. Fox
11/25/2009 by Leave a Comment
Wes Anderson returns to the screen with a film that fits into his little world only this time with a bunch of talking animals from the wonderful fable by Roald Dahl.
Mr. Fox was always a daring individual, and stole live stock for a living before he met Mrs. Fox and was planning on having a child with her. He decided to settle down and became a writer for 12 fox years, but the itch of adventure and change in a mid-life crisis of sorts over took him and he put himself in a situation where he can become a thief again on the sly. Though this doesn’t go well and before he knows it his friends and family are at risk of the evil Boggis, Bunce, and Bean, his human neighbors whose product he has begun to steal.
This film continues the fantastic trend of animated and family entertainment this year that is suitable for all ages and able to be enjoyed, maybe more than the kids, by the parents. Anderson’s dialogue and character traits are all here, but I feel like this is his most accessible film to date to the general public. There are cute characters and action for the kids and witty humor and grown up issues for the adults, if it wasn’t for Up this would be the most broadly appealing film of the year. Anderson also does a nice job at creating actual tension and thrills through the adventure of the film and isn’t afraid to do some silly bits for humor’s sake as well.
[Read more...]
The Decade's Best: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
08/18/2009 by Leave a Comment
Wes Anderson’s “action” movie sticks to the themes that you find in a lot of his films and the results are a fantastic blend of adventure, farce, humor, sadness, and drama that not only gives us Anderson’s spin on the action/adventure genre drama but serves as an excellent character study of a man on the verge of being irrelevant in almost every aspect in his life.
I have been a huge fan of Wes Anderson since I saw Rushmore back before the release of The Royal Tenenbaums back in the beginning of the decade and I guarantee you will see at least one more of his films in this feature before the year is out. The Life Aquatic is the biggest departure for Anderson in that it is by far his most grand and epic film to date taking us all across Europe and the Mediterranean sea of Wes Anderson’s world.
Steve Zissou is a Jacques Cousteau type that has had a successful run of nature films investigating the open seas all around the world, but has been losing both notoriety and funding over the last few years with the shadow of his nemesis Alistair Hennessey slowly casting him and more and more darkness. [Read more...]
Review: The Limits of Control
05/22/2009 by Leave a Comment
The latest from Jim Jarmusch is an odd and interesting picture that looks fantastic, has some nice moments, but leaves one scratching their head almost as much as they are enjoying the picture.
The film follows and unnamed man who is “on the job” but we are never really led on to what that job is for almost the entirety of the film. Dealing with cryptic messages passed along to him in similar matchbox’s, which he in turn eats the piece of paper it was written on, the unnamed man moves from meet to meet, collecting information for his ultimate goal, which we assume is a criminal act of some sort. Whether he is a hitman, a thief, or something else, we are never entirely sure till the act happens, but the Lone Man’s process, everyday life, meticulous nature, and the many encounters he has with his random messengers are the focus of the film. After a quick meeting in an airport somewhere in Spain, The Lone Man is off on a plane to an unnamed city in Spain where he quietly awaits his first message doing a form of martial arts, visiting the local art museum, and drinking “two espressos, separate cups” at the corner café. The only interaction he has with his messengers is a brief conversation, usually very one-sided to that of the messenger, outside a mysterious naked female visitor [Read more...]
Review: The Darjeeling Limited
10/21/2007 by Leave a Comment
I need to start off this review with a disclaimer, I love Wes Anderson’s films, love, love, love them, and I love this one too, but I will try to be unbiased and will write this review with average movie fan and not as a Wes Anderson fanatic.
So The Darjeeling Limited is a train, and the title of the film, obviously. And this train carries our 3 leads on a path to hopeful bonding and self/group discovery. Francis(Owen Wilson), the oldest, has organized the brothers, Peter(Adrien Brody) and Jack (Jason Schwartzman) on an itinerary filled trip around India [Read more...]
