100% with you on Wes. A great welling of tears and something like pained joy at the beauty of that final scene.
Weird to see movie-loving critics who I also generally admire so hung up on WA’s style. It’s not his fault that most other filmmakers lack a distinctive one.
But more importantly, the strange failure to acknowledge that the characters don’t have to be “emotional” (in the typical naturalistic, method-derived style) for the movie to be full of emotion. Asteroid City laid this out in pretty programmatic fashion (“you can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep”) but again critics were strangely (lazily?) hung up on certain obvious features of his style. (Think also of Del Toro’s mad artist in the French Dispatch, who must draw a realistic sparrow for the art dealers to recognize his talent and to fully embrace the intentional nature of his more abstract style—it’s as if like these critics are berating Anderson for not sticking with realistic Sparrows)
When I go to the movies it’s always in the hope I will see something that will change my life. Same way I listen to a record, go to a concert or pick up a novel, or read a poem. Anderson—keeping things deep and strange, hilarious and so so sad—always seems to honor that impulse in a way that I am very grateful for.
thank you for defending this movie which touched my heart and also left me at the ending with a sudden, heaping half-sob i muffled. god it can feel hard to believe and hope. thanks
Bravo for finding some human element in WA’s flick. Cheers for pointing out the Stravinsky choices. Even if he made no departure in this latest flick, it always looks original and his music choices expose the rare and familiar brilliance of many genres. They are spot on with the atmosphere he creates. And yes, I hated Phoenician.
I'm loving The Rehearsal. Only up to season 1, episode 4 but I totally get it, in the same way that I got Stella and Flight of the Concords. Absurd feels good to me. I love having to figure out what's real, what's scripted, why I'm feeling uncomfortable, why I'm laughing..... and sometimes I don't bother figuring. I just go with the feeling it gives me. Great parallels to music.
The finest thing on television is Dr. Henry Louis Gates' monumental series "Finding Your Roots," which, among other things, puts an intimate, human face on slavery, and on the conditions that brought millions of Europeans, especially the Irish escaping the potato famine, and Jews escaping centuries of persecution. And whose descendants gave us, among other things, the "Great American Songbook" and the scientific expertise that helped us win WWII. As it documents the struggles, achievements, and huge contributions to our country of these millions, it exposes the lies currently being told about immigrants, and the utter stupidity of rejecting them.
And musically, the greatest thing on television is arguably the 1957 live CBS special, "The Sound Of Jazz," which let all of America see and hear several dozen of the musical giants who happened to be in New York on that Sunday. We saw Basie leading a band that included many past veterans, and sitting in the curve of the piano digging Monk. We saw Billie digging the musicians accompanying her, especially Prez during his lovely solo. We heard tenorists Hawkins and Webster, clarinetists Russell and Giuffre, trumpeters Eldridge, Newman, and Rex Stewart, trombonists Dickenson and Wells. Mulligan, Rushing, and Jo Jones. The program's direction, camera work, and sound is all musically first rate. Thankfully, the program is still around on DVD, although video is a bit fuzzy.
And there's the 1959 followup in the same series, "The Sound Of Miles Davis," in which we saw him with a working band that included John Coltrane, and with the Gil Evans orchestra.
And Nat was one of several jazz people who combined to so many great moments. One the many was the last group which contrasted the styles of Pee Wee and Giuffre, and faded as Pee Wee had responded so perfectly to Jimmy's solo. And all those perfectly chosen camera shots.
Since you've gone a little far afield :), I'd like to know how I can respond to your article in the Nation about Slug's? I didn't see any place to do it. I have a great story I think you'd find interesting about when I went there to hear Pharoah Sanders.
As the real and metaphorical planes of government, banking, and healthcare systems continue to crash, perhaps we could do well to be the real and metaphorical 737 pilots and reformed Business magnates the world needs. Also, Like Stravinsky and Bach in the Anderson film, the Evanescence song in the Rehearsal while exceedingly humorous, is ultimately used poignantly and is not necessarily played for irony.
I find Nathan Fielder very funny but also casually cruel. Surprised that others I respect don’t react this way!
His deep doubling down might be the innovation of a thought-provoking artist. OR, it might be an (ingenious) way for him to disguise the fact that he’s ultimately hosting a newfangled version of Candid Camera.
Total agreement with you on Wes Anderson. I think of him as a master cartoonist, in the lineage of Hergé.
H'mm. "Casually cruel" and "newfangled version of Candid Camera" sounds like NATHAN FOR YOU, which I have trouble watching, for I am too embarrassed for the hapless victims. Maybe THE REHEARSAL can be a bit cruel, but the supreme effects generated by the vast edifice of artifice transcend conventional ethics...or at least that's how I rationalize it LOL. At any rate, THE REHEARSAL is hardly casual.
100% with you on Wes. A great welling of tears and something like pained joy at the beauty of that final scene.
Weird to see movie-loving critics who I also generally admire so hung up on WA’s style. It’s not his fault that most other filmmakers lack a distinctive one.
But more importantly, the strange failure to acknowledge that the characters don’t have to be “emotional” (in the typical naturalistic, method-derived style) for the movie to be full of emotion. Asteroid City laid this out in pretty programmatic fashion (“you can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep”) but again critics were strangely (lazily?) hung up on certain obvious features of his style. (Think also of Del Toro’s mad artist in the French Dispatch, who must draw a realistic sparrow for the art dealers to recognize his talent and to fully embrace the intentional nature of his more abstract style—it’s as if like these critics are berating Anderson for not sticking with realistic Sparrows)
When I go to the movies it’s always in the hope I will see something that will change my life. Same way I listen to a record, go to a concert or pick up a novel, or read a poem. Anderson—keeping things deep and strange, hilarious and so so sad—always seems to honor that impulse in a way that I am very grateful for.
we are on the same page!
thank you for defending this movie which touched my heart and also left me at the ending with a sudden, heaping half-sob i muffled. god it can feel hard to believe and hope. thanks
aw thanks!
Bravo for finding some human element in WA’s flick. Cheers for pointing out the Stravinsky choices. Even if he made no departure in this latest flick, it always looks original and his music choices expose the rare and familiar brilliance of many genres. They are spot on with the atmosphere he creates. And yes, I hated Phoenician.
Aw Julie! Thanks for commenting! We will hash this out more in person!
I propose bringing back lashings for incompetent critics!
for me that is too far, although I have some old DownBeats from the '50s lying around here somewhere that can provoke the fantasy of extreme measures
I'm loving The Rehearsal. Only up to season 1, episode 4 but I totally get it, in the same way that I got Stella and Flight of the Concords. Absurd feels good to me. I love having to figure out what's real, what's scripted, why I'm feeling uncomfortable, why I'm laughing..... and sometimes I don't bother figuring. I just go with the feeling it gives me. Great parallels to music.
The finest thing on television is Dr. Henry Louis Gates' monumental series "Finding Your Roots," which, among other things, puts an intimate, human face on slavery, and on the conditions that brought millions of Europeans, especially the Irish escaping the potato famine, and Jews escaping centuries of persecution. And whose descendants gave us, among other things, the "Great American Songbook" and the scientific expertise that helped us win WWII. As it documents the struggles, achievements, and huge contributions to our country of these millions, it exposes the lies currently being told about immigrants, and the utter stupidity of rejecting them.
And musically, the greatest thing on television is arguably the 1957 live CBS special, "The Sound Of Jazz," which let all of America see and hear several dozen of the musical giants who happened to be in New York on that Sunday. We saw Basie leading a band that included many past veterans, and sitting in the curve of the piano digging Monk. We saw Billie digging the musicians accompanying her, especially Prez during his lovely solo. We heard tenorists Hawkins and Webster, clarinetists Russell and Giuffre, trumpeters Eldridge, Newman, and Rex Stewart, trombonists Dickenson and Wells. Mulligan, Rushing, and Jo Jones. The program's direction, camera work, and sound is all musically first rate. Thankfully, the program is still around on DVD, although video is a bit fuzzy.
And there's the 1959 followup in the same series, "The Sound Of Miles Davis," in which we saw him with a working band that included John Coltrane, and with the Gil Evans orchestra.
I was thinking about THE SOUND OF JAZZ recently because it was the Nat Hentoff centennial, I'm going to try to write something. My comment on his passing a few years ago: https://ethaniverson.com/2017/01/08/blues-for-the-old-man-of-jazz/
And Nat was one of several jazz people who combined to so many great moments. One the many was the last group which contrasted the styles of Pee Wee and Giuffre, and faded as Pee Wee had responded so perfectly to Jimmy's solo. And all those perfectly chosen camera shots.
Since you've gone a little far afield :), I'd like to know how I can respond to your article in the Nation about Slug's? I didn't see any place to do it. I have a great story I think you'd find interesting about when I went there to hear Pharoah Sanders.
I guess you could comment on one of my related posts, like this one
https://iverson.substack.com/p/tt-478-interstellar-hard-bop
As the real and metaphorical planes of government, banking, and healthcare systems continue to crash, perhaps we could do well to be the real and metaphorical 737 pilots and reformed Business magnates the world needs. Also, Like Stravinsky and Bach in the Anderson film, the Evanescence song in the Rehearsal while exceedingly humorous, is ultimately used poignantly and is not necessarily played for irony.
great comment. The return of Evanescence in episode six is in its own category
I find Nathan Fielder very funny but also casually cruel. Surprised that others I respect don’t react this way!
His deep doubling down might be the innovation of a thought-provoking artist. OR, it might be an (ingenious) way for him to disguise the fact that he’s ultimately hosting a newfangled version of Candid Camera.
Total agreement with you on Wes Anderson. I think of him as a master cartoonist, in the lineage of Hergé.
H'mm. "Casually cruel" and "newfangled version of Candid Camera" sounds like NATHAN FOR YOU, which I have trouble watching, for I am too embarrassed for the hapless victims. Maybe THE REHEARSAL can be a bit cruel, but the supreme effects generated by the vast edifice of artifice transcend conventional ethics...or at least that's how I rationalize it LOL. At any rate, THE REHEARSAL is hardly casual.
Wes Anderson can never be forgiven for what he did to the great Seu Jorge.
Huh. I thought LIFE AQUATIC was crucial for the international career of Seu Jorge