Wes Anderson
2007
91 minutes
Wes Anderson on a train! Owen Wilson has a broken nose and bandages on his head, which will be the hipster costume of the summer! Jason Schwarzman has a weird moustache and looks like a more fuckable Ringo Starr! The three main characters wear long flower necklaces. But then in a plot twist everyone back in the day and still to this day weirdly seems to hate this film in some kind of Wes Anderson backlash. When you were still being a stubborn contrarian and deliberately hadn't seen any Wes Anderson films, you couldn't decide whether this was more satisfying or intriguing. For a moment it seemed the vultures were circling and the more annoying fans were about to move on. You still avoided this, more out of habit than any kind of principle. But the vibe was noted.
The movie is fairly light and goofy in tone, but it becomes less-so if you watch it with its rather strange prologue companion piece first, a sad-and-horny 13-minute short called Hotel Chevalier that gives more of a backstory to Jason Schwartzman's character and is very different in tone from the actual film. You may have already experienced this in Section 167, but if you haven't then it's your choice whether you're going to experience that now or later or never. Section 188 is for The Darjeeling Limited and there isn't a separate section for the prologue, so it's up to you if you want to watch it or only know of it by secondhand reputation when you talk about this film with someone else. Your call.
As with most Wes Anderson movies, you're going to like this a lot more than you stubbornly thought you would, even if it isn't his greatest work. Maybe part of the reason people don't like this is because it's too different in tone, or the characters aren't likeable enough to want to emulate in even a quirky manner, or Luke Wilson's weird bandages are distracting and make it difficult to watch. In any case, it's your choice whether to do the homework and watch the prologue or not. Are you going to be a Wes Anderson completist after all these years avoiding him? HOW IRONIC!
Time to choose something different: