Formal Film Study: Wes Anderson's Most Popular Movies

For this Formal Film Study, I decided to focus on three of Wes Anderson’s most popular films: Rushmore (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2002), and Moonrise Kingdom (2012). Although his most recent film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, has received a lot of positive feedback, along with his animated movie, Fantastic Mr. Fox, these three are the most comparable live-action Wes Anderson classics. But why are they that popular?

The Wes Anderson style of film in these three movies is very different than the usual Hollywood style. It is quirky, awkward, and has a surrealist antique look to the film. The only thing similar with his three movies and the Hollywood style is that his endings are usually happy and/or are “feel-good”. The shots range from close-ups to landscapes but with little quick editing. The movie feels slow-paced, like real time, but does not feel slow. For example, in Moonrise Kingdom, there are many shots of Sam and

Suzy walking through the forest with little dialogue or much action. But you are still engaged with the shots. This could be partly due to the soundtracks with the movies which break the silence but do not over power the movie. The music is usually quirky itself but add to the feel of the story. Rushmore does this by having a certain orchestral song that is heard throughout the movie. Although Wes Anderson breaks from the mold and seems more like independent film, he does so in a way that draws people in. Wes Anderson had been a part on multiple levels of his movies, including writing, directing, and producing, making his movies truly Wes Anderson movies. They are good independent films with strong stories, recognizable actors, and interesting tones.

The characters are what made these movies correlate so much with each other. Bill Murray, for example, plays a lonely, romantically faulty middle-aged man in all three movies.

In Rushmore, he played the depressed, drunk middle-aged man who was just waiting around for a divorce. In The Royal Tenenbaums, he played a very successful neuropsychologist who was married to a cheating and distant wife who ends up hurting him so much that he says at one point, “Well I wanna die” then proceeds to try to eat a cookie. In Moonrise Kingdom, he plays the husband to another cheating wife but he keeps trying to rekindle their marriage while saving his nuisance of a family.

The overarching discovery from all of these movies is that they deal with people who do not follow the normal, beaten path in life. The characters in each movie take uncomfortably long pauses and show a somewhat lack of emotion, or an explosion of emotion. In Rushmore, the story focuses around Max Fischer, a 15-year-old boy who has great ideas but acts as if he is in his late twenties. The twist is, he is failing school and is in love with a teacher. In The Royal Tenenbaums, the character originate from a troubled household with a distant father who shows up claiming he has stomach cancer and wants to reform (or form) relationships with his family. In Moonrise Kingdom, the story centers around two preteens who run away together and fall in love. No one is normal in the movie and although many of the characters seem depressed or in need of therapy, they make the movie interesting. You are able to develop relations with the characters because they bring out quirkier emotions that you have felt before, like wanting to break down at the US nationals for tennis because the girl you love got married...although it is the adopted sister the sibling loves in The Royal Tenenbaums...

The small details were always very interesting in the movies. In Rushmore, there was an obsession with building an aquarium to impress a girl. The thought throughout the movie is that it would make her see that Max, and Herman, really do love her. Except, ironically in the end, she says that she never asked anyone to build her an aquarium and she doesn’t know who got that in their mind. In The Royal Tenenbaums, there was a reoccurring symbol of the Gypsy Taxi service. These very sketchy, beaten-up cars showed the humor that Wes Anderson would poke at cabs in general but also how some nice families would use such a service with ease. In Moonrise Kingdom, Suzy kept reading fantasy novels. These novels represented the dream-like feel of the movie and the life of a child.

Overall, it is no surprise these movies are some of Wes Anderson’s most popular. They have also been quite liked by critics. Rushmore received an 89% from critics and a 92% from the audiences. The Royal Tenenbaums received a slightly lower score with an 81% from the critics and an 89% from the audiences. Moonrise Kingdom received the highest critic score with 94% but the lowest audience score with 86%.

Overall, I give each of these movies a 4.5/5.