BOTTLE ROCKET
I have something of a love/hate relationship with Wes Anderson’s films so I approached this, his debut feature, with the hope that it might be a bit looser than his later hermetically sealed work. So it’s about a couple of guys who, like a lot of Anderson’s protagonists, combine innocence, melancholy and delusion. Dignan (great name) is played by Owen Wilson and is someone under the delusion that he is competent although underlying his bravado lurks a lot of insecurity. His friend Anthony (played by Luke Wilson) starts the film leaving a mental hospital. We’re never told why he was there other than 'exhaustion’ which I think points to depression. Dignan is seeking a life of crime with the help of Anthony and a rich but downtrodden friend of theirs, Bob. Cue an amusing raid of a bookstore followed by hiding out in a motel. Rather surprisingly the film then kind of stalls as Anthony starts a romance with a Paraguayan housemaid Inez, Eventually all three frien...