Queue Tips: I scheme, you scheme.

I was kind of a Wes Anderson fan.  I liked most of his movies.  I was really excited when "Moonrise Kingdom" came out.  I had only watched it on video, and I regretted not watching it in the theatre.  My older kid Rusty was still too young for it at the time it came out, but he had watched "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and really enjoyed.  In fact, we had watched that movie over and over.

Later on, we watched "Isle of Dogs" and liked it, too.  So did my younger one Dusty.  And we watched that over and over.  Rusty even got into this phase of wanting to play the drums and tapping the beat from the movie again and again.

So when "Asteroid City" came out a couple of years ago, I thought it would be a good film to take Rusty to.  We don't go to the movies a lot, and I had a lot of high hopes for this one.  I wasn't too crazy about "The French Dispatch" but I thought he would bounce back with something better.  It would be the first non animated Wes Anderson film for him to watch.

Earlier that summer I took him to see the Spider Man movie.  Spoiler alert: it turned out to be a cliff hanger.  I asked him if he knew that, and he said yes.  So I told him he owed me.  And this was the payback.  He had to come with me to a movie of my choice.

So he didn't ask much about it.  I just told him the title.  I don't think he looked into it or anything.  He probably did hope he would like it.  He was not that excited, but overall he didn't complain either.

At some point during the screening, I think he whispered to me that it reminded him of "Fantastic Mr. Fox" or "Isle of Dogs".  I actually don't remember what he specifically said, but he did recognize the style.  

When I heard about this latest film, "The Phoenician Scheme", I wasn't too excited about it.  I knew I wasn't going to watch it in the theater.  And I'm glad I didn't.

For his previous movies, I really did enjoy the composition and camera movements.  And the deadpan delivery of the actors' lines was interesting before.  But this time around, the novelty has worn off.  It felt like Wes Anderson trying to imitate himself.  I commend the actors for their trust in the director, but I didn't really find their performances enjoyable.  Not that they were bad but the emotionlessness of it all also made me feel nothing for them.  And I've kind of gotten tired of stories about rich, powerful people.  I just don't identify nor empathize with their problems.  I much prefer the characters in the previous works, who were more ordinary and closer to everyday people.