#157 is our second Wes Anderson film and one of his most popular ones with a stellar cast. There is such a unique style to his films. I recently saw Asteroid City, so to compare these two films which are 20 years apart you still see the same oddities and framing and almost a storybook set.
This is basically a family drama with a lot of oddballs. To say more probably wouldn't do service so I'll hold up at that - my biggest issue with getting this done was finding a place to watch it since it's currently not on the Channel.
The only thing that I didn't like was that I guess Gene Hackman made it kind of hard on the Director. He was hoping for fun and light roles to wrap up his career, and I guess he was berating Wes hard enough that Bill Murray (who has been in a number of his films) showed up on his days off to keep an eye on things. Alternate fun fact, Bill was supposed to be in Asteroid City, but I guess he got sick and they had to sub with Steve Carell, which is fine too.
Anyways, it's a pretty good film from a creative director with a unique style. I can't say enough how much I like that whether in music, film, singing, or whatever. Someone who is able to do something no one else does or create what no one else thinks to create is always a winner in my book. The first thought I had was oddly, Yasujiro Ozu, who has that unique way of filming with the characters speaking directly to your face. No one else does what these directors do and apparently Ozu inspired Wes Anderson, so there you go.
See that was only a few weeks - not a year between entries :)
