Delayed Reaction: The Fantastic Mr. Fox

The Pitch: Wes Anderson in animated form.

There's certain filmmakers that I wish I understood the appeal of. I'm always on the verge of "getting" Tarantino. David O. Russell sort of makes sense to me. Wes Anderson completely eludes me though. Few directors are as precise or idiosyncratic as he is. He has a distinctive voice and sense of humor, both of which are on on full display in The Fantastic Mr. Fox. It's never hooked me though. I keep hearing praise that he keeps getting better with each of his movies. I guess that's true. It seems like he's even more in command of his craft with each film. Mr. Fox isn't as polished as Moonrise Kingdom or The Grand Budapest Hotel, but it's more honed than The Royal Tennebaums.

What I think it comes down to is what I've heard people say about certain bands (AC/DC comes to mind): It feels like he's always making variations of the same movie. He's always doing the same thing, only with a different screenplay. There's a great deal of subjectivity to this of course. What some people call "his aesthetic" I could call "the same bag of tricks". One of these days, I'll figure him out. Until then, I'll continue to watch his movies perplexed by the level of adulation.

Specific to this film, it's charming. You don't get George Clooney, Meryl Streep, and Bill Murray into a film in any form and not get me to appreciate it on some level. I don't have a lot to say about it though. It's thematically sound. Structured well too. I didn't connect with the characters. It never stopped being a Wes Anderson movie as I watched it. And maybe that's my problem. Most movies I can forget that I'm watching a movie at some point. I can always get lost in a Scorsese movie no matter how undeniably a "Scorsese movie" it is. When I watch The Fantastic Mr. Fox, it's like there's a title card every 10 frames that says "Wes Anderson".

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend