Stargrazingreviews

Some directors improve with popularity and age and others start with a spark that is diminished over time. Looking back Anderson's Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums and later Moonrise Kingdom stand fathoms ahead of his last 3 outputs, with compelling stories, characters, heart and needledrops that made him a fan favourite. Recently he's become consumed by aesthetics and his movies play like a characature of his peak. The once charming symmetry, over saturation, pastels and idiosyncratic characters are as distinctive as ever but without an emotional grounding they've moved from sweet to nauseating. I hope he finds his footing again as there's still some joy to be found in his worldbuiling but without substance it's hard to invest. Schwartzman is still as always a standout in the bloated cast and had cemented himself as Anderson's greatest on screen collaborator and Johansen plays her role mysterious and fun but the rest of the cast is largely underutilized especially the comedic brilliance of Steve Carrel. The absence of recognisable needledrops from the usual bag of the Rolling Stones, Kinks and Cat Stevens is disappointing too. I hope this is the movie that serves as a wake-up call and gets this once masterful director back to his roots but I feel it's just a step down the hill of his ever growing idiosyncratic ego trip.

Wes Anderson is joy. How one man can pack so much love, wit, comfort and visual delights into his entre filmology never fails to impress me and the turn from live action to stop motion is a match made in movie heaven as this simply looks beautiful. The way in which the models have actual animal hair so that the characters' faces appear flutter in the wind when the artistic move their features allows us to actually witness the film coming to life and see the stamp of the artist as we view the finished product, it's the cinematic equivelent of brushstrokes on a painting. The vocal cast is brimming with charming turns by recoginsable voices from Clooney, Streep, Murray, Schwartzman, Wilson, Dafoe, Brody and more and Alexandre Desplat's score is wonderfully exuberent and fun. It's in at under 90 minutes, fun for the family and adults and is a sweet treat that should not be discounted as merely a children's movie.

A smart, inventive and compact thriller with sharp gen z dialogue popping thoroughout the real scares in Bodies Bodies Bodies comes from the way these supossed friends treat eachother and use modern toxicity labelling as a way to attach eachother and victimise themselves rather protect others from harm. It has a lot to say and critique about the 'tiktok' generation but everytime it feels like this conversation is about to start circuling it slaps a grizzly body on the table to keep interests peaked. Pete Davidson is as always excellent in his comedic timing, mannerisms and delivery and Bulgarian Maria Bakalova (Borat 2) is a great foil for the nastiness of the entitled friendship circle and shows that she'll be one to watch in the future.