reviews & screens

THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU (2004): A CAPTIVATING ADVENTURE

           “This is an adventure.”

           A movie within a movie. For me, it was the best Wes Anderson experience I ever had, in spite of being one of the most underrated of his filmography. The adventure in this particular film is about family. Family is an adventure, not only Zissou’s journey with his son, but also Zissou Team in Belafonte the ship, in search for Esteban’s killer – which, by the way, is another thing that I really was fond of: all the aquatic life was beautifully crafted in stop-motion, giving us the impression of a fantastic world only seen by the Zissou crew.

           Another element that really made this film unique was the soundtrack. Wes Anderson showed us his love for David Bowie in his own way: Brazilian singer and actor Seu Jorge covered some of Bowie’s most brilliant songs only with his guitar, and it was so natural and spontaneous and beautiful. I love the way Wes Anderson puts the melancholy in his films, especially in this one, in which you can see the bitterness of Zissou, at the same time he still has the determination of a child when it comes to his own films and the Zissou team.

“THIS IS NOT AN EXIT” (with spoilers)

               The experience of watching this film made me realize how much society is cruel, and, worse than that, the way it tries to deny it, euphemize it. When Bateman says that his confession has meant nothing, he is showing us how unaware everyone around him acts (how indifferent his lawyer was to his confession, for instance; how people ignored him when he told them he actually killed people). Of course that, through the narrative and plot, we can see it was all inside his head (by the way, this is the constant discussion the film/book leaves to us to “decide”); however, the message it tries to send us revolve around cruelty, hypocrisy, and our tendency to purposely ignore things when, instead, we could be helpful.

               After watching and later reading American Psycho, one could spend hours talking about it and the issues it brought up. The critics who shame the story use the argument of sexism (because of all the graphic women deaths it depicts), and how indeed the characters were all so sexist, racist, and homophobic. Nevertheless, I see this literature work (and later a feature film) as a strong, explicit satire; furthermore, it should have all this negative characteristics included to show how the elite thinks of minorities, which is an unfortunate reality.

               Speaking of acting performances, directing, screenplay, and cinematography, besides the great adaption from book to film, I only have positive things to recall. Christian Bale still impresses with his amazing American accent, Oscar deserving performance: he was successful in depicting the shallowness and arrogance of Patrick Bateman. One of the various weirdest things that made this serial killer be so unusual (besides killing random people, which was even more horrendous in the book) was his describing artists’ careers with enthusiasm before murdering or severely hurting his victims.