The Royal Tenenbaums is the greatest movie ever.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

Discuss.

[JVS]

1. No. Strange Brew was better

[meegbear]

2. Yeah, so take off eh?

[bif]

3. Great acting job

Good movie. But greatest movie ever? Hmmm...

[Emboldened Chimp]

4. Good, but a tad overrated

Rushmore and Bottle Rocket were better. Tanenbaums was too long and Danny Glover's character was superfluous.

Definitely not the greatest movie ever, but it was good.

[RandomKoolzip]

5. No, Rushmore is.

Right director, wrong flick. I've seen Rushmore 50 times, and laughed/cried EVERY DAMN TIME, whereas I've seen RT once and never felt the need to see it again. It was good, just not mythically gobsmacking like Rushmore was and is.

[tridim]

18. Agreed 100%

Rushmore is much better than TRT. IMO, Bill Murray's Mr. Blume is one of the top 10 characters in cinema history.

"Take dead aim on the rich ones, get them in your crosshairs, and take them down" -Herman Blume

Relax Ashkkkroft, it's just a figure of speech.

[VolcanoJen]

6. Well, I *was* the only person I even knew who adored that movie!

Saw it in the theater, bought it on DVD the day it came out, raved about it, lent it to all my friends. They returned it with a "well, it was ok..." comment.

:-(

"Well, everyone knows Custer died at Little Bighorn. What this book presupposes is... maybe he didn't." - Eli Cash

Thanks for recognizing the obvious greatness of this film, Lord Byron. :D

[Melodybe]

7. I agree it is one of my all-time favorites.

I liked Rushmore and Bottle Rocket but TRT makes me happy whenever I watch it.

[RandomKoolzip]

8. And more great Eli quotes:

"Wildcat....wildcat....rowr......wildcat....hmmm."

Plus, the paintings over the furniture in Eli's apartment made me throw up popcorn from laughing so hard. It really is a great movie, but feels laborious and a little overcooked next to Rushmore (which is my personal vote for THEE greatest movie ever.)

[Screaming Lord Byron]

10. God, the paintings. Exactly what you'd expect in a mad junkie author's pad

Wes Anderson is America's finest modern director.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

9. Yeah, I kinda set this thread up to see if I was the only one that loved

TRT, with regards to the 'film you loved that others didn't' thread.

[FunBobbyMucha]

11. A fine film, but not the best

for the Anderson/Wilson crew, that would be Rushmore hands down. And as for the best film ever made (not counting Citizen Kane and The Godfather), look to the Coen Brothers' "Miller's Crossing." Every line is a gem, every shot a perfect photo.

Also on the list somewhere:

Ghost World, American Splendor, Virgin Suicides, and Lost in Translation.

[RandomKoolzip]

15. I'm so glad somebody brought up Ghost World....

Wasn't it kind of spooky how that film came out in late aug/early sept '01, asking all kinds of questions about the lack of meaning in life, and asking all kinds of questions about the widespread cynicism of American youth, and asking us whether there was something to affirm after one had exhausted one's reserve of irony....and then BOOM, 9/11 happened? I thought that was sort of odd. Ghost World disappeared right after that, and I didn't hear too many people talking about it hence. But it's a fantastic film.

I agree with everything on your list, but would add Crumb and Haroold and Maude. American Splendor was a bonafide classic...

[Atman]

12. Royal's, Rushmore? No...Igby Goes Down!

has them both beat!

[Screaming Lord Byron]

13. Really? I preferred Tadpole myself.

Nothing much happens in IGD

[Loonman]

17. Catcher in the Rye redux

And a bad one, at that.

[mitchum]

33. you are very wise, Loonman

[theemu]

21. Yuck.

As far as the pantheon of Salinger-inspired films goes (Rushmore and Royal Tenenbaums being fairly high on the list), I'd rank Igby Goes Down at the very bottom. A ridiculous, uninspired mess of a movie. I actually felt like I was watching the first short story by an untalented seventeen year old who thought Holden was cool but that he could one-up Salinger.

[Brotherjohn]

14. Great film! I can't wait for "The Life Aquatic".

That's his next film with Bill Murray playing Steve Zizzou, famed French oceanographer/biologist (in the mode of Jaques Cousteau, I guess) travelling the world on a boat with his motley crew.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

16. How cool does that sound!

[tridim]

20. I'm already LOL at Murray talking with a French accent

:) We already know he can do it from "Groundhog Day"..

[TopesJunkie]

19. It is great.

No argument there.

[Character Assassin]

22. That film was a goddamn sleeping pill.

Not. Funny. In. The. Least.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

23. Living up to your name, right?

[Character Assassin]

25. No. The film has no character, thus nothing to be assassinated.

To paraphrase Groucho Marx: "This is not a film to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown, with great force."

[JanMichael]

26. Taste being subjective and all I'll have to disagree.

It was far from a "sleeping pill" and...wait...Maybe it is for some people I suppose but most here apparently don't feel the same way you do.

I fall somewhere in the middle. I liked the movie quite a lot but I think it was over-rated from the get go (or Gitmo).

I also think that it was never intended to be a "Something About Mary" type of "funny" either. Much of the humour was based on some severe, not very funny, pathologies.

[Character Assassin]

27. Something about Mary wasn't really very funny.

Sure, her retarded brother was good for some yuks, but that was about it.

[JanMichael]

28. What movie would you call funny?

All I've heard so far are the ones you don't like.

[Character Assassin]

29. Kingpin, Home for the Holidays, Young Frankestein,

Four Weddings and Whatever, etc....

[JanMichael]

30. Kingpin is one of my favorites. An all around funny movie.

Woody walks into the house and announces that he's milked the cows, of course with a milk moustache (he's sampled the fresh milk), they reply that they don't have any cows...Bwah! Loved it.

Home for the Holidays is not one that I personally care for but Young Frankestein is another classic.

[joeybee12]

24. An amazingly over-rated, mediocre movie--very, very disappointed

with it. I really wanted to like it, but it's clear what Hollywood considers cutting edge and different is just repackaged crap.

[jobycom]

31. It wasn't even bad-- it was just barely there

Predictable when it thought it was quirky, not much depth, pedantic, and it reached for emotions it didn't earn. Much like most of Hollywood's films.

Best ever, in my book: Amadeus. Complex script, original plot, creative film techniques I'd never seen before (the way the sheet music played as the characters read it, for instance), and excellent acting. The Director's Cut is weaker, though.

[mitchum]

32. A movie for people too lazy to read Salinger

God, I hate Wes Anderson's tripe

[oustemnow]

34. wow, hadn't considered that angle

but it's dead-on. I was really disappointed in this flcik, after hearing all of the accolades thrown on it. It was just OK in my book, and it had this annoying Big Chill feel to it though. I did think the attempted suicide scene with the Elliott Smith song was a very effective use of music in film, though.