Suggested Viewing
from
Jim's Real Detroit Column
7/15/99
When Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs launched his career, it was only natural that other filmmakers would try to emulate his success by making similar-minded films. In the next few years, so many movies followed the trend that words like "Tarantinoesque" began to show up in one review after another. Most of the pack tended to stick with formula--dialogue-driven films with explosive and graphic violence, incredibly mean attitudes, and characters that we loved on the screen but would never want to meet on the street. In 1996 two independent movies were released that, like Reservoir Dogs, were humor-filled botched-caper flicks. Unlike Dogs, Bottle Rocket and Palookaville have characters that are easy to like and aren't prone to wanton killing or maiming.
Bottle Rocket opens with Dignan (Owen C. Wilson) helping his friend Anthony (played by real-life brother Luke Wilson) to escape from a mental institution. Dignan thinks the breakout more diabolical than it was (Anthony could have just walked out), and convinces his buddy to embark on a career of crime. Their first attempt is a completely uneventful house burglary. Then ready to move up the criminal ladder, they enlist their pal Bob (Robert Musgrave) as a getaway driver and decide to rob a bookstore. To their dismay, disinterested customers and clerks couldn't care less about being robbed.
During these first ventures the gang seems more intent on having a good time than pursuing their criminal vocations. Things start to escalate when a real small-time crook (James Caan) inspires Dignan and company to take on a caper that gets them in way over their heads. No need to worry--director Wes Anderson (who co-wrote the screenplay with Owen Wilson) remembers just in the nick of time that the movie needs a happy ending.
Palookaville played the indie circuit to better reviews the same year. Not only is this another milder-mannered crime flick, it plays more like an old Italian or British caper film (the screenplay is adapted from a series of Italian short stories written in the 1940s). The opening sequence involves an inept gang of thieves breaking in to a jewelry store--almost. They bust through the wrong wall and find they've burgled a bakery...so they decide to make off with the doughnuts. When the Palookaville gang watch the movie Armored Car Robbery on TV, they plan to rob one themselves, leading to a climactic chase and the film's good-natured twist.
I enjoy a little mean-spirited fun as much as anybody (if anything, I'm often accused of watching too many grim films). Bottle Rocket and Palookaville make for a nice change of pace and, while not as cynical as the Tarantino-style urban crime dramas, both should please those fans as well.
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