The Whimsical Adventures of being Quirky

The Whimsical Storybook life of Wes Anderson.

For this week’s assignment we were to watch 3 movies from a selected director, and review themes that seemed to run through all of their works. And since I had just recently seen the very charming Moonrise Kingdom and had fallen in love with it. I have always heard that Wes Anderson was obsessed with showing and integrating a storybook look into his movies as well as having a cast of very quirky enjoyable characters. Everything seems to move at a slower pace. There is a sense of relaxed intensity, for lack of a better term. The films move at their own pace, with a somewhat poetic verbal style. His style of storytelling has a romantic charm to it that often nets him praise from fans and critics alike.

One of the main themes I have noticed in the movies of his that I have seen is a strong influence and visual style of a children’s storybook. Wes Anderson uses a lot of flat staging with interesting compositions. He often seems to shoot scenes with the focal length of the camera set very high. This gives a very flat appearance to the image, a flatness that allows him to manipulate the composition and overall give that somewhat graphical appeal of a children’s book. He also often uses onscreen motion graphics to either tell the passage of time or reveal other story elements. These graphics hover onscreen as though they would appear in a book.

Wes also has a very particular set of preferences, from the types of stories he tells, to the characters and actors he likes to use and portray. Anderson's films feature many of the same actors, crew members, and other collaborators. Bill Murray has been in every Wes Anderson movie I have seen, and  Noah Baumbach worked with Anderson on  The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Fantastic Mr. Fox, with Anderson co-producing his film The Squid and the Whale. He has characters he likes and people he likes to portray them. Characters often have very strong motivations whether the motivations are dramatic or quirky the viewer always knows exactly what they want and are excited to see how they will go about getting it.

 In Rushmore for example, the main character wants nothing more then the simply go to Rushmore (his school) forever, as well as he has fallen in love with one of his teachers. These are very clear goals and watching them go about getting to their objective is clear, quirky, and enjoyable. Similarly, in Moonrise Kingdom, Sam Shakusky a 12 year old orphan has fallen in love with Bill Murray’s (Walt Bishop) characters Daughter, and the two attempt to run away together. Sam’s goal is to be with Suzy at all costs and they run away into the forest together. His motivation and actions all line up with his characters desires.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is the most like a storybook since it is told in the form of a stop motion animated feature.  Another theme is We Anderson movies seems to be the idea of broken love. In both Moonrise Kingdom, and Rushmore Bill Murray plays a man whose marriage is falling apart, and both movie include characters that have a love interest that they cannot be with. Sam (in Moonrise Kingdom) wants to be with Suzy but Suzy’s parents will not allow them to be together. On a similar thread, Max Fischer is in love with his school teacher but the world seems to be against them being together.

Wes Anderson is a very particular director, and his movies all exude his unique sense of cinematography and style. 

Political Ad Readings

Political Add Analysis:

Dominant Reading:

     Right off the bat Obama Looks downtrodden and weak. He is presented with an almost regretful look upon his face. The colors are grayed out and a dirty filter is applied giving me the feeling of tired and beaten. Right away they attack the president on Record on creating jobs. Hes doing exactly the opposite of what he said he would do. This is a setup for us to now question anything he says or does and instantly sets us up as a viewer to be wary of anything he says to us, even if its good and right. "the Facts are clear" lets me know that what comes next is going to be the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It sets up a dichotomy of Obama lies, "we" are telling you the truth. You cant trust Him, but you CAN trust "Us".

     It goes on to produce a series of facts reinforcing what they have just told the viewer, comparing him to the rest of the previous presidents and cementing that he has created more debt then all the other president combined, painting him as the worst president in history (in regards to debt). It displays a dollar amount that is our debt that scrolls quickly getting high er and higher highlighting how quickly he is running the country into the ground. This number increases very quickly enforcing the concept that Obama is rushing us to the precipice of financial collapse. it then goes on to rip a graphic of a dollar bill in half, subconsciously referring as much o the weakness of the US dollar as well as the fact that he is borrowing so much money. It is at this point where the video highlights the face that Obama is borrowing a lot of money from China. and the screen is filled with red, reminiscent of the Red scare during the cold war with the Russians.
   
     The video then ends reinforcing the face that he is wasting money he is borrowing, and the add ends on a similar not as it began with s gritty picture of the President except this time he is smiling with the graphics "we can't afford 4 more years". However this time he is smiling smugly, leaving me with the impression that he does not care about the debt he has caused and leaving me with a slightly bad taste in my mouth for his attitude.

Oppositional Reading:

     This ad, like pretty much every political ad ever made is just full of halve truths and misinformation. First of all they attempt to make the president look bad by visually making him look down, hes taken his eye of the goal. it projects weakness. Its a visual manipulation. Debt becomes the Biggest word on the screen making Debt the only issue on the table when thinking of Obama for reelection. Disregarding the other positive things he has done for the economy and for the rest of the country. This add solely focuses on how Obama is driving our debt to insane level and doing it irresponsibly, however it does nothing to tell us what he was given. It talks about how he is creating more debt then the previous 43 president combined. but that is such a misleading "Fact". all 43 presidents  i'm pretty sure George Washington couldn't have possibly created anywhere near 1 million dollars of Debt, let alone a million or a trillion. The number is so huge i would have a hard time reading anything at the bottom  where it talks about Debt withheld by the public... which doesn't seem to be something Obama has direct control over anyways. all of this is for shock factor and surface level. TO trick people into thinking "Whoa that a huge number i dont want that debt for my family let alone the country."

     This add tries to make a very strong visual connection between Chine and the Red Scare of the Soviet Union during the cold war. this ad is aimed at voters of all ages but this part is especially targeted to older voters who lived through the red scare. Drawing the parallel would instantly make them hesitant and cause them to develop negative association with Obama and a perceived alliance with en evil "Red" nation. This add is all about scare tactics, they are subtle but they make the viewer concerned that Obama will/has not only driven our country financially into the ground, but he is also putting us under the thumb of the "diabolical"
China. However, in reality China is extremely dependent on us as we are to them and have openly stated that they will not use the debt against us. (whether you believe such things is up to you). They also try to paint a picture that Obama is not simply wasting money, hes doing something far worse. Borrowing and then wasting.... but in order to use money you have to borrow it. its a repeated statement. and whether its "borrowed" or not, waste is just waste, adding the extra borrowing to the equation doesn't really make it all that mush worse, plus they don't really give any clear indication or fact of where all of this money is coming from, they just insinuate China being the main borrower with no source for their information.


Final Statements:

In the end, all political adds are completely stuffed with misdirection, deceit, and false "facts". And my critique of this add would apply to any Obama ads as well. Politicians lie, its as simple as that. and their adds seem to contain a lot of similar tropes. Most i have seen focus around the idea that : "You cant trust my opponent, he has lied to you in the past, but me... i'm the REAL deal, and i will never lie to you, you can trust me." I'm not trying to pick on Mitt Romney or Obama. I am trying to be an impartial judge of a political ad.