Fantastic Mr. Fox
Directed by Wes Anderson. Written by Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach, based on the book by Roald Dahl. With George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Wallace Wolodarsky, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe and Owen Wilson. (PG)
Fantastic Mr. Fox manages a neat bit of sleight-of-hand in its 87 minutes: it makes you forget that it isn't yet a classic. The new animated film from director Wes Anderson (The Darjeeling Limited), based on the 1970 book by Roald Dahl (who also wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), is so richly and lastingly rewarding that when watching it one has the feeling of revisiting a treasured memory.
To be sure, that's partly due to Dahl's Robin Hood story, which already is a treasured memory for many. But more than that, it's because of Anderson's vision. In an era when technical breakthroughs in animation follow hard on each other's heels, Anderson decided to shoot his film in the comparatively ancient style of stop-motion animation. Making use of highly posable figurines, the process—essentially unchanged since it was used in the original King Kong—is a time consuming pas de deux: the figurines are posed in a set and photographed, minute adjustments are made—an eyelid half-closed—and another photograph is taken. String enough together and the result is like the slightly jerky illusion of a child's flipbook: a rough kind of magic.
That magic gives vitality to the story of roguish Mr. Fox (George Clooney), a reformed chicken thief who early in the film falls into his old habits, much to the consternation of his family-minded wife (Meryl Streep). When an occasional poultry poaching turns into a full-scale operation, local farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean declare war, bulldozing the Fox family home and driving all the local animals underground.
Even then, Fox knows he can't change his ways. "I'm a wild animal," he observes more than once, and if the film has a larger message, it's one of acceptance. Only when the animals embrace their essential natures do they come together as a community and present a united front against the farmers.
Co-writer Noah Baumbach proves a good foil for Anderson, providing a needed acid that pairs well with Dahl's darker side (it pays to remember that Dahl wrote the Bond movie You Only Live Twice) and helps counter the director's sometimes overcooked whimsy. His touch feels especially strong in Fox's relationship with his undersized son Ash (Jason Schwartzman), which recalls the family dysfunction of Baumbach's own film The Squid and the Whale.
For his part, Anderson gives new life to the stop-motion process largely by ignoring it—the film is shot not as a puppet play, but much like any other production, with close-ups and long shots and a careful attention to framing and lighting. His care with color is especially impressive—never have I seen such a panoply of yellows, golds, and ochres—and adds immeasurably to the film's feeling of age.
Yet there's never a doubt that it's a Wes Anderson picture. Anderson even helped design the clothes for the figurines, which mirror the director's own sartorial style. But for the first time since Rushmore, the director's penchant for preciousness pays off. Details that would be clanging false notes in his usual films (dictaphones, belt-mounted transistor radios) are charming additions in Mr. Fox. All the fussy mannerism of his last films, it turns out, is perfectly suited to a world where Anderson doesn't have to compete with a mundane reality.
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Also this week: On Saturday morning, Amherst Cinema plays host to a one-day-only event when it screens Emily Dickinson: The Poet in Her Bedroom in an 11 a.m. showing. Set in and around Amherst's famed local landmark—the Dickinson Homestead is where the poet spent most of her life—the film, which delves into some of the mystery surrounding Dickinson's years as a writer, was shot during the summer and fall of 2007 by filmmaker Ernest Urvater.
Famously reclusive, Dickinson nonetheless thrived until her death at age 55; nearly 2,000 unpublished poems were discovered after her passing, and the "Master letters," written to a mysterious love interest, have sparked imaginations for years. They make up the core of Urvater's film, along with the poet's curious meeting, in 1870, with literary luminary Thomas Wentworth Higginson. (It was largely a besotted Higginson who, with the help of Mabel Loomis Todd, propelled Dickinson to posthumous fame.)
The hour-long film, which is free of charge to members of Amherst Cinema, will be introduced by Dickinson Museum Director Jane Wald, and director Urvater will appear to discuss it. The Dickinson Museum's annual Open House will follow the screening; as is traditional, an anonymous donor will provide a rose for each of the first 179 visitors, one for each anniversary of the poet's birth.
Speaking of births: Amherst Cinema has continued a laudable local tradition started several years ago by the former owners of Pleasant Street Theater, namely the Baby Friendly Show, where infants are always welcome. Though it has migrated across the bridge, what was once a monthly affair has become a weekly Tuesday ritual, and while the exact showtimes vary, parents can generally expect a screening in the neighborhood of 2 p.m. (The selections are the theater's regular fare, not children's films.)
Part bonding time for new parents, part playdate—but mostly a welcome chance to get out of the house—it's a great way to catch up on new film without worrying about your little Ebert's very vocal critique.
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Back at Pleasant Street, the curators of the Emerging Filmmaker Showcase are putting out a call for entries. The monthly first-Wednesday screenings provide real-world exposure for filmmakers finding their voices, and the theater encourages budding auteurs to introduce their work and discuss it with the audience. All genres are welcome, save the explicitly sexual and gratuitously violent, and will be considered for "the passion and creative spark with which they are created." For more information, contact the curators at emerging@amherstcinema.org or visit the Amherst Cinema website.
Finally this week, Hadley's Cinemark theater gets in the holiday spirit when it brings in the nerd-hero mayhem of RiffTrax LIVE: Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza!, a live broadcast featuring the smart-alecky stars of cult TV hit Mystery Science Theater 3000.
For those not familiar with MST, it's essentially the experience of watching a laughably bad movie with a group of hilariously juvenile friends—the guys that, when Mothra attacks, crack wise about the safety of their underwear drawer. Targets here include animated Christmas specials, classic commercials, and—I kid you not—"a musical short extolling the virtues of pork." The hosts are joined in this iteration by '80s icon "Weird Al" Yankovic; the show gets underway on Wednesday at 8 p.m.
Jack Brown can be reached at cinemadope@gmail.com
