Twenty years ago,Bill Murraysat perfectly center of frame in an ornate Italian theater near the Mediterranean.
The sedate audience within the auditorium barely reacts.
With his usual understated detachment, Murray responds, No, I dropped the camera.
Only then does the crowd respond with a wave of giggles.
Why are they laughing?
Steve whispers to his moderator.
What would be the scientific purpose of killing it?
Its a hell of a line that still slays thanks to Murrays natural aloofness matching Andersons visual deadpan.
Unfortunately, ever since its own real-life cool reception,The Life Aquatichas rarely been mentioned in that company.
To this day, it even sits at a glum 57 percent positive on Rotten Tomatoes.
It is time to putLife Aquaticon the A-squad.
Anderson knows what it means to be a storyteller who assembles a trusted team.
Andersons movies are of course unmistakable.
And theyve become virtual case studies in understanding what an auteurs stamp means for film students around the world.
But they are not the beginning and end of his vision.
In fact, theyre often just supplemental expressions of the broader stories and worlds they inhabit.
By and large, these characters are also men who yearn to live in a world of artifice.
Steve captures it all in his (and Andersons) own pleasing image.
Steve has constructed a magnificent but insular bubble around his life.
Its his own little world that is as beautiful, and fleeting, as a night at the theater.
When the show is over, there is nothing left to experience.
And when the curtain is down, the reality is also not nearly so clean.
Nonetheless, all around him is darkness.
They also trap Steve and his crew in a brutalist desaturation uncharacteristic of most Anderson films.
Apparently he spent too many days in a wetsuit.
Youre all getting incompletes; and Goldblum shrugging, Weve never made great husbands, have we?
Of course, I have a good excuse.
But those are all supporting roles, and sometimes little more than cameos.
Its a poignant creation between director and muse that makesThe Life Aquatica milestone film in both mens filmographies.
Thats cool enough for its own subhead.
