Stop-motion. Willem Dafoe as a cute giddy simp. Bill Murray navigating his fame, leadership, and fatherhood as both a literal father and a father to his followers. There being nothing classier than a father and son bonding over who gets to be romantically involved with a guest. Indecisive accents. Meta projecting onto a fictional filmmaker. Cate Blanchett just in general. Yeah, good enough for me as lovey-dovey as this was even on Wes Anderson’s turf.
Anywho, I’m officially a Wes Anderson completionist now! Yay my life still feels no different than it did before! Yay!
Also, really odd how Life Aquatic is essentially Wes Anderson (correctly) predicting that the future of his career will be critiqued and demeaned by Wes Anderson phase one purists as he attempts to simultaneously deal with and nurture the Wes Anderson phase two purists. He knew that they would turn their backs on him as soon as he became obsessed in his own creative adventure. Nice. The benefits and drawbacks of doing s**t for yourself.
Verdict: B-
“The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” is now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
Burning the Celluloid 
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