on the downside this was annoyingly cutesy and the resolution felt much more manipulative and contrived than in darjeeling. but just like in darjeeling i couldn’t help but admire the joy anderson takes in his cutesiness and his resolution. nothing about the resolution was interesting, emotionally real, or emotionally satisfying to me, but you really get a warmth from how much he clearly likes to feel good at the movies.
i really liked the use of zissou’s own films and especially his scores. the guitarist also i thought was great so i wish he would have just left out any actual pop songs altogether. the design details were fun but a big source of the cutesiness for me (along with the non-realistic effects on a movie with a $50 mill budget.) i’d say they got in the way but there wasn’t really anything to get in the way of. i liked defoe’s character but i would have liked a non-name there to emphasize his confusing nature. especially his angry appreciation of the flag on the helicopter.
