TheRoyalTenenbaums Tagged Articles at Cinematical

In the midst of some domestic re-shuffling, I'm finally looking to adorn the walls of my humble abode with the posters that I've stock-piled in the corners of my closet for far too long. The arrival of Mondo Tees' own Royal Tenenbaums print has been partially responsible for this renewed interest, and now that they have some new posters for sale, well... my wallet rues the day that I stumbled across their site.

First up is a series of Inglourious Basterds prints to tie in to last weekend's Cinemapocalypse event (which I'll let Jette fill you in on), with one design from Mondo staple Tyler Stout -- itself offered in two versions It seems that these have already sold out! -- and another from Print Mafia, showcasing the latest in Hitler target fashion.

Capping things off would be the Silent Giants' take on The Dirty Dozen, and you can find all of those right about here. Just make sure that you have the space for 'em. And the poster frames.

See some of our favorites below ...

There's a caveat or two with which I submit this list of our favorite con artists on film, to correspond with tomorrow's NY/LA bow of The Brothers Bloom (our review from Toronto is here; our interview with director Rian Johnson, there).

One: I have not seen the following -- David Mamet's House of Games, David Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner, and David Mamet's Frank Oz's Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I know, for shame, boo and hiss and so on and so forth.

Two: I've seen but don't fully recollect either The Grifters or Nine Queens enough to feel comfortable including them as if I had (I also missed the English-language remake of the latter, Criminal, though I've been told that's for the best). If I were a slier man, then maybe I could fittingly deceive the lot of you, but I'm not, so I won't.

While I don't doubt that the characters in those films would be worthy of a slot on our list, there are still at least seven other con (wo)men in the movies worth shining the spotlight on, and I do hope that you do think that may make do when all's said and done.

Most of you have probably already heard about this by now, but there's a movie-loving blogger who has decided to anonymously put up a new blog chronicling her last 90 days on Earth. Terminal disease? Nope -- she's committing suicide, she says. The lady is already down to Day 84 and every blog post she puts up elicits hundreds of comments from the fascinated, the concerned, the sarcastic, and the sadistic who are urging her on. No one knows if this lady is in the business of blogging or movies professionally, but movies appear to be a primary preoccupation of hers and she recently blogged about suicide attempts in movies such as The Royal Tenenbaums and Empire Records. She also gives a perfunctory reason for her suicide that, many have already noticed, is suspicious -- it's cribbed directly from Fight Club, and says that "our generation has no great depression, no great war." Her great depression is her life, I guess?

My sense is that the whole thing is a total put-on, even to the point that I don't feel bad about throwing attention to the site, since I don't feel like there's a real person at risk here. I could be totally wrong, but we're talking about a lady who just blogged about a guy who asked her out for Valentine's Day and quipped -- "I just hope he's not looking for anything long-term." Come on, give me a break. People on the verge of suicide are rarely so cogent or so full of humor. She also put up a nice pic of the Hollywood sign, near her anonymous location, and wrote "On my way back from Starbucks. I can say with absolute certainty that caffeine is probably the one thing that is keeping me going for the remaining 87 days." Uh-huh. That, and the book deal she's hoping to turn this into. And that's not an original thought on my part -- it's the conclusion at least one colleague has already reached.

It's about time. And, well, a little late. It would have made perfect sense to release a Criterion Collection DVD of Wes Anderson's Bottle Rocket last year, when it quietly celebrated its tenth anniversary. But hey, better late than never, right? While promoting his latest film, The Darjeeling Limited, Anderson told MTV Movies Blog that he's begun work on a Criterion edition of his debut feature. The director said there's a lot of stuff to go into it, including a lot of footage that was left on the cutting room floor. And certainly he will have to put his original black-and-white short, also titled Bottle Rocket, on there. For those Anderson fans who haven't seen it, the short is basically just early versions of scenes that ended up in the later film, including the part in which Dignan (Owen Wilson) and Anthony (Luke Wilson) rob Anthony's parents' house -- with the soundtrack set to jazz rather than Love. When I first saw it -- Lincoln Center screened it with The Royal Tenenbaums on the eve of that film's release -- I thought it was a little bit funnier than the full-length. But looking at it now, I just think it's a neat curiosity for the fans. You can check it out on YouTube if you aren't willing to wait to see if Criterion includes it.

Bottle Rocket can feel pretty slow and uneven compared to Anderson's later releases, all of which have already received the Criterion treatment. But the crime caper comedy does feature a younger, funnier Owen Wilson, back when he was even more wide-eyed and excited than we're used to now. And it does at least have the obligatory homages to J.D. Salinger (think of Anthony as a grown-up Holden Caulfield) that links it up with the rest of Anderson's work. The main thing missing, of course, is Bill Murray, who has appeared in all of Anderson's films after this one. Maybe, as I suggested last week, somebody can do a special alternate version in which Murray is inserted into the film, possibly replacing James Caan. That would be a fun bonus feature. Or maybe Anderson and Murray could stage some fake auditions (like the real ones on the Criterion Rushmore) where Murray tests for each of Bottle Rocket's characters. Currently there is no release date, nor any news on the Criterion site, for Bottle Rocket, but hopefully we'll hear more about it soon.