Bottle Rocket

1996 comedy

Rating: 14/20

Plot: Perpetual loser Dignan, criminally ambitious, forms a small-time crime team with friends Anthony and Bob Mapplethorpe. They flee town after the successful armed robbery of a bookstore. Anthony, following his recent "escape" from a mental hospital where he recovered from exhaustion, falls in love with a motel maid. More ambitious plans lie ahead, however, as Dignan works to align himself with a criminal mastermind/landscaping business owner.

This is a fine debut even if it doesn't quite seem like a complete Wes Anderson movie. There's a looseness and not nearly the attention to detail on display in his other movies. There are a few hilarious moments and more than enough of those typically Anderson quirky bits of subtle comedy. The characters never really evolve, but they're at least likable. The movie also never adds up to anything thematically. Anderson-regular Kumar Pallana is probably the funniest thing about this movie.