The Darjeeling Limited (2007) - Anderson beautifies but still wins with India-journey favorite

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+ Best Dramedy of the Year

Three Westerners explore colorful India in Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited

QUICK REVIEW:

Three American brothers, who have recently lost their father, gang up as older brother Francis (Owen Wilson (She's Funny That Way (2014))) wants them to go on a spiritual bonding journey through India to their mother, a nun in the Himalayas, who doesn't want to see them.

It is too easy to do as some and write Darjeeling off as just a piece of quirky indie-fashionable exotic-East-hipster-pornography, and the film is admittedly also that. The three brothers are excessively eccentric, rich and cool, - but also entertaining and well-played by Wilson, Adrian Brody (Midnight in Paris (2011)) and Jason Schwartzman (The Overnight (2015)). Anjelica Huston (Addams Family Values (1993)) has a good time and a good part as their mother, while Bill Murray (Groundhog Day (1993)) has a teeny, tiny part. And Natalie Portman (Léon (1994)) and Schwartzman in Darjeeling have to be the movie couple of the year!
The story, by master co-writer-director Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)), Roman Coppola (Moonrise Kingdom (2012)) and Schwartzman, is rich, very unpredictable and ripe with beautiful moments, wherein the film's superior visuals really get to work their magic. Once again excellent work by cinematographer Robert D. Yeoman (The Squid and the Whale (2005)).
Darjeeling Limited is a film to treasure! Long live post-modernism!

Related posts:
 
Wes Anderson:  2014 in films - according to Film Excess
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - A very very good dream 
Moonrise Kingdom (2012) - A 1960s island youth romance present 
2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch the inspiring, resplendent trailer for the film here

Cost: 17.5 mil. $
Box office: 35 mil. $
= Minor flop
[Much of the film was shot on location in Rajasthan, India and in New York. The film is dedicated to great Indian director Satyajit Ray. It won the Little Gold Lion in Venice, garnered good reviews and made 11.9 mil. $ (34 % of its total gross) in North America.]

What do you think of The Darjeeling Limited?

Midnight in Paris (2011) - Allen's zany (and a little depressing) crowdpleaser

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+ Best Paris Movie of the Year

Owen Wilson walks around in Vincent Van Gogh's classic Paris painting Starry Night on the poster for Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris

An American couple are in Paris, where the woman's father is finishing a business deal. Her husband is working on his first novel, although she wants him back at Hollywood screenwriting. But every night by midnight, he gets transported back to the bohemian Paris of the 1920s!

Owen Wilson (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)) is surprisingly reliable and efficient here, leading a strong ensemble cast with Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose (2007)) and Adrian Brody (The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)) as Salvador Dalí as other luminous stars here in master writer-director Woody Allen's (Anything Else (2003)) beloved fantasy romcom.
The philosophical point of the film; that life is fundamentally unsatisfying, and that other places in time and other physical locations than the ones that we inhabit are always idealized,-  is classic Allen.
Midnight in Paris is an enthusiastic and beautiful Paris-set movie, (cinematography by Darius Khondji (Irrational Man (2015)).) It's a sweet, charming story, reminiscent of Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), although that's less sweet, and I prefer that film slightly.
One reservation: Why does the present have to be so intensely awful and depressing?

Related posts:

Woody Allen: 2014 in films - according to Film Excess 

Magic in the Moonlight (2014) - Allen's irresistible French Riviera romance
Fading Gigolo (2013) - Turturro's pleasant turn as a high-end NY prostitute  (as actor)
Blue Jasmine (2013) - Allen presenets Blanchett, a woman under the influence
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
To Rome with Love (2012) - Woody Allen's slightest film to date  
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess 
Cassandra's Dream (2007) - Allen's well-laid but inconsequentiel English cul-de-sac  
Anything Else (2003) - Perfect contemporary relationship comedy    
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) - Allen's hypnotic, noirish shenanigans 
Celebrity (1998) or, Stars in New York 
Celebrity (1998) or, Beautiful Celebrities Talk About Sex (guest review) 
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) - Sin and guilt up for laughs and rumination in unspectacular Allen work 
Broadyway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart   
Annie Hall (1977) or, My Relationship with Alvie Singer   
Bananas (1971) - Woody Allen's South American misadventure is still a barrel of laughs   
Casino Royale (1967) - The packed spy spoof frontrunner, a film very much of its time (as actor) 

Woody Allen with Rachel McAdams and Owen Wilson during shooting of Midnight in Paris

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 17 mil. $
Box office: 151.1
= Huge hit
[Allen scored one of his career's biggest commercial hits with Midnight in Paris, which critics and audiences alike welcomed eagerly: Allen won his 4th Oscar yet for his original screenplay, and the film was also nominated for Best Picture, Director and Art Direction. It made 56.8 mil. $ (38 % of the total gross) in the US, and was a particularly huge hit abroad in Italy (8.9 mil. €) and France (8.4 mil. €).]

What do you think of Midnight in Paris?