Apex Mountain on The Rewatchables
49:56 – 55:47… of like I know Owen Wilson's in my movie. And in some real dogs. Yeah. I mean, okay. If we're going to jump into it here, which is fine because I have them at Apex Mountain. There is this is this is this is Mount Wilson as far as I'm concerned. Yes. But what's age the best? I mean, yeah, there's a special kind of alchemy that you can see. We hear let me put it this way. Recently, HBO put up this this Bee Gees documentary that is very entertaining. And unsurprisingly, the most entertaining talking head in the film is Noel Gallagher, formerly of Oasis. And one of his most quotable things that he says is the music …
The whole segment, as transcribed
Like literally like movies about dogs and like and then Luke Wilson's like what? Owen Wilson was the star of Marley and Me. No, but like that's what I'm saying. Like the Wilson brothers like like Luke Wilson's in like two or three dog movies outside of like I know Owen Wilson's in my movie. And in some real dogs. Yeah. I mean, okay. If we're going to jump into it here, which is fine because I have them at Apex Mountain. There is this is this is this is Mount Wilson as far as I'm concerned. Yes. But what's age the best? I mean, yeah, there's a special kind of alchemy that you can see. We hear let me put it this way. Recently, HBO put up this this Bee Gees documentary that is very entertaining. And unsurprisingly, the most entertaining talking head in the film is Noel Gallagher, formerly of Oasis. And one of his most quotable things that he says is the music that can be made with siblings singing together is it's an instrument that can't be bought in a store. It is one of the most priceless things imaginable and also one of the most fragile, obviously, in his own case. And the Wilsons are actual blood brothers, but Wes Anderson grew up with them in Texas, and they are as close as brothers. No one Wilson co-wrote this movie. And so there's a certain harmony at work with filmmakers, artists in this case, who just know everything about each other's strengths and play entirely to them. Right? Like, when you look at Owen as Eli and Luke as Richie, you're seeing what people who have known them their whole lives see in them. Yeah. And the spotlight shone on them. And so it's no surprise that they've never been this good again, because they've never been as completely vulnerable and seen before. Right? I mean, it's also just cool. Like, they're not, the same thing as in Bottle Rocket, where they also don't play brothers. Yeah. They're very, very different, and they have very different energies. And seeing those two energies connect like they do in this movie is, it's a thrill. I mean, they're, Luke is, you could have, you could have, you could have done a lot worse than buying a lot of Luke Wilson stock coming off of this movie. I randomly came across a clip of Luke Wilson, the deleted scene from Jackass 2, where Luke Wilson is just hanging out with the Jackass guys in like a Hollywood Hill, maybe his own Hollywood Hills home. I don't know. And he's just wearing like a, a navy blue golf shirt with the collar popped and is electrocuting himself with a 1940s telephone. Great. And I'm just like, you are Richie Tenenbaum. Like, this is just like, this is really real. Like, watching you, he seems so sad, but also wanting to like, get along with Johnny Knoxville and Bam Margera and Stevo. It's just, if you can watch it on YouTube, you gotta see it. It's really got a lot of pathos. It's really, it's really interesting that his whole, I mean, I guess it makes sense that it's, he's struggled finding worthy roles because what he's so good at in such a unique way is just mournful stillness. Yeah. Right. I mean, he's so slow and within himself and his brother is so the opposite and is so kind of hopped up and manic and external. And it's, it's, it's fascinating. As an extension of, of the Wilson, Mount Wilson, I think that's a great way of putting that. We can even, we won't even have to do Apex Mountain. But I do want to say that, uh, what's, what's aged the best is the Sunday New York Times Magazine cover of Eli Cash. Incredible. Um, and then my final, what's aged the best is, um, Henry and Ethel's relationship, which might be the most human and sort of recognizable relationship in the movie in a lot of ways. And is so sweet and tender and naturally evolving, even if it starts out as like Henry sort of being like, you know, for tax purposes, you should do this. But the kindness and, uh, the way it like kind of teases out these performances from Angelica Houston and Danny Glover. I agree with that. I mean, I, I, I ended up just kind of, because I think this movie is just so close to perfect and so totally contained within itself. Like I, I, I got a little more abstract with the category. I mean, I feel like Touchstone Pictures, producer Barry Mendel, like all their decisions to invest in Wes and let this be what it was going to be has aged really well. I'm sure a lot of the people involved had some doubts when it didn't become what they had hoped it would become. And it's in cleanup at the award season and people weren't really quite sure what to make of it. And, but it's, I mean, it's, it frankly, it's not just beautiful. It's inspiring when you see someone trusted and they just do it. I mean, it is, there's such a mastery at work here down to every detail. And in, in, in that Matt Zeller Seitz book, you can learn about some of the decision-making that just seems baked in now, but like the decision to recreate the book covers and then mosaic them across the screen. Right. And he was like, oh, he was inspired by, I think it was a Godard movie that did something similar, of course. But he also realized he had to mosaic them across the screen. So you had to fill the whole screen. And so every, like with every creative enterprise, a lot of these decisions were just like, well, we were just doing the best we could. But, but they turned into something kind of iconic. I would also say the underrated, but has aged really well in this movie is the physical comedy. There is no pure laugh. That's mostly stiller. It's partly stiller, but I think the single funniest laugh in the entire movie is when Angelica Houston and Danny Glover are walking at the archeological site. Oh, and he falls? And all of a sudden Danny Glover is not walking anymore. He does, he does an all time great fall and then just emerges. And it's so dumb and purely funny. And it's a sign of like a master because the humor is coming from like very cerebral level and also man fell in hole. So my, my what's aged the best, I'm going to go with the soundtrack.
72:22 – 79:35… else in this movie. Yes. Um, the... Half-Ass Internet Research. We've referenced a couple of these things, but I'll just... Wait, can we just... You skipped Apex Mountain because of the Wilson Brothers, right? Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. So the Apex Mountain, which we are renaming Mount Wilson. Um, and I would just say Owen Wilson in 2001 released Zoolander, Royal Tenenbaums, and Behind Enemy Lines. Is that possibly the greatest year in cinematic history? Uh, basically collapsing Tom Hanks' 90s into one year. Incredible. What do you think about it? Great point. Um, I would just say... I'm going to make a …
The whole segment, as transcribed
I don't think you recovered from Rachel's death. He's pitched at a different frequency than everyone else in this movie. Yes. Um, the... Half-Ass Internet Research. We've referenced a couple of these things, but I'll just... Wait, can we just... You skipped Apex Mountain because of the Wilson Brothers, right? Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. So the Apex Mountain, which we are renaming Mount Wilson. Um, and I would just say Owen Wilson in 2001 released Zoolander, Royal Tenenbaums, and Behind Enemy Lines. Is that possibly the greatest year in cinematic history? Uh, basically collapsing Tom Hanks' 90s into one year. Incredible. What do you think about it? Great point. Um, I would just say... I'm going to make a controversial statement, and I think it dovetails on who you were just floating potentially, scandalously, for Vincent Hanna Award there. Are you saying that Gwyneth gets Apex Mountain here? This might be Gwyneth's Apex Mountain as far as I'm concerned. It's definitely... Like, I don't want to say it's my favorite. Because I feel like, you know, the kind of guy who's like, Margot Tenenbaum is my shit, is definitely a kind of guy. And I don't think I am that kind of guy. No. I love jumpy women, but like, I don't think Margot is exactly my tempo. Look, there is a... It's tough to talk about this now, because Margot Tenenbaum has turned into an Instagram Halloween costume. Yeah. And in some ways, so has Gwyneth Paltrow. Yeah. And it's tough, especially for these kids, Craig, I feel for you, to remember there was a time when Gwyneth Paltrow wasn't known for conscious uncoupling or overpriced yoga eggs. She was known for being like the absolute shit. Like, she was considered like the best young actor in her graduating class. Yeah, and she was the person who would like two cigarettes at once. And her being in this movie wasn't like... She wasn't necessarily getting credit from Wes Anderson. You know what I mean? It was a two-way street at this moment in time. So it's sort of tough to remember that, too. It's also... Listen, you watch a lot more movies than I do, and you rewatch a lot more movies than I do. I struggle remembering the Gwyneth Paltrow performances from that golden era that I remember fondly, that I think of, that I reference. This is the one, to me, where she not only created what became an iconic character. You have to be iconic to become an Instagram meme or a whole lifestyle, like she did. But to do it with such firm control that every moment she's on the screen, she is bringing the backstory before we see it. You know, she's living the emotional truth of what is essentially, you know, a Salinger pastiche. Right? Right. It is my favorite of her performances for that reason, I think. I think there's some similarities. Not sadly, because Gwyneth Paltrow has gone on to have among the best lives. You know, she's a very well- She seems great. Compensated person who's just in control of her own destiny. I think there's an argument to be made that this is her last great movie. I mean, she's coming out of a really great run of talented Mr. Ripley and Shakespeare in Love. Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love. From Emma to 2001, Emma in 96 to Tenenbaums in 2001, she's one of the biggest actresses in the world. And after Tenenbaums, and she does Shallow Howl, which is kind of a, I guess, a disaster, right? Yeah. And if you look at the rest of her credits, I mean, like, there are some cool things in there. I think she's great in Two Lovers, you know, Country Strong recently talked about. But like, a lot of the movies that she does are movies where I feel like she's kind of not phoning in, but just kind of like, I'll be in Avengers. I'll be in the Glee, you know, like, concert movie or something, you know? It's worthy of a whole other conversation, what happens when you have that much success. You know, she kind of stopped acting in a certain way. She stopped disappearing into parts. And every time she shows up now, it's Gwyneth Paltrow. Whether she is promoting something for Goop, or she's hanging out with Robert Downey Jr. in Avengers or whatever Spider-Man movies that she doesn't even know she's in. And it's just Gwyneth Paltrow at this point. She is a celebrity and not really an actor. And part of that might be her choice. Part of that might be her fault. I mean, that's a whole separate thing. But this was, it's incandescent, this performance. And I love it. Yeah. Let's get into, so for Apex Mountain, I think we agreed, though, that we're going to go with Mount Wilson. We're renaming Apex Mountain Mount Wilson for this movie. Half-Ass Internet Research. 111 Archer is a real place. It's up in Harlem. It's off 144th Street. Royal Tenenbaums, you know, his hotel is the Waldorf Astoria, although it's not named that in the movie. The movie is essentially based on a book that was never written. The Royal Tenenbaums is like, we see the pages flipping, describing some of the action. This gives me an opportunity, I think, just to mention a couple of the, and we've mentioned a few of these things, but some of the influences on this movie include films by Louis Malle, Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, the French New Wave. Orson Welles. Also, a huge, huge, huge influence on this movie is The Magnificent Ambersons, which is Orson Welles' infamous second feature of his movie after Citizen Kane and the movie that was taken away from him. But if you watch Magnificent Ambersons, as I did this weekend, it's wild how much Tenenbaums or how much Ambersons is in Tenenbaums. Like we've mentioned before, the announcers covering Richie's Meltdown are voiced by Wes Anderson and Andrew Wilson. Allegedly, I don't know if this is true, but I think, according to the internet, Danny Glover, Luke Wilson, and Owen Wilson all turned down parts in Ocean's Eleven to appear in this movie. Wow. Yeah. It was not an easy shoot. It was built around the busy schedules of the cast members. And Gene Hackman was often very combative on set. And there is even a story in a, I don't know if it's apocryphal or not, but that Bill Murray had to confront Gene Hackman about his behavior on set because he was being- Which, by the way, that's incredible. If Bill Murray doing that, yeah. Bill Murray is not known for his discipline in anything. And, you know, we didn't even talk about him in this movie. Him in this movie is kind of incredible just because it's a wonderful performance. It's a really good part, though. And it's very small. And, you know, he clearly, you know, infamously, he doesn't have an agent. He just works with people he knows, and he's impossible to reach. And he's like a, you know, amusing, potentially binge-drinking phantom. He clearly loves Wes Anderson and understands him and will do anything for him. And he just- He just, like, loves making Wes Anderson and Jim Jarvis movies. It just really, you know, it's kind of amazing, though, when you see a relatively small part when it's played by Bill Murray. It elevates. A relatively small part is played by Seymour Cassell, you know? I mean, good God, that's kind of amazing. You mentioned that the house is real. One factoid I picked up was that when they saw it, they were looking for locations.
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