The Films of Wes Anderson Critical Essays on an Indiewood Icon

Wes Anderson's films can be divisive, but he is widely recognized as the inspiration for several recent trends in indie films. Looking at Wes Anderson's shorts and films from Bottle Rocket to Moonrise Kingdom, this collection considers how Anderson's distinctive form and content work together to create films that are simultaneously reverent toward their sources and original in their execution. Using both practical and theoretical lenses, the contributors address and explain the recurring stylistic techniques, motifs, and themes that dominate Anderson's films and have had such an impact on current filmmaking.

Peter C. Kunze is Lecturer in the Writing and Critical Inquiry Program at the University at Albany, State University of New York, USA. His research examines comedy, masculinity, and childhood across literature, film, and new media.

Introduction: The Wonderful Worlds of Wes Anderson; Peter C. Kunze
PART I
1. The Short Films of Wes Anderson; Nicole Richter
2. Cast of Characters: Wes Anderson and Pure Cinematic Characterization; Kim Wilkins
3. The Jellyfish and the Moonlight: Imagining the Family in Wes Anderson's Films; Steven Rybin
4. 'Max Fischer Presents': Wes Anderson and the Theatricality of Mourning; Rachel Joseph
5. 'Who's to Say?': The Role of Pets in Wes Anderson's Films; C. Ryan Knight
6. 'American Empirical' Time and Space: The (In)Visibility of Popular Culture in the Films of Wes Anderson; Jason Davids Scott
PART II
7. From the Mixed-Up Films of Mr. Wesley W. Anderson: Children's Literature as Intertexts; Peter C. Kunze
8. A Shared Approach to Familial Dysfunction and Sound Design: Wes Anderson's Influence on the Films of Noah Baumbach; Jennifer O'Meara
9. Bill Murray and Wes Anderson, or the Curmudgeon as Muse; Colleen Kennedy-Karpat
10. Life on Mars or Life on the Sea: Seu Jorge, David Bowie, and the Musical World in Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou; Lara Hrycaj
PART III
11. The Andersonian, the Quirky, and 'Innocence'; James MacDowell
12. 'I Always Wanted to be a Tenenbaum': Class Mobility as Neoliberal Fantasy in Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums; Jen Hedler Phillis
13. Objects / Desire / Oedipus: Wes Anderson as Late Capitalist Auteur; Joshua Gooch 14. Systems Thinking in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Moonrise Kingdom; Laura Shackelford