Forgotten Favourites: Bottle Rocket, Wes Anderson’s bubbly, hare-brained debut

A new Wes Anderson movie is always cause for excitement – I get giddy looking at the cast list; I can’t wait for the soundtrack. Yet, dagnammit, that sense of anticipation always trumps the films themselves.

Since becoming synonymous with all things quirky, Anderson has become predictable. His two best works were produced right at the start of his career. Rushmore is one of the freshest movies of the twentieth century and the same goes for Anderson’s 1996 debut, which he co-wrote with Owen Wilson.

In this bubbly, hare-brained cross between Mean Streets and The Catcher in the Rye, Wilson and his brother Luke play Texan best friends, Dignan and Anthony. The pair are reunited after Anthony’s enjoyable spell in a “nut house”. Anthony is a people-pleaser with rich parents. Dignan is an indignant hot-head from the wrong side of the tracks. What Anthony and Dignan have in common: they’re both anal-retentive goofballs.

Much of the humour is visual. We see pages from Dignan’s notebook, on which he’s made plans for he and Anthony’s future. Every dotty line is treasurable, but my favourite is: “Living into 21st Century. Anthony, as you know, there can be no way of looking this far ahead. 1. Remain flexible 2. Don’t be too derogatory.”

Colourful adventures ensue. The friends, with the help of their depressed pal Bob (Robert Musgrave), rob the cash-box at a public library and use their tiny, ill-gotten gains to lie low at a motel.

It may sound whimsical, but there’s a huge emotional pay-off. When Anthony falls in love with one of the motel’s housekeepers, Dignan is furious. He’s rude about Paraguayan Inez (Lumi Cavazos), because she’s Hispanic and has a menial job. Inez, in turn, is rude about Anthony, because he’s mentally unstable (a friend translates her feelings into English: “She says you’re like paper. You know, you’re trash”).

This movie is crammed with golden boys. There’s a slo-mo shot of Owen Wilson in which he looks like the fizziest mix of James Dean, Montgomery Clift and Dennis Hopper. Luke, who often resembles a bewildered horse, is just as pretty. And check out he and Owen’s sibling, Andrew, who pops up as Jon, a gorgeous alpha-male. If there’s a moral to the story, though, it’s that being handsome doesn’t make you happy.

The film, which lost money when it was first released, is ripe for rediscovery. You can dream about The French Dispatch, if you like. Or you can settle down to a bromance that feels more flexible than ever. The 21st century. That’s where Bottle Rocket belongs.