The Darjeeling Limited

I'm once again getting a fuzzy feeling in my chest, and that can only mean that a new Wes Anderson film is about to come out! Or it means that I need to eat less red meat. Either way, I smell a trip to an art house theater, which is where I naturally go when I feel like a congenital heart defect might reveal itself.

The Darjeeling Limited was shown on the opening night of the New York Film Festival, but I have yet to find a release date here in the Milwaukee area, even though they're already running ads for it - and even the ads send a shiver down my back.

Even this scathing article in this September 27th edition of The Onion can't get me down:

NEW WES ANDERSON FILM TO FEATURE DEADPAN DELIVERY, METICULOUS ART DIRECTION, FATHER ISSUES
LOS ANGELES - Fans who attended a sneak preview Monday of critically acclaimed director Wes Anderson's newest project, The Darjeeling Limited, were surprised to learn that the film features a deadpan comedic tone, highly stylized production design, and a plot centering around unresolved family issues. "What will he think of next?" audience member Michael Cauley said. "And who could have foreseen the elaborately crafted '60s-era aesthetic, melancholy subtext, and quirky nomenclature - to say nothing of the unsuspected curveball of casting Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, and Bill Murray?" In a recent review, New York Times film critic A.O. Scott expressed surprise at the film's cutting-edge soundtrack, which features a Rolling Stones song and three different tracks by the Kinks.

I have to believe the folks at The Onion like Wes Anderson as much as I do just to write that piece, even if it is mostly the truth. As long as the story is interesting, I don't care if there are themes I recognize from The Royal Tenenbaums or Rushmore, because Anderson's films are just so well crafted. When I saw Rushmore in the theater back in 1997, I was suffering from what turned out to be the flu, but I was able to forget it for two hours because I was so wrapped up in it. I think it was about the best studio film I had seen up to that point.

So, when I hear the 1960's pop music come on and see the use of a unified, turquoise color scheme, you'll forgive me if I get a bit giddy.