Crazy Like a Fox
by Howard Schumann


Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wes Anderson’s retro stop-motion animated version of the classic Roald Dahl novel, tells the story of the charming rogue Mr. Fox, who, through a series of adventures and misadventures, learns the value of community and family. It is a hard lesson to learn, however, and eliminating larceny from his life may be too big a stretch for Mr. Fox who, after all, tells his wife that he poaches poultry ''because I'm a wild animal.” George Clooney is the silky smooth voice coming from Mr. Fox’s mouth while Meryl Streep voices the role of Mrs. Fox. Both Clooney and Streep seem completely at home in their roles, giving the movie even more bounce and joie de vivre.

Anderson, working with co-screenwriter Noah Baumbach, connects with Dahl’s sensibility but expands on the story, bringing in diversions such as the game of “whack-bat” and a Tennenbaum-like helping of family dysfunction. The main idea of the book remains, however, that once we are sure of who we are, we have the strength to take on even the most determined adversaries, for example, “three of the meanest, nastiest, ugliest farmers” in the world.

When a young Mr. Fox learns that his wife is pregnant, he makes a promise to stop his life of chicken thievery and turn into an honest man, er, fox. Fast forward two years and the reformed Mr. Fox is now a newspaper columnist and has even changed his clothes from dapper to casual. He also has a son, Ash (Jason Schwartzman) whom he considers to be slightly weird because he wears a superhero cape. Looking into the possibility of buying a new home inside a beech tree that has lots of shade, he is told by his lawyer, Badger (Bill Murray) to stay far away because that tree is too close to the property of three mean farmers: Boggis (Robin Hurlstone), Bunce (Hugo Guinness) and, the nastiest of them all, Bean (Michael Gambon). Ignoring the advice of his lawyer, Mr. Fox not only moves into his new digs but plans one last bit of thievery to show the gleesome threesome who is boss.

He brings back his old partner Kylie the opossum (Wally Wolodarsky) to aid in the crime but things become complicated when his cousin Kristofferson (Eric Anderson) arrives. Kristofferson is not only an athlete but a very modern fox who has taken up yoga and meditation, much to the chagrin of Ash, who feels different and struggles to please his dad. When Kristofferson is drawn into the escapade, they devise a three-part plan to steal chickens, turkeys, and spiked apple cider, but are driven underground and trapped without food until other underground creatures arrive to bring a new direction to the proceedings.

A bit too quirky and snappy for younger children, Fantastic Mr. Fox is more likely to appeal to teenagers with its eclectic soundtrack that includes Burl Ives, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys and the Bobby Fuller Four. Anderson seems to have had a lot of fun in making the film, and it shows. With the 70s style costumes and animation technique, the feeling is of watching real characters in motion rather than being drowned in a sea of graphics. Ultimately, the story is what is most important anyway, and here a subversive Dahl novel is enhanced by the even more subversive Anderson, advising us that whether we are four-legged or two-legged, we should rejoice in the knowledge of how unique we truly are.

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Anais Nin said, "Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born." A new world is indeed born for two lonely teenagers in Shane Meadows’ Somers Town, a spirited 70-minute exploration of the bonds that can arise out of mutual need. Originally intended as a 20-minute promo by railway line Eurostar to publicize their high-speed London to Paris train, the film contains references to high-speed trains but is in no sense an advertisement for anything except good filmmaking. Written by frequent Meadows collaborator Paul Fraser and shot in high contrast black and white, the film stars Thomas Turgoose, the twelve-year-old skinhead in This is England, as Tomo, a runaway orphan from Nottingham.

Tomo comes to London to find something better in life, but is beaten and robbed of his money and belongings on his first night away from home. He soon meets Marek (Piotr Jagiello), an introverted Polish teen who lives with his father in one of the flats in Somers Town, a working class area in Northern London. Somers Town is named after the Somers family who owned the land and can boast of such former residents as Charles Dickens, Arthur Rimbaud, and Paul Verlaine. Marek warily agrees to let Tomo stay with him, but they are both fearful of being discovered by Marek’s father (Ireneusz Czop), a Polish immigrant, who is often known to come home drunk. Their friendship grows as they are put to work by a scheming neighbor Graham (Perry Benson) stacking and sanding lawn chairs.

Soon they are pulling off dicey capers, and competing for the affection of Maria (Elisa Lasowski), a lovely French waitress in a local café. One of the film’s high points is when the two boys find an abandoned wheelchair and give Maria a ride home, a gesture that prompts her to plant a kiss on each boy’s cheek, telling them that she loves them equally. Tomo likes to talk tough, but his vulnerability shows through his poses and we can see that underneath there is a good person struggling to emerge. Marek is a photographer who has a gentleness about him and the two personalities seem to complement each other. Supported by an outstanding acoustic soundtrack of songs by Gavin Clarke and Ted Barnes, Meadows captures the grittiness of blue-collar existence but balances it with a light touch that makes the film a thorough delight.

One of the funniest sequences is when the two steal a bag of clothes from the laundromat that turn out to be mostly women’s garments, which Tomo is forced to wear simply because he doesn’t have anything else. When Maria decides to return home to Paris without saying goodbye, the boys plan a train trip to find her and, in a color montage that may be real or imagined, the film explodes into unexpected lyricism. Meadows latest film may not have the clout of Dead Man’s Shoes (2004) or This is England (2006) but to call it insubstantial just because it is short is to do it a grave injustice. Somers Town is so natural and the character’s growing pains so poignant that you will have a hard time ever getting it out of your head.


©2009 Howard Schumann
CineScene