This film is better than Rushmore

You're just plain wrong. Rushmore is a classic comedy and highly satisfying. Submarine is neither funny or particularly dramatic, it has almost zero stakes for the characters. I simply didn't care about them or where the story was taking them. I didn't for one minute buy the main character being driven to save his parents' marriage. I loathed the girlfriend and actually felt glad when he bailed on her, which seems to me the classic sign of a bad movie seeing as I was obviously supposed to care at that point.

In contrast, Rushmore is one of the most elegantly paced films I've seen. I don't think anyone could argue that Submarine is better edited, it just isn't. Perhaps my biggest problem with Submarine though is its world. I just couldn't believe that this mass-scale playground bullying was occuring with characters old enough to be having romantic relationships. Maybe I hold it to a more subjective standard (because I'm a Brit) but I've just never met anyone with experiences of such blatant bullying occuring much beyond the age of 12. Sure teens always have their conflicts and nasty encounters, but everyone crowding round in a circle to laugh like mad folk? It was ludicrous.

Rushmore does that fantastic thing that only the best comedies do, it makes you laugh at its protagonist but root for them at the same time. Oliver certainly had his dimensions but my reaction to him was basically indifference. I'll also say that personally I'm not a fan of the plodding "indie" music score and lens flarey cinematography of Submarine, it just amounts to a bland tone to go with its bland story.

Are you comparing Submarine to Rushmore or Wes Anderson's entire career? I stopped watching his films after The Life Aquatic because I'm not good with disappointment.

Thought it was Anderson's weakest film, a heavy-handed Altman reference - Nashville (Blanchett's perf a reference to Geraldine Chaplin's journalist) - if you like Altman's stuff - which many do unequivicably - why not? I find the whole 70's drugged-up violent whimsy thing often shallow and depressing (that said, I remember loving MaCabe and Mrs. Miller and Harold and Maude), he definitely got the tone right in terms of a cinematic reference or hommage, otherwise the deadpan stuff was more painful and unfunny to me. Would have liked the film more if it had delivered what the trailer promised: a film about an expedition to kill a shark based purely on revenge, good line in the trailer which falls flat in the film. The whole film seemed over-whelmed paradoxically by self-loathing and self-adoration, if you hang out with stoners for a short while you'll see the profile again and again, this kind of incredible superiority that takes hold of the average loser once he's smoked his potential and life away, but still manages to feel above all the other 'fools'. Smiley Face by Gregg Araki nailed the whole thing perfectly. Just for the record, er, isn't this post supposed to be about Submarine, I wonder if everyone is writing about Submarine on the Rushmore page?, okay, well I actually loved Moonrise Kingdom and thought Anderson delivered his best film yet, for those put off by, say Darjeeling or The life Aquatic, it's worth tuning back in. By the way, to the guy who posted this reply, no hard feelings, I'm glad you found The Life Aquatic satisfying we're all free to have our own opinions and taste, in French they say two things you shouldn't discuss are taste and colours because we all experience things differently, there's no point getting angry and saying 'you're wrong!' even if we think it's true, we're not going to change how they feel about a film and even the best of friends can fail to agree on a film, a song, a painting or a book. Happy movies to you all!