Review of Bottle Rocket, directed by Wes Anderson

For many years, I was one of those people who prided myself in the fact I had seen almost all of Wes Anderson’s movies before other people my age discovered him. Before TikTok and whatnot blew up his aesthetic, I was enjoying it and watching The French Dispatch in a local movie theater all by myself.

Now, I was really bored one night when I was scrolling through MUBI. MUBI has been my go-to platform when it comes to the kind of movies that I would never watch unless I had that subscription, and on this night it was something I just pulled up. And there Bottle Rocket was in the columns of movies I could watch.

It was the only Anderson I had not seen before, so I sat there and thought about it for a minute. The premise didn’t seem too interesting to me, but I kind of just shrugged and gave it a chance anyways.

And that, my friends, is how I ended up watching this movie for the first time.

Let’s get into the review!

Two friends plan several heists, but find some other scenarios somewhere along the way.

Our main characters in this movie are Dignan and Anthony, who are in Arizona at the start of the film. Anthony has been in a psychiatric unit, where he checked himself in for what is described as exhaustion. He doesn’t really want to leave this place, but Dignan came up with an escape plan and enlisted a criminal to help him out with it.

This leads to a scenario where the two of them, Anthony and Dignan, continue planning more heists when he’s out. The first one is a practice at Anthony’s family’s house, where he then gets pissed because Dignan took some items that weren’t on their practice list.

They then bring on a guy named Bob onto their operations, and he’s going to be their getaway driver. They acquire a gun, then plan a heist at a bookstore. They then go into the bookstore, in a way that’s kind of weirdly obvious but works, and then they take the store’s money while fleeing.

They stop at a motel on the drive out of there, and Anthony falls in love with the maid Inez, who speaks very little English. Anthony doesn’t know Spanish either, but the two of them make it work. But when Bob learns his weed stash was discovered and his brother was arrested, he dips with the car, leaving the other two behind.

Anthony and Dignan prepare to leave, and Anthony gives Dignan an envelope with the tip for Inez. Dignan gives it to her, and she hugs Dignan. Turns out that envelope had most of their cash, and Anthony just made a brutal mistake giving that to her.

Inez asks a fellow worker to say goodbye to Anthony, and he follows Dignan, saying “Tell Anthony I love him.” Dignan doesn’t realize what this means, and he doesn’t pass on the message. The two of them leave town, and Anthony eventually reveals what he did to Dignan, sparking his anger.

The two of them leave each other, and Dignan joins a gang before finding Anthony again. Another big heist is in the works, and they join the gang in trying to make it happen. Anthony learns Inez loves him along the way, and tries to reach out to her, overjoyed to discover she now knows more English.

Next is the heist, which goes wrong quickly. The safe is hard to crack, and then Applejack has a cardiac arrest. Dignan is arrested, and Anthony later visits him and discovers Dignan has a new plan to try and get himself out of jail.

Overall Thoughts

I thought this was a fun movie overall, but if you’re expecting Wes Anderson in his later career, this won’t be the movie for you. It’s a charming debut though, that’s for sure.

Throughout the course of the story, I didn’t really find myself caring for the storyline between the two friends. The most interesting one to me was between Inez and Anthony, and I wish we got to spend more time in that world.

I honestly don’t have much to say about this movie—it just kind of exists for me, which is a good sign. I don’t love it or hate it, but am solidly neutral about it overall. Go watch it though if you’re remotely interested in the plot.

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