Sea Sick and Twisted

And not to get all Robert Hilburn on everyone and insert meaning into something that probably has none, but I'm not so sure taking a hyperclose look at a sad clown and the artificial world he has created around him does not actually—and probably accidentally—say more about our times than just about anything else shaking the Dolby speakers off the walls at the local cineplexes. For who else, to the rest of the world, is more pompous, self-absorbed and fulla themselves than Americans these days? And who better to nail us at this moment than Bill Murray, under Wes Anderson's mock-vintage microscope?

THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU WAS DIRECTED BY WES ANDERSON; PRODUCED BY ANDERSON, SCOTT RUDIN, BARRY MENDEL AND RUDD SIMMONS; WRITTEN BY ANDERSON AND NOAH BAUMBACH; AND STARS BILL MURRAY, OWEN WILSON, ANJELICA HUSTON AND CATE BLANCHETT. NOW PLAYING COUNTYWIDE.