Listeria: Ten Most Underappreciated Pieces of Dialogue from Bottle Rocket (1996)

“You’re pretty complicated, huh?”
“I try not to be…”

To ascribe the word “underrated” to just about anything Wes Anderson has touched is a relatively useless statement; Anderson has been so lionized by the critical community (as well as by the generation of semi-devoted filmgoers coming of age when Rushmore hit it semi-big) that the relative scale of the movies’ quality is pretty unimportant. Still, if there’s one thing that the increasingly overbakedness of his later movies makes you really appreciate, it’s just how loose and unassuming Bottle Rocket is. The elements are there, certainly–the quirky preciousness, the montages set to 60s underground rock, the immature adults and overly mature kids–but it just feels more organic, more…innocent, I guess. The script feels appropriately meandering (the whole thing with Bob, his brother and his weed-growing farm is among film’s all-time great “what was the point of that?” sub-plots ), the dialogue feels more natural than it ever would again (Anthony’s declaration of love speech to Inez, while far from being quotable enough for this article, is brilliant in its sheer incoherence), and hell, it’s got Owen and Luke Wilson in that all-too-rare stage of their careers where they had no idea they could ever be considered celebrities.

Though I’m not sure I could say I enjoy it more than Rushmore and Tenenbaums (movies with recipes that brilliant are allowed to be so obviously cooked, I suppose), I do feel a certain level of comfort catching Bottle Rocket on TV that I don’t necessarily get with the others. It never feels stale, or cloying, or nearly as self-indulgent as his other works, and for those reasons, the movie’s few but legitimate moments of genuine drama (the scene where Dignan finds out that Anthony tricked him into giving away all their stolen loot money to Inez, especially) always strike me more than they do in his others. Plus, as should be obvious by now, it’s got a hell of a lot of great quotes–the kind that don’t jump out as obvious punchline quotes, but are insiduous in how gleefully unexpected they usually are, and in how much of the character they usually reveal. Here are ten reasons why I’d probably call Bottle Rocket my favorite Wes Anderson movie:

10. Anthony: “This is great! Sitting here in the laundary room, you working on your vocabulary, and we’re sharing these tamales…it’s just how I’d expect it.”

9. Bob (Driving): “I hate to interrupt your conversation, guys, but I think I know what you’ve been going through, man. ‘Coz I’ve been through some pretty heavy shit myself. If you’re feeling alone, like nobody in the world cares, and nobody in the fucking world gives a shit, then I’m here. I’m ready to listen, man–”
Anthony (Interrupting, not listening): “…that was a stop sign…”

8. Random Bathroomgoer: “Hello, my friend!”
Dignan (at stall): “Hey, hola amigo! Como estas?”
RB: “You are in the army, yes?”
Dignan: “No, I just have short hair!”

7. Anthony: “Don’t call her a housekeeper!”
Dignan: “Don’t threaten me. That’s what she is. She is a housekeeper, right? People are housekeepers!”

6. Anthony: “Dignan, you know what’s gonna happen if you go back there.”
Dignan: “No, I don’t. They’ll never catch me, man…‘coz I’m fucking innocent!”

5.Dignan: “BACKYARD! RIGHT NOW! LET’S GO!”
Bob: “Backyard? This is my house!”

4. Grace: “When are you coming home?”
Anthony: “Grace, I can’t come home. I’m an adult.”

3. Dignan: “He’s out. And you’re out too. And I don’t think I’m in either. No gang!”

2. Dignan: “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE??”
Worker Hostage 1: “We work here!”
Dignan: “YOU’RE ALWAYS AT LUNCH NOW!!”
Worker Hostage 2: “…not always.”
Dignan: “YES, ALWAYS!!”

1. Anthony (Explaining how he “went nuts”): “One morning, over at Elizabeth’s beach house, she asked me if I would rather go water skiing or lay out. And I realized that not only did I not want to answer that question, but I never wanted to answer another water-sports question…or see any of these people again…for the rest of my life.”