The drifting, meaningless "hang-out" nature of this quirky, engaging crime/road/comedy flick is often fun and entertaining, and often far too meandering for its own good. Ultimately, what "Bottle Rocket" is about is confusion in both path and purpose, and this is clearly reflected in the spontaneity and energy of its central characters, their actions and their interactions. The film is perhaps overly reliant on its everyday dialogue and naturalistic, if not observably detached, relationships that give the film a documentary-like tone that perhaps doesn't work as an environment for typically Anderson-esque characters to inhabit. But this is Wes Anderson before Wes Anderson, which should be considered. As a debut feature, it's pretty darn good. Another potential problem is that the characters don't necessarily undergo any explicit character development over the course of the plot, but this isn't an overly serious issue as the stance can be taken that the whole point is that they don't learn and must continue to drift; on top of this, the greatest part of this otherwise average film is the fact that the characters don't actually need development, they are engaging and interesting enough to keep us hooked for a full 80 minutes with their dreams and moral callousness.

This was Wes Anderssons directors debut. And you can really already recognize his artistic style, even if much smaller budget then his later films. This film also has this very family like tone, that I think comes from that almost everybody involved are real good friends, doing this together, trying to make their first movie, and also that the two leads are actual real brothers playing brothers.

The film is about a bunch of guys that thinks that the life of crime is the way to go. But they're very far from any tough hard boild gangsters. They're thieves sure, but they kind of give you the sense they actually couldn't hurt a fly. It's a comedy but also with this sad tone, that I actually think is Wes Anderssons trade mark by now. And it's a really nice thing, something rare you don't see from any other movies, not in the same way at least. It gives you this really warm feeling. To me, what this movie is saying, is that we all try to be something we're not sometimes, we all have issues, we're all failures on some level and we all have insecurities, but... that's okey!

The movie is also very funny. And well paced, even if perhaps a bit slow, I think it works well here. Some nice songs are included in the soundtrack also. And Owen and Luke plays their roles perfectly. Luke really seem depressed, it's actually a really good portrait of a chronically depressed person. Owen does the thing he does also beautifully, being this really optimistic enthusiastic guy but that's actually kind of sad and lonely inside, just brilliant peformens.

I adore this little movie. So nice.

Martin Scorsese actually said this is one of his favorite movies, that he watch multiple times. Kind of fun fact.