Show Biz Kids

Since Steely Dan's open letter to Wes Anderson has already torn through the cine-blogosphere, let me just say this: Aside from being the funniest thing I've read since Mel Gibson's apology, it's also the finest critique of Anderson's oeuvre I've seen anywhere. As they conclude: "Indeed, you must be aware that your career as an auteur is mirrored in the lives of your beloved characters as they struggle in vain to duplicate early glories." And Messrs. Becker and Fagen prove themselves to be film snobs of the highest order, not just through name-dropping (the "Ophuls the Elder" and "Ophuls the Younger" is an especially nice touch), but through this tossed-off aside:

You could go with some kind of "film within a film" or even a "film within a film within a film" or some such pomo horseshit, just like Godard's King Lear or whatever. That's your call, you're the director.

These guys are good. And if Anderson is half as clever as he thinks he is, he'll enlist his buddy Owen Wilson (who has experience with this sort of thing) to draft an equally caustic riposte laying waste to the Dan. Fire away, boys!

Comments

[Eric]

Wow! I think I just became Steely Dan's #1 fan. Still, I don't know what's worse.... all of the lame Wes Anderson films that are still sperm in the testes of his imagination, or all the Steely Dan films that never made it beyond their basement.

[girl with a movie camera]

that letter is brilliant! ;)