Bottle Rocket

Top 100 Reasons Texas Is Twice as Awesome as Any Other State

Merritt MartinOh, you can damn well bet this is on the list.​By now most of you dear readers are well aware of the Gawker-produced list of the 50 Worst States In America. Gawker placed their home base at 50, and the Lone Star State at 13. Sure sure, our placement could be worse, but instead of ... More >>

Bidding a Fond Farewell to Producing Great Polly Platt, Who Shot Off Bottle Rocket

Criterion CollectionBob Musgrave and Luke and Owen Wilson shooting Bottle Rocket in 1995​Bob Musgrave sends word: "Polly Platt died yesterday." She was 72. Cinephiles know the name: The ex-wife of Peter Bogdanovich, she worked on such films as Paper Moon and The Last Picture Show before becoming a ... More >>

On the Run From Johnny Law: Off to Hillsboro To Save a Motel and Watch Bottle Rocket

Bob Musgrave at the "Bottle Rocket motel" last night, signing Criterion Collection DVDs for the faithful​Andy Carl Valentin and Chris Durbin didn't expect this. Not this. Certainly not. When first they hatched their cockamamie scheme -- to rescue from fiscal despair a Days Inn off I-35 in Hillsbor ... More >>

In Time For Saturday Night Screening in Hillsboro, Bottle Rocket Gets Mondo Poster

Rick Kelly for Mondo​We've written several times about Andy Carl Valentin and Chris Durbin's efforts to save the Hillsboro motel where some of Wes Anderson's locally filmed debut Bottle Rocket was shot. The local film fanatics make their trek southward Saturday night, and right now I'm scheduled t ... More >>

Alamo Drafthouse's Tim League on Love For Bottle Rocket, Need to Save "Landmark" Motel

Photo by Annie RayTim League​Found this in the in-box: a few words from Alamo Drafthouse CEO and founder Tim League, who wanted to explain why he decided to add Bottle Rocket to its Rolling Roadshow revue, which has taken iconic Texas-made films to the towns in which they were filmed. The series, ... More >>

Divine Intervention? Two Bottle Rocket Fans Want to Save Iconic Hillsboro Motel.

The Hillsboro motel where they shot part of Bottle Rocket is so iconic Ian Dingman put it on the front of the Criterion Collection DVD.​My old friend and long-ago Observer-er Matt Zoller Seitz, who wrote the definitive making-of piece about Bottle Rocket back in September 1995, sent me a note this ... More >>

Cosmic Cafe: Willing to Mix and Match to Please You

​When Wes Anderson and the Wilson brothers used to frequent the Cosmic Café (then called the Cosmic Cup), they could be found taking in the restaurants eclectic, Zen-inducing ambience, and maybe even conjuring up a plot or two. Former owner of the café Kumar Pallana can be seen in several of ... More >>

Reel News: Early Shorts by "Texas Legends," and DIFF's Indonesian Film is Very Local

Owen and Luke Wilson in the '92 Bottle Rocket short, which screens tonight at the Texas​I'll be out of pocket this evening, otherwise I'd be at the Texas Theatre for A Very Special Program of short films presently on a statrwide tour courtesy the Texas Independent Film Network, a coalition of Texa ... More >>

Blume-in' Movie

The Inwood screens an Anderson gem

Explosive Screening

Bottle Rocket lights up the Inwood

Hasn't Lost His Touch, Man

Hasn't Lost His Touch, Man

USA Film Festival