First of all, I was so glad I got to see this in the River Oaks Theater, where it played to a full house. It’s a special place for Houston and it’s a special place for Wes, too, because it’s where he watched the films that now influence him.

Whether you like him or not, Wes Anderson is one of the most skilled directors working today. Like Hitchcock, Truffaut, or Satyajit Ray, the legendary Indian director this film pays tribute to, Anderson is an auteur, controlling almost every aspect of the filmmaking process.

Throughout Anderson’s career, he’s developed a certain style and he leaves his fingerprint on everything he makes. He has his own sense of music, color – which is in perfect harmony with India, by the way – and characters. He writes roles that are eccentric but believable, and he’s incredibly adept at portraying family love and all the complications that come with it.

If you’re a fan of Wes’s other movies, there are familiar faces here – Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman star, and Anjelica Huston and Bill Murray make brief appearances. Kumar Pallana makes a return, of course, and newcomer Adrien Brody fits in perfectly.

There’s some skilled camera work here, some really long shots that zoom from place to place from one moment of action to another, a lot of “pure cinema” where the story is moved forward solely by visual means, and some unexpected stops on the long journey the brothers take. I especially loved the transition into a flashback, which takes us from an Indian funeral to a traditional Western one, and the way the end of the movie circles back to the beginning. There’s also some beautiful parallelism between the oldest brother and their mother.

The soundtrack features four songs by the Kinks but mostly centers around scores from old Indian cinema, especially ones directed by Satyajit Ray. If you’re a fan of Anderson’s, or if you enjoyed The Royal Tenenbaums, there’s something in this movie for you.