In tone, style and content, this quirky little movie recalls the low-key comedies of Bill Forsythe ("Local Hero," "Housekeeping"), the poet laureate of melancholy whimsy.

| Nov 9, 2023

Wes Anderson’s debut might lack the meticulous visual style he's synonymous with, but it's full of the charm and understated emotion we love him for.

| Sep 29, 2023

...a thoroughly quirky yet mostly compelling comedy...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 6, 2023

Anderson hit the ground running with Bottle Rocket, a lovely heist film that showed the world exactly what he was capable of as a filmmaker.

| Jun 28, 2023

Bottle Rocket delivers an improvisational feel that few other films can capture. For an artisan so particular in his visual and emotional tone, it’s incredible to feel so free in his hands.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jun 23, 2023

Owen Wilson, with his buzz-blond do, smiling mug, and self-realizing spiel, is truly one of a kind.

| Apr 19, 2022

Though 1996's Bottle Rocket was a commercial flop, it was a remarkably special feature-length debut that introduced the world to the writer-director's idiosyncratic style.

| Sep 13, 2021

The performers look like they're having a lot of fun, but there is a great deal of skill on display.

| Feb 21, 2018

It's only in the finale of Bottle Rocket, brimming over with poignant male self-delusion, that the flair and sizzle of Anderson's future promise returns.

| Jul 2, 2014

A confident, eccentric debut about a trio of shambling and guileless friends who become the Candides of crime, Rocket feels particularly refreshing because it never compromises on its delicate deadpan sensibility.

| Mar 4, 2014

[Bottle Rocket] meanders pleasantly, like a road movie, with a seventies-style, anything-goes offhandedness that whisks the audience through the rough spots.

| Mar 4, 2014

Bottle Rocket was conceived as a low-budget family affair -- it has more Wilsons than the Beach Boys -- and outside of a few cult-intensive pockets of fandom, that's where it's likely to end up.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Mar 4, 2014

This is a movie about friendship, about foolhardy endeavors that get your adrenaline going and make you feel life buzzing in your toes. Written with wit and concision and remarkable confidence, Bottle Rocket is a joyride worth taking.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 4, 2014

This deliciously offbeat comedy gets much of its oomph from a loopy screenplay and lead performances that can only be called hilariously bland, or is it blandly hilarious?

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 4, 2014

Bottle Rocket is a beguiling surprise, a terrific little movie comedy about a slightly addled gang of young criminal wannabes.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 4, 2014

With a wild-card character like Dignan, he could be either the most original character in many a moon -- or never convincing. Wilson, with his cockeyed grin and rapid-fire delivery, comes off as a young Dennis Hopper.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 4, 2014

Wes Anderson's 1996 first feature (before Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums) is fresh, character driven, often funny, and unfashionably upbeat (as well as offbeat).

| Mar 4, 2014

Like the cheap pyrotechnic of the title, Bottle Rocket neither goes very far nor ends with a bang, and that's part of its charm, originality and delight.

| Mar 4, 2014

The title refers to cheap fireworks that fizz before they flame out quietly, and that's what three Southwestern slackers do in this amiable heist movie-cum-road flick.

| Original Score: B+ | Mar 4, 2014

Even as you laugh at these guys, you feel an overwhelming sympathy for them. Sensing that they love each other, you want their dumb, dysfunctional lives to work out.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 4, 2014