MSNBC takes a look at the summer indy flicks (including “Away We Go”) and finds the term “twee” to be a common thread in this article. The author blames none other than our man, Wes Anderson for leading the charge here (and Molly Ringwald). He doesn’t necessarily fault Wes for his style:
Twee comes in many forms in current indie cinema: At the top of the heap are stylists like Anderson and Rian Johnson (“The Brothers Bloom,” “Brick”). While these two filmmakers certainly traffic in twee visuals and other aesthetic choices, the look of their movies is so completely not of this world that these artists stand alone in their own tastefully-designed alternate universes.
What do you think: is our man twee, or too twee?
i think wes anderson’s attention to the stylization of his films puts him square in the land of twee, but twee is also what “hipsters” could only hope to be. they, instead, are TOO TWEE. i think authentic twee-ness is unaffected and pure. wes has that.
Twee started as a style of dress and music (twee-pop). This article is just using the term “twee” as an all encompassing word for indie culture. He’s trying to use one simple word to replace “eccentric,” “quirky,” or (the heavily overused) “ironic.”
The part about the clothes is right, but nothing else. Chicken buckets, VW buses, fonts, and pointless parenthesis are not twee. The writer seems to have a very loose understanding at best.
In the newest issue of Interview (w/ Bjork on the cover) Wes Anderson interviews his friend Jarvis Cocker. Near the end of the interview they talk a bit about The Fantastic Mr. Fox and how it seemed to Wes that different animators had different qualities reflected in the scenes that they animated… it’s a wholly worthwhile read for any Wes fan.