The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) is Wes Anderson's deadpan comedy you can watch online on iFILM. A faded oceanographer mounts a revenge expedition against the shark that ate his best friend.

Steve Zissou, played by Bill Murray, was once the biggest name in undersea documentaries. Now the money's gone, the reviews are bad, and a giant shark has swallowed his partner on camera. So he vows to hunt it down and kill it. Aboard his battered ship the Belafonte, he assembles a ragged crew: a pregnant reporter (Cate Blanchett), his sharp-tongued ex-wife and financier (Anjelica Huston), a loyal German first mate (Willem Dafoe), and a young pilot named Ned (Owen Wilson) who may be his long-lost son. Grudges, jealousy, and a pirate raid follow them out to sea.

Anderson stages the whole thing like a cutaway dollhouse: a ship sliced open lengthwise, stop-motion fish, and David Bowie songs sung in Portuguese by Seu Jorge. Under the clowning sits a sad portrait of a man who let his own life slip past. Stream The Life Aquatic (2004) online on iFILM.