Anderson puts his personal touch on the film from the very beginning. He wrote the original screenplay and thus the ideas are his that exist within the characters as well as the frame. He creates a world of people who have been greatly affected by their pasts. In several cases, they are still living with the past being their driving force.
We see Anderson's use of tracking shots throughout the film and there is none better than Stanley and his father entering the studio, then following a production assistant, then back to Stanley with Cynthia up the elevator before it grabs onto Mary who goes into Jimmy Gator's office. Anderson begins outside, brings us inside, then takes us up an elevator and down the hall into greet Gator. The shot creates an image which shows us the different relationships between characters and how they react in different parts of the studio. We see pleasantries, neediness, hardness, gentleness, a lack of care and much more. The camera's in and out, up and down and back and forth makes us feel the emotional state of the environment: it's constantly moving and never in one direction. Such an arrangement is also representative of life. We get all that from a single long take with Anderson's camera.
Another shot that strikes an emotional chord for the audience involves the scene when Donnie walks into the bar and sits in his booth. The camera does a full frame wide shot of Donnie into a closeup of him then moves 360 degrees following a waitress back to his table, but the camera is tilted. It is showing Donnie off balance, that there is something off with him in this place. We see his object of desire, Brad the bartender and we immediately know the stakes Donnie's entrance.
Anderson also creates a great deal of suspense in the pharmacy with Linda as the pharmacists are shot in a manner that makes them feel as though they are suspicious of her. She holds her tongue the entire time, but when she finally blows her top the suspense has been built up in an enormous way and we want her to pop because we've been on this journey with her for several minutes. The director also uses quick, jagged cuts with Linda initially to increase her state of panic and being on edge.
Last, and perhaps most dramatically, the frogs. Anderson has frogs rain down from the sky at the end of the film which to this point has been incredibly realistic. It is this act that makes you wonder, what is happening? This is not a normal day, nor a normal story. The frogs raining down mark this day as significant. It becomes the sign that everyone's life in this film has been changed forever. And that they will never forget the day frogs fell from the sky.
