75
Metascore
57 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The TelegraphRobbie CollinThe TelegraphRobbie CollinWes Anderson’s The French Dispatch feels like four films in one, and contains enough ideas for at least another six.
- 100VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeIn the past, the director has been accused of making overly contrived dollhouse movies, and while he repeats many of his favorite tricks — toying with aspect ratios, centering characters in symmetric compositions, revealing a large building in intricate cross-section — this time it feels as if there’s a full world teeming beyond the carefully controlled edges of the frame.
- 100SlashfilmJason GorberSlashfilmJason GorberThe French Dispatch is a rocket ship ride to your cinematic soul, meshing word, action and vision in one glorious bon-bon that’s both sweet and savory.
- 91The PlaylistJessica KiangThe PlaylistJessica KiangA work of such unparalleled Andersonian wit, that at times the sheer level of detail – mobile, static, graphic and typographic – that bedecked the screen was enough to make your correspondent’s jaw slacken. Which meant curtains for the carpet as I was smoking a cigarillo.
- 83The Film StageDavid KatzThe Film StageDavid KatzIt’s a real giddy rush of a film, perhaps not as fundamentally moving or sensitive at his top-drawer work, but taking his micromanagement-heavy film craft to noir-ish new peaks.
- 80The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawIt might not be at the very zenith of what he can achieve but for sheer moment-by-moment pleasure, and for laughs, this is a treat.
- 79TheWrapSteve PondTheWrapSteve PondThe result is hugely impressive and awfully scattershot, a wry piece of art that is always entertaining but also so excruciatingly detailed that you wonder if it will connect the way the more emotional, more fully drawn stories of “Grand Budapest,” “Moonrise Kingdom” or “The Royal Tenenbaums” did.
- 75Slant MagazinePat BrownSlant MagazinePat BrownWes Anderson’s film is an often fascinating, wondrous exercise in complex narration and visual composition.
- 70Screen DailyTim GriersonScreen DailyTim GriersonFor all its exquisite construction, though, The French Dispatch doesn’t have much of the sneaky sentimental undercurrent that makes Anderson’s films more than just intellectual exercises.