As Wes Anderson has shifted settings from a boarding school to a Jaques Costeau homage to a brothers' expedition across the Indian subcontinent, I've gobbled up pretty much everything Wes Anderson has given me in the previous six films I've seen of his.
The French Dispatch, however, shows that even great directors can have an off day.
Anderson's style is pretty instantly recognizable by the carefully constructed mise-en-scenes and a whole-hearted embrace of anachronisms. But there's more than the visual artistry. There's also a quietly uplifting sentiment of people being vulnerable about their need to belong and finding connection in found or real families.
While the same theme is here with the newspaper crew being united in their love by the editor (Bill Murray), the decision to divert from the main story into three vignettes takes away from the film's main emotional arc. The end result is a feeling of cold remoteness that's a thin line between what Anderson delivers on and what he can be seen as at his most indulgent.
Still, it's not a complete failure of a film. It gets a lot of points for ambition.
.
One of the
However, this film is the.
The French Dispatch, however, shows that even great directors can have an off day.
Anderson's style is pretty instantly recognizable by the carefully constructed mise-en-scenes and a whole-hearted embrace of anachronisms. But there's more than the visual artistry. There's also a quietly uplifting sentiment of people being vulnerable about their need to belong and finding connection in found or real families.
While the same theme is here with the newspaper crew being united in their love by the editor (Bill Murray), the decision to divert from the main story into three vignettes takes away from the film's main emotional arc. The end result is a feeling of cold remoteness that's a thin line between what Anderson delivers on and what he can be seen as at his most indulgent.
Still, it's not a complete failure of a film. It gets a lot of points for ambition.
.
One of the
However, this film is the.