pick your favorite wes anderson film!

Rushmore
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Moonrise Kingdom
Bottle Rocket
The Darjeeling Limited
The Royal Tenenbaums
... and then I can't stand Hotel Chevalier

This looks right, and it's the order I'd agree with most. He's only made three watchable movies, though (your top three), and I've no interest in watching them again (not necessarily a sin).

TBH, I don't really want to watch any of them beyond the top 4 again.

Zissou is probably widely regarded as the worst Wes Anderson film and maybe people are right, but I thought it was very good.

End of Zissou might be the best thing he's ever done.

Love Zissou, though it took a second viewing to bring me around. Initially kind of hated it. No such luck with Darjeeling.

Rushmore
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Moonrise Kingdom (Maine summer camp nostalgia elevates this one considerably)
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Bottle Rocket
The Darjeeling Limited

I don't think Anderson's strange, dry humor translated well with Fantastic Mr. Fox. I have no hope for The Isle of Dogs (especially after watching the first long preview). I really enjoy most of his other work though.

Dahl's sensibility and Anderson's were a good mesh.

Anderson excels when you have quirky things in the real world like the treehouse in Moonrise Kingdom. Take away the real world, aka talking animated animals, the quirky stuff hardly works.

I'll watch Isle of Dogs anyway because maybe Mr. Fox is a fluke.

I don't think Anderson's sensibility translated very well through the voices of Clooney or Streep. Also, I've never been particularly a fan of Roald Dahl. Or animation. I have higher hopes for this one (despite not being a dog person).

I happened upon Fantastic Mr. Fox once while scrolling through channels in a hotel. I had no idea what it was - I completely forgot that he'd done an animated film. I thought it was some low-budget independent film and I enjoyed it a lot (at least, the 20 minutes I saw). Eventually I was like, "wait, some of these voices sound familiar.."

I don't think Anderson's FMF had much to do with Dahl's sensibility at all

It really doesn't, also it is great

it's amazing imo, probably my favourite

Yeah I couldnt get with Anderson’s Fantastic Mr Fox. It was like watching a stop-motion Curb Your Enthusiasm episode or something, the humor felt very dry & adult & not my bag at all

Plus I grew up with the book as a kid, i think that affected my expectations a lot

even the trailer for Isle of Dogs is deathly boring.

poster! trailer tom'w

https://news.avclub.com/lets-unpack-this-whimsical-detailed-poster-for-wes-and-1841599631

Some more. Warily optimistic--he's been steadily losing me for years.

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/a-look-at-wes-andersons-new-new-yorker-inspired-film

The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun
A film by Wes Anderson
In Theaters July #TheFrenchDispatch pic.twitter.com/RRDhZLHO7c

— The French Dispatch (@french_dispatch) February 12, 2020

Needs a bigger cast, more names.

this should be a glorious mess

At this stage there are a group of pretty people that enjoy working in movies with large casts about vague big stuff, and if it's not this then it's a Woody Allen movie, so good news, it's this.

interesting to see how anderson reacts to knives out being a fresher wes anderson movie

all his films are good and this one will be too

(i will larf non-stop and so will dr vick, not that i've actually watched a movie with her for years now)

mark s otm

quite obviously this looks amazing

Grand Budapest managed to show in Tupelo for a week, maybe 2; this looks like something the local cinema managers will run like hell from, and I'll have to go see it in Memphis/Bham/ATL.

looks good

first time he's used Lois Smith and Henry Winkler?

Spoiler: At the end of The French Dispatch they get bought by a couple of Trump guys from Queens who lay off everyone without severance, bring in their “own people” and nuke the online archives.

— Matt Prigge (@mattprigge) February 12, 2020

pretty

I thought Rushmore would have its own thread (it does, sort of). I've been posting a series of Zoomcasts on music in movies: we did one on Rushmore a couple of weeks ago.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcFSIvRe-Bk

I've been revisiting some of his films this past week. I still like The Life Aquatic more than most folks on here, but was struck by how heavy handed the foreshadowing is. It can kind of be read as a comedic move, but then the film shifts into full on tragic mode.

Rushmore soundtrack is so good. CD was in constant rotation in my car for a long time. I think I heard it before I had seen the movie and didn't know what I was listening to, which made it all the sweeter. I love the Mothersbaugh pieces as much as the songs selected.

👌

Watched The French Dispatch, it convinced me Wes Anderson has crossed over decisively from what was previously possible to condone as "apolitical world of winking whiteness & poignant quirkiness" into a fascoid trivializing of struggle and active investment in the carceral state.

— Sophie Lewis (@reproutopia) April 30, 2022

Interesting. I felt it and GRAND BUDAPEST actually seem to be directly critiquing fascism and the police state, particularly given both films view those institutions as inherently violent from the perspective of POC characters who feel powerless and yet must continue to live.

— Peter Labuza (@labuzamovies) May 1, 2022

We've moved a long way from "Twee or Not".

I dunno about "fascoid" but yes on trivializing of struggle and active investment in TFD.

We made a #StarWars trailer in the style of #wesanderson hope you guys enjoy it! pic.twitter.com/DP5rBxmTOI

— Curious Refuge (@CuriousRefuge) April 29, 2023

Don't know if this has been posted in another Wes Anderson thread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TqDvAJXVRI

I suppose he'd view that as a a compliment, but it could also be seen as something that might give you pause.

why late at night does ilx get all wessed out

lol at the idea of any ILX poll getting 133 votes anymore.

I watched Asteroid City about a week ago and have been thinking about the similarity btw WA and David Lynch, in the ways they both investigate how people react to and survive stress and trauma. Augie's inability to tell his kids their mother has died...Richie pining for Margot and attempting suicide...emotional shutdown and blank affect all over the WA filmography. Versus Lynch's characters creating whole worlds to inhabit where they don't have to face what's been done to them or what they've done.

My wife has playfully/seriously accused me for decades of hating whimsy, so my love of WA's movies and surface stylizations never made sense to her. But seeing his and Lynch's work as two facets on the same gem helped me explain it to her in a way that got her off my back at least temporarily seemed to make sense. I have more thinking to do about this. I assume All the Major Film Critics have already made this point but I was out that day.

Going to a matinee of this today. Did ILX never talk about this movie?

There's a whole thread on it--you still have time to pick another movie.

Wes Anderson's Asteroid City (2023)

Look the picks are between this, sound of freedom, Oppenheimer (again), Barbie, strays, about my father, and gran turismo. Not exactly spoiled for choice for the Monday matinee

Barbie is definitely better than this, but this is a fine Wes Anderson film

Barbie is more unique than this, I wouldn't say better.

My gosh -- I remember reading this and think it will be my favorite: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/27/movies/wes-anderson-roald-dahl-wonderful-story-henry-sugar.html

I just learned that Mason Gamble, who played Dirk in "Rushmore" (and "Dennis the Menace"), used to live a few blocks from me. I guess he gave up acting a while ago and started work on an environmental science PhD at UCLA. Good for him.

i like that his eureka moment was to have narration for a fairy tale. he must have been watching lemony snicket on netflix at the time.