Richard Lawson said it was his favorite since Moonrise Kingdom, which made me perk up bc that was the last one I liked, too. (Actually, I haven't seen Isle of Dogs, but Grand Budapest and French Dispatch both left me cold.)
― jaymc, Friday, 26 May 2023 03:47 (eleven months ago) link
"a collection of great looking tableaux, but doesn't grab you" is EXACTLY what The French Dispatch was.
― AlXTC from Paris, Friday, 26 May 2023 07:04 (eleven months ago) link
The thing I liked about the trailer was Last Train To San Fernando
― Do I look like I know what a jpeg is? (dog latin), Friday, 26 May 2023 09:12 (eleven months ago) link
Yeah, Moonrise Kingdom, as with Fantastic Mr. Fox before it, re-ignited my waning interest in Wes Anderson
― fair but so uncool beliefs here (Eric H.), Friday, 26 May 2023 11:19 (eleven months ago) link
this one looks the closest in style and tone to moonrise kingdom, at least from the trailer. that's the foundation of my excitement
― ciderpress, Friday, 26 May 2023 14:05 (eleven months ago) link
Saw this yesterday. Definitely the weirdest Anderson film I’ve seen, but in a good way. Seems like he’s having fun and making movies exactly how he wants to.
― o. nate, Sunday, 25 June 2023 16:54 (ten months ago) link
I’ll take that as a recommendation.
― Johnny Bit Rot (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 25 June 2023 17:02 (ten months ago) link
making movies exactly how he wants to.
when hasn't he?
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 25 June 2023 17:53 (ten months ago) link
Saw it earlier. Seems to attempt the same meta layering as The French Dispatch but not as sprawling so it felt somewhere between that and Moonrise Kingdom. Great spectacle and kid actors as ever but the story's another hot mess and it could be funnier.
― nashwan, Sunday, 25 June 2023 21:15 (ten months ago) link
Pleasant. Also the first film of his I've seen in twenty years and honestly I'll be fine with another twenty, but it looked nice.
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 25 June 2023 23:43 (ten months ago) link
Yeah I guess he’s always followed his own muse. Maybe it’s just more obvious now that he’s following it to an extreme which is more obviously uncommercial though to be fair I haven’t seen his prior two films so this may be old news. There is a fairly large if casual potential fan base that knows him mainly as the inspiration for a popular instagram hashtag which he could have pandered to. This is the first of his films that I’ve seen in the theater since Darjeeling. I guess I always like them better on the big screen.
― o. nate, Monday, 26 June 2023 01:24 (ten months ago) link
Kind of bummed Ned hasn't seen Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, or Grand Budapest Hotel.
― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Monday, 26 June 2023 02:05 (ten months ago) link
Isle of Dogs my favorite of his late career tbh
― Nhex, Monday, 26 June 2023 02:37 (ten months ago) link
xpost Those are my three faves, probably. Though I dunno, I rewatched Bottle Rocket, Rushmore and Tenenbaums recently, and they were all great, too, but those aforementioned three feel like, I dunno, his mature renewal after a brief fallow period. But didn't particularly like Isle of Dogs, for whatever reason never got around to seeing French Dispatch. I'd love to see him make something other than another human diorama exhibit, kind of like when the Coen Brothers gave being the Coen Brothers a brief break and made "No Country for Old Men," which kind of refreshed them after making a couple of misfires.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 26 June 2023 02:54 (ten months ago) link
Isle of Dogs could be a sub-board of Isle of Everything.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Monday, 26 June 2023 02:55 (ten months ago) link
Our 13 year old has become a fan so we’re rewatching these. So far I like the Life Aquatic more than I remember and the Tenenbaums a little less. But i’m a big fan, I like ‘em all a lot. I don’t remember Darjeeling very well though.
Moonrise Kingdom may be my current fave. He has a great touch with kids.
― Cow_Art, Monday, 26 June 2023 03:00 (ten months ago) link
Level of interest: none. My folks like Moonrise Kingdom, and I'll probably get them this new one for Christmas, they'll appreciate the 50s setting as that's their youth.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 26 June 2023 03:38 (ten months ago) link
I've never rewatched any Anderson films and don't plan to, so it's hard to compare with the early stuff, but to me Asteroid City is the best thing he's done since at least Tenenbaums. I thought Moonrise Kingdom was slightly disappointing, and Budapest was a slight return to form. This new one to me feels like a bigger break from his past work.
― o. nate, Monday, 26 June 2023 17:47 (ten months ago) link
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this especially since I hated The French Dispatch.
― Saxophone Of Futility (Michael B), Monday, 26 June 2023 19:04 (ten months ago) link
Was gonna say the box-office returns thus far are really encouraging ... until I reminded myself of what The Grand Budapest Hotel netted.
― fair but so uncool beliefs here (Eric H.), Monday, 26 June 2023 21:00 (ten months ago) link
i've always liked his films, i have yet to see one i wasn't at least mostly onboard with. his aesthetic is so specific and easy to parody and clown on but it's also really refreshing to have a guy like him around.
― omar little, Monday, 26 June 2023 21:10 (ten months ago) link
and yet, he still couldn't resist having at least one asshole dad figure in this
― Nhex, Tuesday, 27 June 2023 12:40 (ten months ago) link
I quite liked it, my favorite WA since 2014, but...I'm confused why critics I respect are rhapsodizing: an emotional breakthrough for him or something.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 27 June 2023 20:57 (ten months ago) link
Also: you're making a mistake not watching Fantastic Mr. Fox, still his best.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 27 June 2023 20:59 (ten months ago) link
Ned is, that is.
I wouldn’t call it an emotional breakthrough. More a matter of consolidating his strengths. Much like the freight rain celebrated in the song that plays over the titles, it is notable for its speed. The beats are perfectly spaced for a screwball comedy. He has also forgone trying to portray 3-dimensional characters, with the exception that proves the rule being the Schwartzman character, and even there the attempt at depth becomes part of the joke, with the director of the “play outside the play” critiquing his performance. Anderson films at their best are pure escapism. The only genuine emotion that should exist in the film is regret that the fun will have to end at some point, and the most effective emotional moments are allusions to that realization.
― o. nate, Tuesday, 27 June 2023 23:08 (ten months ago) link
I think he did that in The Grand Budapest Hotel.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 27 June 2023 23:13 (ten months ago) link
Yeah he started moving in that direction. Just feel like this one went a bit further.
― o. nate, Tuesday, 27 June 2023 23:20 (ten months ago) link
It helps that he also jettisoned the requirement to have a coherent plot.
― o. nate, Tuesday, 27 June 2023 23:27 (ten months ago) link
Anderson films at their best are pure escapism
― Nhex, Wednesday, 28 June 2023 00:33 (ten months ago) link
My sister's review was succinct: she fell asleep.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 28 June 2023 00:34 (ten months ago) link
Tbf, she also said, "Shit sandwich."
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 28 June 2023 00:35 (ten months ago) link
lol this thread will blessedly reach consensus -- or sanity.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 28 June 2023 00:38 (ten months ago) link
will NEVER lol
see?
i think i made my peace with wes anderson when i was watching the french dispatch and it dawned on me that ALL his movies are kid movies! not to sell him short. a decent kid movie is still just as hard to make as any normal movie. and i'll still take his kid movies over tim burton's kid movies. or YA movies, whatever. YA people are still kids. movies for brainy kids whose parents read the new yorker. kid movies that parents can be bemused by. it struck me that all the dialogue in his movies sounds like a play that a kid wrote at their country day school and who then got to get everyone to perform it instead of Our Town. which is probably why i'm most fond of rushmore because it stays true to that vibe so well without making me feel like an idiot for sitting through ridiculous fairy tale acting and hammy dialogue readings. do i wish that the snicket generation had more depth and darkness a la roald dahl? no, not really. i'll just read roald dahl and watch guillermo del toro movies. #hellboy4ever
― scott seward, Wednesday, 28 June 2023 16:19 (ten months ago) link
French Dispatch had a lot of pubes for a kids movie.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Thursday, 29 June 2023 02:04 (ten months ago) link
This was ... even worse than The Whale. My college years are truly over.
― fair but so uncool beliefs here (Eric H.), Saturday, 1 July 2023 02:50 (ten months ago) link
Nah. We're as one on that thing.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 1 July 2023 03:52 (ten months ago) link
I enjoyed myself!
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Sunday, 2 July 2023 23:48 (ten months ago) link
i’m about to do that thing where someone watches a film & then critiques it by inventing their own version of it BUT i would have loved this if there weren’t for the whole meta layers of it being a TV broadcast of a play or whatever. all the parts that were the “play” felt to me like a top notch version of the stuff that he does really well in his signature way. i connected emotionally with those scenes, in particular many interactions between the kids, the kids and the adults, and the scenes with scar jo & schwartzman’s characters. all the black and white cranston stuff was distracting at best imo, that whole aspect felt unnecessary to me. i think it would have been a wonderful little film without those diversions. maybe even his best since fantastic mr fox — it’s hidden in there somewhere — but with what it is in reality i can’t get there
― J0rdan S., Monday, 3 July 2023 07:13 (ten months ago) link
Yeah, I kinda agree. Need a rewatch, but from a first viewing it feels like that framing is there entirely because Anderson wanted to play in that format/era, not because it ties in to the rest of the film emotionally or thematically. The balcony scene was good tho.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 3 July 2023 08:25 (ten months ago) link
The framing is the product of roman coppola imo
― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Monday, 3 July 2023 08:31 (ten months ago) link
We saw it yesterday, I liked it more than my wife did, neither of us loved it. The deliberate distancing of all the meta layers, combined with the murmury flatness of the performances, had what I assume was their intended effect — conveying the emotional deadening and sublimation that can come with grief and pain. But also obviously the effect of keeping the viewer's emotional engagement low too. I thought ScarJo handled all that well and still managed to convey some emotional depth. Schwartzman was (as the movie itself notes) more of a collection of mannerisms. Again, clearly intentional, but a bit too clever. Still, what I liked: the intricacy of the setting, as always; the kids were all pretty good, the three little girls especially; Tom Hanks kind of surprised me, a nice little performance; the alien stuff was pretty well handled.
Overall for me, a mid-level Anderson.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 5 July 2023 12:39 (nine months ago) link
I've been surprised at the number of critics I respect praising his emotional maturity or something. I thought he achieved whatever that means in 2014 or even 1998?
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 July 2023 12:51 (nine months ago) link
Yeah I felt like GBH was the biggest move there, in terms of a "mature style." French Dispatch and Asteroid City aren't exactly regressions, but they're more interested in formal experimentation it seems to me. Which is fine, he's always been interested in narrative form and different layers of storytelling, I don't begrudge him following his own curiosity. Just not as engaging for me as a viewer, even though I admire the mechanics. He doesn't seem like he's phoning it in or anything, he's putting a lot of effort and thought into it.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 5 July 2023 12:55 (nine months ago) link
As entertaining and engaging most of his movies are, GBH might be the only movie of his I've ever really given any thought to. Often I find his modestly Brechtian artifice and, yeah, mechanics maybe too successful.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 5 July 2023 13:34 (nine months ago) link
GBH is maybe his most "political" film in that it seems to be saying something about the position of the artistic/aesthetic life in the face of totalitarianism or fascism. I think that The French Dispatch is reaching for something similar but gets overwhelmed by all the silliness, while GBH strikes a better balance.
― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Wednesday, 5 July 2023 13:56 (nine months ago) link
I've had a chance to watch GBH once a semester (most recently last Wednesday) with my students, and it hasn't bored me yet: those witty tilts and pans, the wedding cake look of the hotel, and, for once, a relationship between a POC and a white man interrogated in a Wes Anderson film. And Ralph Fiennes gives probably the best central performance in any Anderson joint
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 July 2023 13:58 (nine months ago) link
I feel the emotional core of GBH loses a lot once you read enough Stefan Zweig to see how much of it is pastiche.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 5 July 2023 14:37 (nine months ago) link
On the contrary! That sense of loss drifts through the hotel lobby like a stagnant breeze.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 July 2023 14:39 (nine months ago) link