Rating: 8.5
This was such a wild, weird, surreal and quirky movie experience; exactly what you’d expect from a Wes Anderson film. But this isn’t your average Wes Anderson movie, this is Wes Anderson times 100… he’s completely unrestricted and lets his filmmaking style just go crazy. It’s like getting a peak inside his mind! And honestly it’s delightful and so pleasant! I loved it, as someone who loves Wes Anderson’s style, but I feel like you might have a hard time with this movie if you aren’t tuned into Anderson’s filmmaking sensibilities. This is definitely a movie you have to enjoy after seeing his other films. But I loved it. It’s a clever love letter to journalism, focusing on the final issue of “The French Dispatch” and shows us what stories that issue will hold. We get 3 separate stories, they don’t really connect but each is really rich and interesting, I could’ve watched whole movies about all 3! I got way more invested into them than I thought I would, which is really because of the excellent performances from all members of the cast. The stories are well written and really creative and preposterous, which makes them really entertaining and quirky to watch, but the true stars are the cast members. There are so many big names in this movie, and many show up for glorified cameos, but each actor really delivers their best, they give it their all for the limited screen time they get and really make strong impressions. I loved Benicio del Toro as the growling artist in prison, as well as Timothée Chalamet as the protest leader and Frances McDormand as one of the journalists. Owen Wilson also had such a funny scene as he toured around a French town on a bike. Truly all the performances from the wide ranging cast were short but sweet. And all the other aspects, in classic Wes Anderson fashion, are very well done; stylistic and detailed. The mise-en-scene of course is unparalleled and Anderson still finds such creative ways of constructing shots. I really loved his sequences with all the objects and actors frozen in place, like the camera was moving through still images. And while the colour palette was so satisfying, so much of the movie was shot in black and white, which I honestly didn’t understand. Anderson flipped aspect ratios and colour to black and white so much and so randomly that it didn’t always make sense to me why he was doing it. It did make for an interesting looking film though! Anderson truly seems to shoot a lot of his films like a classic, old Hollywood movie, with a central tableau shot and minimal movement. I was surprised to see bits of steadicam use in this one though, it is rare to see from Anderson as he meticulously plans out his shots and the arrangements of objects within the frame, something of which steadicam footage doesn’t always follow. There was also an animated sequence which was surprising but also welcome! It all came together quite nicely though and made for such a pleasant and fun experience. Its quite quirky and very Wes Anderson in style, but I really enjoyed it and would recommend to any Wes Anderson fan out there as it is a very welcome addition to his filmography!
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IMDb Rating: 7.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 75%
RT Audience Score: 77%
Metacritic Score: 74
CinemaScore: n/a
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Searchlight
Directed by Wes Anderson
Screenplay by Wes Anderson
Story by Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola, Hugo Guinness & Jason Schwartzman
Cast: Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Lyna Khoudri, Jeffrey Wright, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Anjelica Huston, Mathieu Amalric, Stephen Park, Bob Babalan, Henry Winkler, Christoph Waltz, Willem Dafoe, Edward Norton, Saoirse Ronan, Elisabeth Moss, Jason Schwartzman
Runtime: 1hr 43min
Rating: 14A
Comedy, Drama, Romance
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A love letter to journalists set in an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional twentieth century French city that brings to life a collection of stories published in "The French Dispatch Magazine".
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Fun Fact: All of the cast explained that working on this movie was the most exhilarating, challenging, and fun they ever had with any movie since every scene they did was done with as much improvisation as possible, but also with a well-written script to go off of.
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