A Complete Review of Wes Anderson's work

Cast : Richard Ayoade, Ralph Fiennes, Rupert Friend

What was it about?
In an English village, a reporter and a mechanic listen to a rat catcher explain his clever plan to outwit his prey.

My two cents:
Concerning the tone, it was much darker than the other Roald Dahl shorts, even downright sinister, but it wasn’t an issue. What bothered me more was the fact that the story was not really amazing and the approach was, this time, slightly chaotic. For example, a rat was at first not displayed at all, then displayed as a puppet, then played by Rupert Friend himself which was maybe original but, as far as I was concerned, the end-result was just too messy for my taste. At least, the whole thing was certainly a nice one-man-show from Ralph Fiennes, even if the guy was already playing Roald Dahl but it was apparently something Wes Anderson was keen on, that the actors involved play several characters. Anyway, it was still pretty good though.

My rating: 7/10

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Cast : Rupert Friend, Ralph Fiennes

What was it about?
A small brilliant boy is tormented by two large idiotic bullies.

My two cents:
It was visually once again quite reminiscent to ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’ but it wasn’t an issue, in the contrary. The tone was also once again quite marvelous. However, the approach was still quite different this time around though. Indeed, instead of actually showing the action, it was actually mostly narrated by Rupert Friend. Well, even though I might admit that this approach might be frustrating, I thought it was in fact quite intriguing. Indeed, it was as if Peter Watson did grow up and started reminiscing about this day during which he survived a train going on top of him and a beautiful swan was tragically killed. Anyway, it certainly turn the whole thing into an impressive one-man-show from Rupert Friend who possibly delivered here the best performance of his career. Eventually, I enjoyed it more than 'Poison' above all because the story was this time around completely unpredictable.

My rating: 8/10

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Cast : Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley

What was it about?
When a poisonous snake slithers onto an Englishman's stomach in India, his associate and a doctor race to save him.

My two cents:
Since I really loved ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’, of course, I was eager to see the other shorts delivered recently by Wes Anderson for Netflix. Eventually, it was once again quite a delight. Indeed, it was visually quite reminiscent to ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’ but it wasn’t an issue, in the contrary. The tone was also once again quite marvelous. The only thing which did differentiate this movie from the other short from Wes Anderson was that all the actors were playing only one character this time around (they were only 5 characters involved though) which was the only artistical choice I didn’t really care for in ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’ (it wasn’t a big deal though). Eventually, even though it was definitely quite fun and entertaining, the story was slightly too basic though and the fact that the outcome was so predictable probably didn’t help. Anyway, The damned thing was still really enjoyable though.

My rating: 7/10

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Cast : Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, Richard Ayoade

What was it about?
This story follows Henry Sugar, who is able to see through objects and predict the future with the help of a book he stole.

My two cents:
To be honest, I have to admit that I have never been a fan of Roald Dahl’s books film adaptations. However, I really did love ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ which is, as far as I’m concerned, Anderson’s best movie so far and, well, the famous writer and the indie film director seemed to be once again a match made in heaven. Indeed, as usual with this director, the whole thing was a visual treat but, above all, it was such a fun tale and, combined with Anderson’s quirky directing style, it was just a marvel to behold. The fact it was a short feature was also perfect because I do believe that this way of telling a story for at least 90 mins could have been rather exhausting and/or annoying after a while. The only thing missing, at least, if you would compare it to his most recent directorial efforts, is that he didn’t get a huge cast to play each character by some famous actor but, instead, he chose to have only a handful of actors playing several characters but I thought it was rather distracting. Fortunately, it wasn't a big deal though and the damned thing was a real blast.

My rating: 8/10

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Cast : Edward Norton, Margot Robbie, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Adrien Brody, Bryan Cranston, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Steve Carell, Liev Schreiber, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, Jason Schwartzman, Jeff Goldblum, Matt Dillon, Willem Dafoe, Maya Hawke

What was it about?
Following a writer on his world famous fictional play about a grieving father who travels with his tech-obsessed family to small rural Asteroid City to compete in a junior stargazing event, only to have his world view disrupted forever.

My two cents:
Well, following 'The French Dispatch', it was definitely another decent effort from the American director, no doubt about it, but it was definitely again not one of his best movies, I'm afraid. Visually, as usual with Anderson, it looked amazing though as each scene was turned into some kind of gorgeous painting. Concerning the cast, well, it's obvious that they had a blast with this material, especially with the dialogues which were often quite hilarious. Eventually, the only issue I had was with the story. Indeed, even though it seems that there was a lot going on during each individual scene, as a whole, I had the feeling that it was in fact about nothing much after all. It was like focusing on the guy who wrote the play this story was supposedly based on, sure, I have to admit that it was fun but, as far as I was concerned, it didn't have much added value. Basically, this movie displayed an endless succession of nice ideas but it might have been more satisfying to keep only a few of these ideas and actually develop them. I have to admit that I still enjoyed the damned thing though.

My rating: 7/10

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Cast : Timothée Chalamet, Christoph Waltz, Saoirse Ronan, Léa Seydoux, Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Benicio Del Toro, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson, Rupert Friend, Frances McDormand, Elisabeth Moss

What was it about?
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".

My two cents:
Once again, Anderson didn’t disappoint and delivered another delightful picture. Eventually, it’s not very often that I came across such an anthology of short stories which worked so well. Indeed, none of these 3 stories could have been really developed as a full-length feature and yet, there was plenty of room to fully develop each tale. However, even if it was quite enjoyable, I don’t think it was one of Anderson’s best movies though. Above all, I thought the whole thing was just rather exhausting to watch. I mean, sure, as usual with this director, the whole thing was visually really impressive and the amount of details and visual tricks was once again just amazing. In fact, to really grasp what was going in the screen, you should pretty much watch it frame by frame so you can notice every single neat detail. However, in normal speed, there was so much random stuff going on, I think I missed half of it which was rather tiresome and frustrating. Concerning the cast, well, pretty much every Anderson production has become some kind of All-Star game of the best actors around which might sound neat but it also has its downside. Indeed, as a result, at least half of them came by just to do one scene and it was in fact rather distracting to see a major actor playing some random character with barely any impact on the movie. Anyway, even if it was maybe not another slam dunk for Wes Anderson, it was still pretty good though.

My rating: 7/10

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Cast : Bryan Cranston, Jeff Goldblum, Harvey Keitel, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Scarlett Johansson, F. Murray Abraham, Yoko Ono, Ken Watanabe, Liev Schreiber, Anjelica Huston

What was it about?
Set in Japan, Isle of Dogs follows a boy's odyssey in search of his lost dog.

My two cents:
Since I really loved 'Fantastic Mr. Fox', of course, I was really eager to watch this new stop-motion animated feature from Wes Anderson. And, indeed, I wasn't disappointed and I just really loved the damned thing. First of all, it was such a well made animated feature and the amount of neat details displayed on each screen was just impressive. Furthermore, it was just a really fun adventure with some hilarious dialogue with the typical dry humor we are used to get with West Anderson. On top of that, there was also some room for some more sensitive moments but these scenes never clashed with the rest of the movie. The only critic I could find was that the 'human' characters could have been more developed and the dogs, who were all pretty awesome, were not much developed either because there were so many of them but it wasn't a big deal. Eventually, Wes Anderson displayed once again that he is easily one of the most interesting American directors at work nowadays and I will definitely watch his next director effort.

My rating: 8/10

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Cast : Ralph Fiennes, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Harvey Keitel, Jude Law, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Saoirse Ronan, Jason Schwartzman, Léa Seydoux, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, Owen Wilson

What was it about?
The adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous hotel from the fictional Republic of Zubrowka between the first and second World Wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend.

My two cents:
In my opinion, it is only with his 2 last directing efforts (I'm not counting 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' because it is something entirely different) that Wes Anderson finally nailed it. Indeed, he finally managed to mix his whimsical visual style and his hilarious characters with a very entertaining plot. Along the years, Wes Andeson has managed to get many interesting actors under his wings and it seemed that they all showed up for this movie. Indeed, every single character was played by some known figure and you might wonder if it was not really distracting but it actually worked out fine. Of course, Ralph Fiennes played the main character with a lot of gusto and he delivered once again a terrific performance. He is and remains one of the best actors of his generation and he was definitely one of the reasons why this movie worked so well. Still, at the end of the day, what was this movie all about? Nothing much, I’m afraid. But does it have to be? Not necessarily, especially when it is so entertaining.

My rating: 8/10

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Cast : Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Harvey Keitel

What was it about?
A pair of young lovers flee their New England town, which causes a local search party to fan out to find them.

My two cents:
Ever since I saw ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ in the movie theater when it was released, I thought that Wes Anderson was a really interesting director who had a very distinctive visual style and who could create some really nice daft characters. Unfortunately, I always had a hard time to care about his stories which were always decent but never really fascinating. With this movie, he finally nailed it and managed to give something visually really neat, some hilarious eccentric characters and, at last, a really entertaining tale. Indeed, it was actually a very sweet teenage love story and I had a blast with those scouts. Finally, the last masterstroke was to have Bruce Willis in one of his best performances from the last 10 years. Indeed, he played again a cop (seriously, a genius move) but an old one who didn’t seem to have seen a lot of action during the last 20 maybe even 30 years.

My rating: 8/10

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Cast : George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson, Brian Cox, Adrien Brody

What was it about?
An urbane fox cannot resist returning to his farm raiding ways and then must help his community survive the farmers' retaliation.

My two cents:
I was quite curious about this movie because it was directed by Wes Anderson but also skeptical because I'm not a huge fan of Roald Dhal. Well, at last, with this flick, Anderson finally managed to blow me away. Indeed, there was in fact no reason to worry and it was much better than I expected. Basically, it was one of the most original animated movies I have ever seen, it really looked gorgeous and I just loved the dialogues and all these funny characters. I especially loved the first half which was pretty much pitch perfect and really hilarious and, while it lost some steam during the second half, it was still pretty damned entertaining. By now, I have seen this movie so many times and it gets better each time again in my opinion. Anyway, to conclude, I really loved the damned thing, it is in my opinion by far the best thing delivered by Wes Anderson I have seen at this point.

My rating: 8/10

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Cast : Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, Irrfan Khan, Bill Murray, Anjelica Huston, atalie Portman

What was it about?
A year after their father's funeral, three brothers travel across India by train in an attempt to bond with each other.

My two cents:
Eventually, exactly like the rest of Anderson's work, I liked this movie but I didn't think it was great. Beforehand, I even watched 'Hotel Chevalier' which worked pretty well as a companion piece but I also thought it was rather misleading. Indeed, to the contrary to the other brothers, you do get this way a backstory for Jack and it gave the feeling that he was the main protagonist when it is not the case actually. Anyway, the cast was pretty good, the colors and production design were great, I enjoyed the music and India seemed to be an enchanting country. Once again, it dealt with a dysfunctional familly and even though I enjoyed those excentric characters, I thought the story was no bad but nothing really spellbinding. It was also rather corny that they got close with each other towards the end. It was still a decent watch though.

My rating: 7/10

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Cast : Jason Schwartzman, Natalie Portman

What was it about?
A prologue of one heart-breaking history of love and the prologue of the travel told in 'The Darjeeling Limited'.

My two cents:
To be honest, I had some rather mixed feelings about this short. On one hand, I actually liked it and I think it was in fact even better than 'The Darjeeling Limited'. On the other hand, as mentionned above, it was rather misleading as it gave the feeling that Jack was the main protagonist in 'The Darjeeling Limited' which wasn't the case after all. Still, I thought it was a pretty good and it will be probably the only opportunity to see the lovely Natalie Portman in the nude since it was a decision she deeply regretted afterwards.

My rating: 7/10

Cast : Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Anjelica Huston, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Gambon

What was it about?
With a plan to exact revenge on a mythical shark that killed his partner, oceanographer Steve Zissou rallies a crew that includes his estranged wife, a journalist, and a man who may or may not be his son.

My two cents:
First of all, as usual with Wes Anderson, there was an impressive cast and they all delivered some pretty good performances. The flick itself was basically some kind of weird comedy and I'm not sure if it actually tried to honor or to make fun of Jacques-Yves Cousteau's work and, obviously, if you don't know who is Cousteau, you won't get half of the movie. Still, in my opinion, the tone was pretty uneven and I had a hard time to follow where he was getting at with this tale but I could say the same thing about most of his movies. It might explain why I have always been intrigued by his work but still had a hard time to really enjoy it, at least until recently. Still, even though I wasn’t completely blown away, there were many hilarious scenes and I enjoyed the whole thing.

My rating: 7/10

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Cast : Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, Danny Glover, Alec Baldwin

What was it about?
An estranged family of former child prodigies reunites when their father announces he is terminally ill.

My two cents:
To be honest, it has been a while since I have this flick and I should definitely re-watch it if I have the opportunity. In fact, this is the first movie directed by Wes Anderson I have ever seen and, I remember it very well, I saw it in the movie theater when it was released. At the time, there was a lot of hype about this fairly new director and he was apparently the new US indie sensation so I was really eager to check this flick. Eventually, even though I admired the work done and even though I thought it was pretty good, I can’t say I was really blown away which would be the case with most of the movies directed by Wes Anderson. As usual, he had a really nice cast, the characters were quite interesting and colorful but, somehow, I couldn’t shake the idea that the whole thing was rather shallow and a little bit pretentious. Still, even though I was expecting a little bit more from this flick, it was after all an interesting feature.

My rating: 7/10

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Cast : Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams, Brian Cox, Connie Nielsen, Luke Wilson

What was it about?
The extracurricular king of Rushmore preparatory school is put on academic probation.

My two cents:
Well, eventually, like most of his work, I thought it was a decent watch but I can't say it really blew me away either. Basically, as usual, there wasn't much of a plot and there was his usual tone which always make his movies stand out from the crowd. At this point, he was still going easy on the production design and it is only with his next directing effort ('The Royal Tenenbaums') that Anderson would start to go every time rather over the top with the colors and the vintage details. However, in spite of a rather limited budget, it was still visually neat. Anyway, at the end of the day, whether you care about this movie or not, mostly depends on how much you will connect or like the characters. Well, in my case, I thought they were half quirky and charming and half spoiled and obnoxious so I'm afraid that even though they were interesting enough, I can't say I really cared for them either. It is also with this movie that Wes Anderson will start a very long collaboration with Bill Murray who would be, so far, involved in all his following projects.

My rating: 7/10

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Cast : Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson

What was it about?
Focusing on a trio of friends and their elaborate plan to pull off a simple robbery and go on the run.

My two cents:
Apparently, this movie didn’t get much love when it was released and it was a big box-office flop at the time (apparently, Owen Wilson even considered joining the Marines afterwards, as he thought that he had no future as an actor). Well, I really liked it and, in fact, I believe it is even one of the most enjoyable movies delivered by Anderson so far. Indeed, even though I always respected his work, I often had a hard time to connect with his movies as they were drown in his usual visual extravaganza instead of focusing on the characters and what they were going through. Here, even though it was obviously much less ambitious, especially visually speaking, the focus was more on the characters and those were most of the time quite hilarious. Eventually, I have to admit that the whole thing was still too random to become really remarkable but most of it worked very well.

My rating: 7/10

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Cast : Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson

What was it about?
Two young men, Dignan and Anthony, walk along talking about "Starsky and Hutch." They're on their way to burglarize a house. After, they go to a café, play some pinball. They argue about the burglary and talk to their friend Bob about another scheme.

My two cents:
That’s where it all started not only for Wes Anderson but also for Owen Wilson. Indeed, in fact, Wilson wanted to be a writer and took the acting job only because there was no budget to get some experienced actors. Anyway, coming back to the movie itself, I thought it was a decent short. Anderson was already displaying his interest in quirky characters and, right from this very first directing effort, the plot was not really strong but it was still a nice watch.

My rating: 7/10