A good movie

Since I have seen all the movies directed by Wes Anderson, I was of course really eager to check his last directorial effort. I have noticed that it didn’t get some stellar reviews and, indeed, I would have to agree that it was probably one of his minor efforts. As a matter of fact, Anderson had already worked on 4 projects in the 2020’s (actually 4 shorts and 3 full-length features) and we are only half-way through in this decade so it could be a good idea to slow down his output, otherwise, he might end up like Steven Soderbergh or Woody Allen, 2 great directors who are/were also workaholics who delivered pretty much on a yearly basis some rather half-baked features. Coming back to our main feature, it was still a decent watch though, that’s for sure. Indeed, Anderson has such a unique visual style, only on this level, it is always a treat to watch any of his movies. Concerning the story, it was probably the main issue here. I mean, it definitely had some potential but, unfortunately, I’m afraid maybe half of it didn’t really work though (seriously, I still don’t know or understand what was this scheme after all). I mean, it was basically about a father with the worst reputation who was trying to reconnect with his daughter while concluding some murky business deal which was all fine but it seemed that the script did need a couple of rewrites. Concerning the cast, I have always been a huge fan of Benicio del Toro and he was fine here. Michael Cera was also pretty much pitch-perfect and I hope he will make more movies with this director in the future. However, I wasn’t so sure about Mia Threapleton, Kate Winslet’s daughter. I mean, she did have some charisma but I don’t think she was really good and she felt like a weaker version of Léa Seydoux who would have been perfect to play this character 20 years ago. Concerning the rest of the star-studded cast, well, to be honest, they were all pretty much wasted here as none of them was given enough to do, even though I have to admit that the basketball game involving Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston was pretty awesome. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that I still enjoyed it and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Wes Anderson’s work. 

7/10