Film: The French Dispatch

GENRE: Comedy, Drama
RATING: R for graphic nudity, sexual references and language
                (for some reason Cineplex rates it  PG)
RUNTIME: 1 hour and 48 minutes
PLATFORM: Movie Theatre
STARRING: Benicio Del Toro (Traffic, Sicario, The Usual Suspects)
Timothy Chalamet (Dune); Jeffrey Wright (No Time to Die, Westworld)
DIRECTOR: Wes Anderson (Grand Budapest, Moonrise Kingdom)
WRITER: Anderson (Rushmore, Royal Tennenbaums, Isle of Dogs)
PLOT: A collection of stories set in a fictional French city.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I love all things Wes Anderson.

STORY STUFF: While The Royal Tennenbaums tell their stories in chapters, The French Dispatch tell their stories in ‘standalone’ articles. There are whimsical stories of art & incarceration, love & protest, kidnapping & cuisine. Those three stories take up most of the film and they are very entertaining and well-written. My favourites though would be the initial introduction of the magazine by Angelica Huston and the description of the city of Ennui from Owen Wilson’s biking reporter.

ACTING STUFF: Anderson employs his roster of favourites including Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Frances McDormand, Adrien Brody, Edward Norton and more. Chalamet reminded me of Jason Schwartzman’s Max from Rushmore; great company to be in. Del Toro is mostly silent but fantastic as a tortured artist. I wish Christoph Waltz had more to do. The cast is great and you can tell that everyone is having a great time being in this production.

ARTISTIC STUFF: This is the most Wes Anderson-y of Wes Anderson films. It has everything you expect to find in his film: narration, whimsy, symmetry, narrator’s head in the bottom left of the screen, French music, ennui, dollhouse-style sets, object shots, stage plays, slow tracking shots, shots of letters and documents, awesome names but less family issues and robbery. This time, Anderson includes 2-D animation, fun live tableaux, and black & white cinematography (mixed with some colourful moments). The one thing I didn’t like about his stylistic stuff this time around was the intentional blurriness during some of the black and white sequences – it took me out of the story. Other than that, full of Wes Anderson goodness that I love.

VERDICT: Five stars out of five (I’m pretty biased though)
SEE IT IF: You like Wes Anderson and a quirky filming style
UPCOMING REVIEW: Eternals