The French Dispatch (Think I’m done with Wes Anderson, for now)

There’s not much for me to say about the French Dispatch. I enjoy Wes Anderson films, I’m a fan. In particular Moonrise Kingdom is great. French Dispatch really hammered home how I’m done with Wes Anderson.

At least for now.

Unless there’s some shake up to what he is doing it feels like it peaked with the Grand Budapest Hotel. Did not watch Isle of Dogs, might check it out and still have to watch Darjeeling Limited.

French Dispatch

French Dispatch is only 1 hour 40 minutes but it was a slog. The film is essentially three/four short films (if you count Luke Wilson’s part) from the perspective of a writer covering a story.

None of them really stuck out for me.

If there was one story that was good it was probably the last one because it contained action and stakes. There was also a bit of action too. Wes Anderson is an underrated when it comes to action scenes, especially shoot outs. It’s clean simple and concise which is what you want from action.

There were a couple of other aspects I liked too.

• The real time freeze frames.

• The breakaway sets in the second section.

• How they changed from young Benicio Del Toro to older Benecio del Toro.

• The spot light they put on young Benicio Del Toro when he gets angry.

That’s it and as you can see most of it is all aesthetic based.

None of the stories were interesting. The humour fell flat for me.

Jeffery Wrigfht is great, I love his voice, it feels like he has to play Orson Welles in a biopic.

It was funny to see Lea Seydoux having a more prominent speaking role over Denis Menochet. A role reversal of how they played father and daughter in Inglorious Basterds.

Conclusion

French Dispatch was dull. It is gorgeous to look at. It feels like Wes has sealed upt the cracks in the artifice that shone through in Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Wes has not changed, it seems like I’ve changed.