This was a film that packed a ton into it, with a time span lasting less than two hours. With a plethoria of stars, the film details three of the stories detailed in the last issue of the fancy, elite magazine: The French Dispatch, as the head editor (Bill Murray) has passed away, at his desk and it is dying wish to take the magazine with him.
Now, the stories are inconsistent, both with the star power and roles they are given, while some shine (such as Benicio Del Toro's brilliant but homicidal maniac and Frances McDormand's sexually repressed journalist), others fade into the background and their roles are so small you blink and you might miss then (Edward Norton, Saiorse Ronan and Willem Dafoe), but the film is still great as Wes Anderson is a genius and auteur having paid attention to every single, solitary detail in this film from the art direction to the cinematography switching from black and white to color effortlessly, the film is nevertheless worth watching. That all being said, you will certainly need a second viewing to pick up on all the nuances the film portrays which is annoying to say the least and I did find the two animated scenes a bit bizarre, so the film is far from perfect but it still manages to be great. Grade: A-
Side Notes:
-Anjelica Huston is apparently the narrator.
-The second scene, where the city is described, sort of comes back later on.
-The stars in this film are Elisabeth Moss, Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, Timothee Chalomet, Tilda Swinton and cameos from Henry Winkler, Christoph Waltz, Lois Smith, Griffin Dunne and Bob Balaban, so that's far too many stars in one picture.
-While the stories are interesting, I don't think they have much to do with their intended purpose.
No comments:
Post a Comment