Movie Review: The French Dispatch

 

What 6 Underground was to Michael Bay, The French Dispatch is to Wes Anderson. The beloved indie auteur is at the point of his career where he has enough cache to do whatever the hell he wants and studios will just let it happen, so why not just do it? Fly some big name actors to Paris (Elisabeth Moss, Henry Winkler, Saoirse Ronan) to play completely inconsequential characters that have no more than a few lines of dialogue? Sure Wes, why not. A lengthy animated sequence depicting a police chase that could've pretty easily been depicted in live action? Done deal. An anthology-style storyline that celebrates eccentric journalists working on their craft AND provides a built-in excuse to hurl as many quirky characters/situations at the screen at once? God damn Wes, you're really going to it do them huh?  

Also just like Bay's 6 Underground, Anderson's comically excessive embrace of his own filmmaking brand leads to something that highlights the most engaging signatures (snarky absurdist one-liners, committed performances, snappy cinematography) and most insufferable elements (forced quirkiness, pretentious storytelling) of his work in equal measure. To put it more plainly: The French Dispatch is the most Wes Anderson movie of all the Wes Anderson movies , which pretty much means that it will be pure cinematic bliss or torture depending on the eyes of the viewer in question.           

Grade: B-