"The French Dispatch" (2021) Directed by Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson’s “Love Letter to Journalists”.

As a fan of nearly 25 years since Rushmore blew my mind in 1998 and an obsessive for a decade after the release of Moonrise Kingdom in 2012, I’ve been rather excited to get my first glimpse of Wes Anderson’s new film. As the article linked at the bottom of the page will hopefully demonstrate, I truly obsess over seemingly every frame of Wes’ films and have long adored the quirky offbeat comedies of the aforementioned Rushmore or the more awkward and squirming nature as well as the immense comedic quotas in The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The Darjeeling Limited. The attention to detail is paramount in Fantastic Mr Fox, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Isle of Dogs and the reason why I adore Moonrise Kingdom is perhaps because Wes wraps everything that so epitomises his films into his 2012 classic and absolutely smothers it with humanity, exploration, freedom and love in the process.

If you’re new to a Wes Anderson film, the picture book nature or the seeming blend of both live action and animation may astound you on first viewing, and equally so the extreme close ups or the obvious blend of the real and the surreal and especially so the overhead shots of inanimate objects, maps, tasks, agendas or a photograph or even a cloakroom ticket. The regular screen ratio size changes (from 16:9 widescreen to 4:3 Letterbox) may befuddle newer viewers to a Wes Anderson film, as will the constant changes between Black and White and Colour which is especially prevalent in this, his latest surreal cinematic offering. If like me you were expecting these tropes to be very definitely to the fore, then you may also conclude like me that The French Dispatch is perhaps the most Wes Anderson film Wes Anderson has ever created, as it’s soaked to its very film marrow with the all of the above as well as Wes’ brilliant use of so many actors and actresses who cannot wait to return to work on a film with the meticulous master of the mesmerising.

So if The French Dispatch is in fact the most Wes Anderson inspired film he has directed to date, why don’t I love it so?

The above opening paragraphs are taken from my original spoiler free review of "The French Dispatch" originally penned and published to my Medium blog site on 24th February 2022 and can be read in full and for free (please also consider subscribing for free too!) via my Substack blog site and original article linked immediately below:

https://ramblingmusings666.substack.com/p/the-french-dispatch-2021-550a6e06e307

This spoiler free review is also contained within my 7 volumes of "essential film reviews collection" (£4.99 per volume) or each and every volume can be read for free should you have an Amazon Kindle "Unlimited" package:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0C4HZSTTH?ref_=dbs_p_pwh_rwt_anx_a_lnk&storeType=ebooks

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