The French Dispatch - 💥💥💥

Director: Wes Anderson

Writer: Wes Anderson

Release Date: 22nd October 2021

Hot Rating: 💥💥💥

The French Dispatch is no ordinary magazine, nor film; both are quirky, retro and Parisian-based. Fans of Anderson’s idiosyncratic aesthetics will enjoy this pastel-drenched story, which follows three feature stories from the magazine’s final issue; there’s a love story between a mentally unstable artist and his prison guard, a student political revolution and a kidnapping-cum-food review. The publication is the embodiment of romantic journalism, which the film waxes liberally. Like a child in a sweet shop, the viewing experience is a serotonin overload, exacerbated by Anderson’s refusal to scratch beneath the surface of the magazine’s lofty headers. Anderson’s auteur status by this point in his career is uncontested and, while this latest work in ways feels like a culmination of his greatest aesthetic achievements (brief, but beautiful animation, sumptuous symmetry), the stories feel little more than a vessel for expressing his craft. At times, it’s enchanting, at others it's laborious. 

Image: YouTube