Hello and good morning, reader of this post! How are you? How are things? I hope you are well and you are having a nice day! Merry Christmas once again! Many have probably put their decorations down, but not me! Christmas season of 2021 is fading, but it goes beyond the New Year's into January 6th! We can enjoy this awesome time a bit more, why not? How is the weather?
So, today I'd love to talk about the new Wes Anderson movie, because I do still like the director, not even close to how much I liked him in 2014, BUT well... it is important to say there will be some spoilers ahead, I believe, so be careful!
I finally managed to watch the whole French Dispatch yesterday, and I have some mixed feelings about it overall. Aesthetically the movie is just gorgeous, it doesn't seem like much in the beginning, but I really like the change from black and white to colored, the cartoon scene on the end of the movie, the best part of it all, is amazing! Just that Wes Anderson feel that no one can quite get it right but him, it just feels good watching (most of) the movie, your eyes sing in (most of) the scenes. I believe that's all I'll say on the aesthetic of it: overall: approved! With that being said, some unecessary nudity and a bit of gore in it, too, which makes us wonder what would Wes do directing a horror movie, as he once said he'd like to do....
The plot however, it is so hard to say if it is a homage, if it's making fun of, the weird set of characters portrayed in it: that intellectual elite of past century in "all its glory", the dangerous lunatic-modernist artist that the character by Adrien Brody describes so well, the french students revolting against... something? It is really hard to say what. That's one point where the movie fails: It can't decide if it makes fun of those people, if it's criticizing them, or if it's actually paying tribute to them. That movie is a comedy... but a very weird one, not as well portrayed as Grand Budapest Hotel. It has a lot to do with The Royal Tenenbaums I believe, but it also dangerously get close to The Aquatic Life of Steve Zissou. It isn't as bad as Aquatic Life, but it has some annoying similarities with that one. Just the sarcasm for sarcasm's sake, that thing of "is it laughing with the audience or from it". I believe the last part of the movie, the one with the chef and the guy that writes on culinary, is the best part, though it has almost nothing to do with food, it's a bit redundant, though also it's the best put together part of it.
I also don't like that it puts itself as a "love letter to journalism". When I think of all the terrible things journalists have done, of their creation of narratives, of their statism, collectivism, their arrogance, I think the last thing journalists need is a tap in the back, specially after 2020 and 2021. "A newspaper's duty is to print the news and Raise hell", so said a journal from Chicago. To say that movie also did that would be an overstatement, it just isn't as relevant. As much as it inovates on the aesthetic of Wes Anderson, it just fails in so many more points... I'd say, to give that movie an 8 is too generous, I'd give a 7 out of 10. I'm still on the fence if I'd watch it again.
The cast is amazing, though. You can love the actors or you can hate them, but you can't deny they have a lot of fun and feel very at home in their roles. I specially loved Tilda Swinton (is it her name?) and Timothy Charmelet (also don't know how to spell his last name). We even had a bit of Jason Schwartzman by the end (though very little). A lot of nice names, which is one part of the movie that reminds us of Grand Budapest, we have all those recognizable faces, coming in and out, some don't do nothing at all, but their presence do add to the whole picture.
So, in summary: If you love Wes, go for it, you will like it for the aesthetic of it, at least. For the rest, though... it really won't bring much to the table. It's hard to call it a disappointment per se, but I guess it's the right thing to do.
So yea, this is it for today's post! I decided I could do a movie review for one of my last posts of 2021! Did you watch the movie? Do you agree with my points? Do let me know! And I wish you the best, my friend, reader of this post, see you all next time! And may next time be real soon!
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