A love letter to journalists set in an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional twentieth-century French city that brings to life a collection of stories published in “The French Dispatch Magazine”.
“The French Dispatch” is written and directed by Wes Anderson and it stars a huge cast of Anderson regulars, along with some new collaborators as well. It basically follows the stories being told in a magazine under a newspaper set in 20th century France. I have been a fan of a decent amount of Anderson’s previous works but starting with “Isle of Dogs,” I felt he has been potentially losing his touch by going further into his aesthetic. “The French Dispatch” affirms my belief in this greatly.
From the beginning, I just was not on board with this, it starts with a large exposition dump and then jumps around from story to story, anthology-style. Normally, I like anthologies but here I just didn’t see the point. Some of the stories were interesting but I just didn’t care enough. I think that is my largest issue with this whole movie is I just did not care about anyone or anything herein. Everything is so stale and the reason is that Anderson doesn’t appear to be trying anything new in how he tells a story. It is the same thing he has always done, just further into the rabbit hole. He has become so much about his style that it just distracts at this point from any attempt to tell a unique story so while there are things happening, I feel like nothing happens at all.
Everyone has the same fast-talking witty type of energy to them, so it is hard to really distinguish uniqueness between characters. They are all just a generic carbon copy of a Wes Anderson character. I think the only person who comes close to separating themselves from this is Jeffrey Wright. I do believe he is the saving grace of this movie, if there even is one. He is the only actor performing, rather than letting himself fall into the mundaneness of the world Anderson has created. It is a shame because I do like a lot of these actors and have liked them in older Anderson works but in here, most of them just fall flat and get lost in the aesthetic being created.
For me, “The French Dispatch” is just an attempt as Oscar bait, nothing more, nothing less. It does not do anything new for storytelling or filmmaking, at a minimum, it isn’t even entertaining. I think Anderson is getting into the stage where he believes his aesthetic is more important than the story he is trying to tell. The end result, to me, is just plain disappointing because I have enjoyed a lot of Anderson’s movies but not this time around. I hope others can go into this and have a much better time with it than I did. I know this has a built-in audience but it just wasn’t meant for me. I’m okay with admitting that, I just hope that others can have a good time with it.
In Theaters Friday, October 29th
