The French Dispatch

Incredible cast, and Wes Anderson's style is always visually appealing, but the short stories that make up The French Dispatch fell flat for me. The attention to detail and sly references were great as a concept, but seemed overdone, to the detriment of evenness (or comprehension) in the plot and characters that I cared about. It needed a better script, one that was pruned down and had more heart. It was fantastic seeing all of these actors, though most are underused to say the least. Loved Jeffrey Wright in this though.

A triumph of style and artistry, The French Despatch is also witty and clever, but it might leave you cold if you don't like the quirky, arty, and, frankly, sometimes quite pretentious and self-indulgent Wes Anderson approach. Like other films of his, it's marvellous to look at, there are some funny moments from the huge star studded cast, and despite the reservations mentioned, the French Despatch is classy.

The French Dispatch is a French subsidiary of a Kansas newspaper. Every week it provides articles from renowned journalists. When the long-serving editor dies, as per his wishes The French Dispatch closes but not before a final edition. In it are four articles, details of which the film illustrates.

I generally enjoy Wes Anderson's films and have seen all of them with Rushmore, The Fantastic Mr Fox and The Royal Tenenbaums being my favourites. They tend to be quirkily funny but can be difficult to get into. With his recent films Anderson has also amped up the special effects and cinematography, making the films visually more stylish and art-like.

This is not a problem as long as the visual effects don't replace a good plot. With The French Dispatch, that's exactly where the problem lies.

We have a central story - the final edition of a newspaper - plus four sub-stories (the four articles) none of which prove to be very engaging. Things just happen, sometimes in very haphazard, random ways with no attempt to draw in the audience. While quirky, none of the stories are funny enough to make the film a comedy and carry it that way.

The cinematography and special effects are stunning but without a decent plot and level of engagement they're just nice-to-look-at images, bereft of meaning.

Also can't fault the cast which is heavily star-laden: Benicio Del Toro, Bill Murray (as always, for a Wes Anderson film), Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Lea Seydoux, Timothee Chalamet, Jeffrey Wright, Owen Wilson, Bob Balaban, Henry Winkler, Elisabeth Moss, Christoph Waltz, Alex Lawther, Liev Schreiber, Willem Dafoe, Edward Norton, Saoirse Ronan, Jason Schwartzman. Such is the saturation of stars that some only appear for 20 seconds or so!

As "The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun" (2021 release; 107 min) opens, we are introduced to the French fictional town of Ennui-sur-Blasé (translated from French, literally, "boredom on apathetic"), where an outpost of the Liberty, Kansas Evening News gathers one last time to bring the final issue of the French Dispatch, a weekly magazine. Within minutes, we are introduced to a myriad of characters...

Couple of comments: this is the latest from writer-director Wes Anderson. Whose work I mostly adore ("Isle of Dogs"., "The Grand Budapest Hotel", "The Royal Tenenbaums", just to name those). It feels to me as if "The French Dispatch" is the culmination of many of his earlier films, with maximum focus on style but regretfully not enough attention to the storytelling. Is this supposed t be a "comedy"? If so, I can tell you that I didn't laugh a single time. If it's supposed to be something else, that didn't resonate with me either. In the end, I simply watched but I never "bought into" the film or felt connected with any of it or the characters. Per the usual, this is an ensemble cast, but on steroids, as in: DOZENS of big names, some of which you'll miss if you blink. In the end the movie never achieves the sum of its parts, and it all felt strangely aloof and left me unmoved.

"The French Dispatch" was filmed in 2019 and its release was one of the many victims of COVID, being pushed back several times. By the time it received a US theatrical release in Fall, 2021, it almost felt like its due date had already come and gone. I missed it in the theater, and finally caught it the other day on HBO Max. If you, like myself, are a big Wes Anderson, I'd readily suggest you check it out, with low(er) expectations, and draw your own conclusion.

When one goes to a Wes Anderson film, we exactly know what to expect. In French Dispatch, Wes Anderson gives us everything we expect but he seems to have focused too much on aesthetics and less in the script. The film resembles like a spiritual sequel to Grand Budapest Hotel, but lacked it's strong characters and bullet speed screenplay.

The French Dispatch is an anthology about 3 segments in a newspaper set in a French town. Each story is something Wes Anderson has never done in his previous films, he tries to convey a political satire which often falls flat. A big star cast wasn't necessary for this film but it had it anyway and many top actors have been grossly under utilized.

The biggest plus of French Dispatch is that it has a spectacular production design, original score, cinematography and costumes. The aesthetics test has been passed in flying colours, probably the best we have seen in a Wes Anderson movie. On the first watch the movie rather feels like a letdown compared to his previous work but rewatches could boost it's legacy.