The French Dispatch

The French Dispatch-720P

The French Dispatch-480P

The French Dispatch_720p(480P)

source: The French Dispatch

source: The French Dispatch

I saw "The French Dispatch", starring Bill Murray-Zombieland, Get Smart_2008; Benicio Del Toro-the Sicario movies, Sin City; Frances McDormand-Nomadland, Aeon Flux and Jeffrey Wright-the James Bond movies, Shaft_2000. This is a Wes Anderson movie so if you are not a fan, you may want to steer clear of this one. It has an all star cast in a collection of off the wall stories. Bill plays the editor of an American newspaper that is located in France-their headquarters are in Kansas-and the stories are told to him by his journalists/reporters and published in his newspaper, The French Dispatch. One has Benicio as a psycho/murderer in prison that loves to paint, with people desperately wanting to buy his paintings. Another has Frances covering student uprisings and yet another one has Jeffrey relating a kidnapping of a policeman's son. They all contain cameos by actors you will recognize-Timothee Chalamet, Willem DaFoe, Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, HenryWinkler, Edward Norton and Elisabeth Moss, just to name a few-but the stories are just so weird, it's as if Wes was just trying to be weird for weird's sake. Examples; The painter is in a straight jacket when he is not painting naked women but the paintings don't look anything like them. The kidnappers have a chef bring them food, during a shootout with the police. Some scenes are animated during a chase scene and returns to normal-if you can call it that-after the chase is over. It's rated "R" for language and sexual content-including nudity-and has a running time of 1 hour & 48 minutes. It's not one that I would buy on DVD. I wouldn't rent it either. If you are a fan of Wes Anderson, you might enjoy it more than I did but otherwise, I'd wait until it comes to cable.

So gutted to see a director I love so much fall so far. So pompous. He chose to flaunt his overdone style to the extreme instead of craft a story with emotional layers. Ugh. BARF.

I've liked every Wes Anderson movie that I've seen, and to that I can now add "The French Dispatch". If you've seen Anderson's previous movies, then you should have an idea of what to expect here (centered scenes, quirky characters, clever dialogue). In this case, the plot involves the final issue of a magazine and the topics that the magazine will cover. Lots of neat stuff in store. As always, Anderson casts Bill Murray, while his occasional cast member Anjelica Huston narrates. Also appearing are Anderson regulars Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzmann, Adrien Brody, Bob Balaban, Willem Dafoe, Edward Norton, Frances McDormand and Tilda Swinton. Appearing for the first time in an Anderson movie are Timothée Chalamet, Henry Winkler, Lois Smith, Elisabeth Moss, Griffin Dunne, Benicio Del Toro, Christoph Waltz, Jeffrey Wright and Liev Schreiber (if I remember right, Mathieu Amalric and Léa Seydoux are appearing in an Anderson movie for the second time). With this movie and "Dune", I'd say that Chalamet has had his annus mirabilis this year. Anyway, great movie. You're sure to love it.

Wes Anderson has made two of my favorite movies - grand budapest hotel and royal tennenbaums but this forgettable movie ranks near the bottom of his work. The art and style is all there - a lot of tributes to the old french and italian cinema greats, to the silent movies back to meiles but what is missing is a cohesive compelling story. There is irony because you get 3-4 stories depending on how u look at it but nothing at all memorable or believable for a second. The writing is on the wall literally from the first scene when we are asked to indulge a joke that liberty, kansas (population 100) had a newspaper at one time with an office in paris. That alone was not enough to sink this movie - not with this great case of top notch actors. What is redeeming here is a few standout performances. If you hadnt seen benicio del toro before this movie is worth something because he shows again why he won the academy award 20 years ago for traffic. His eyes and facial expressions have a hint of lon chaney. Adrien Brody hits the mark and does not disappoint- however the script undercuts him and does not do him justice. They had Jeffrey wright playing roebuck wright who seems to have been partially based on the writer richard wright and a little James Baldwin partial composite though his story does not really resemble either Richard wrights character or James Baldwin that well ( both were american ex pat writers living in france at timeframe of the film) and frankly was quite the waste of time for the character who has the most lines in the movie. I know wes anderson likes to have his trademarks with these stories about how they always become unglued but this movie really took things to an extreme - there was almost literally no point to this nonsense. Add in some animation which he used in his boring movie isle of dogs- another sleeper and he completely lost me. A * portrait scene was an example of the director's focus on the art crowd which did nothing for me and was another sign early that this was going to be bad. The scene did not do much to move the rather boring story and looked like a misfire of trying to be edgy. Also the use of black and white was ok sometimes and made the color scenes more powerful when they came out of the black and white - there was too much shifting between black and white color and animation - he overdid it. I liked the black and white scenes where he paid homage to the classic films but much of the b&w scenes were tedious. A scene involving an electric chair had some interesting metaphorical and symbolic value though that may have been just for shock value or laughs not sure. Three good scenes in the whole movie - a flashback scene paying tribute to Beau Geste (a three-second montage part of a larger flashback in the way royal tenenbaums does its ramones flashback scenes) an art scene and a quick shootout scene. This movie needed more great scenes - second story should have been cut out entirely. I gave it three stars - one star for art decoration, one star for the actors involved, and another star for the effort to pay tribute to the classic cinema. I cant give it more than three stars because that would be bad advice if you value your time and money. This movie is only going to appeal to the most loyal Wes Anderson fans and those overindulging in artistic self indulgence. This film overdosed on self indulgence.

In many ways The French Dispatch feels like the most Wes Andersony movie you could ask for but despite it possessing all the little quirks, stylings and scattered goodness's of the beloved indie director, Anderson's latest star studded affair doesn't come close to becoming a film worthy of standing alongside the likes of Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums or The Grand Budapest Hotel. His first "real life" film since 2014's Grand Budapest adventure, it at first appears as though we are in for another oddball delight as we are thrust into the world of Bill Murray's Arthur Howitzer, Jr.'s French Dispatch newspaper world filled with many of Anderson's greatest friends such as Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman and the initial voice over lead introduction to this eclectic universe of journalists, artists and deep thinkers seems to set things up for a colourful ride but this collation of stories loses steam quickly and becomes a film that is sure to divide the Anderson fan-base in unpredictable ways. As an artistic endeavour, Dispatch is as glorious as we've come to expect from Anderson with black and white segments, animated detours, moving sets and witty scripting all making themselves known but there's a heart and soul missing here that's found in the best of Anderson's works and despite the attempt by Anderson to string everything here together under the guise of newspaper sections, there's not a particularly strong common thread binding the narrative of Dispatch into one cohesive whole with only the first segment featuring a wild eyed Benicio Del Toro as troubled inmate/painter Moses Rosenthaler really standing out in the memory once the credits roll. While it might sound harsh and likely to not go down well with those Anderson fans that see the unique filmmaker as someone that can do no wrong, Dispatch's most glaring issue appears to be that Anderson has tried to out-Anderson himself and in doing so has turned his often winning formula into a washed down and bastardised caricature of itself, nothing really feels overly earned or earnest here and while Anderson may attempt to declare his film as a love letter to journalism and its many worthy figures, the film he has made never truly achieves its goal of honouring the art-form or its participants. Final Say - Always nice to look at and artistically as strong as you'd expect from a director with the track record of Anderson, The French Dispatch feels like one of his most forgettable films yet that fails to find its mojo around a collection of tales that never fly like the way you would've hoped they did. 2 1/2 prison based exhibitions out of 5 For more reviews check out my blog: Jordan and Eddie.