MOVIE: The French Dispatch (2021)

The French Dispatch Year: 2021 Rating: R Length: 107 minutes / 1.78 hours Wes Anderson's films are immediately recognizable for their aesthetic, pacing, and ensemble casts. The dark subject matter of these movies is often glossed over through the application of bright colors, symmetry, and ho-hum characters. The French Dispatch (2021) is basically a "greatest hits" of Wes Anderson's oeuvre, both in its stylistic visual choices and its vast cast of common collaborators. There's not enough content for a full movie here, so instead, we get a glimpse into four shorter films tied together via the eponymous "French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun." Over the last few decades, Wes Anderson has explored a variety of different film techniques through his movies. From stop-motion (like in Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) and Isle of Dogs (2018)) to small-scale models (like in The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)), Anderson builds upon his distinctive style with each successive project in his filmography. Perhaps this is what is a...
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