Sundance: 'Summering' Celebrates Girlhood and Friendship
James Ponsoldt is a director who's made a wide range of movies. Of them, there are some I've really connected with, like 2013's The Spectacular Now and 2015's The End of the Tour. Looking closer, I think the reason behind why I appreciate both films is because, in them, characters are drawn towards pursuing a strangely alluring kind of darkness in life. His new film, Summering, a coming-of-age story about a group of friends who bond over an unexpected discovery during their last days of summer, couldn't be further from those films. But Ponsoldt does infuse a bit of fate into this childhood story that makes it just a bit more elevated and smart than it might've been in the hands of another writer-director.
It's an interesting shift of gears that Ponsoldt makes here. Having previously made movies with more mature themes and artistic stature–whether about alcoholic high schoolers or the tragic beauty of David Foster Wallace–he's now at a place in his life where he wants to celebrate the transient beauty of young people and their friendship. Perhaps after making these darker films, he knows how fleeting this pure time in life is.
As Ponsoldt said while (virtually) introducing the film during its premiere at the Sundance film festival, Summering was born "out of a desire to see better films about his daughter wife, and mother." So, it's clear that he intended to make something lighter, something he could show his family and that they would hopefully also enjoy. After watching the film, it's quite obvious how much he wants to celebrate girlhood, and girl power, from a very proud girl dad.
It's the last few days of summer, and four best friends–Daisy (Lia Barnet), Dina (Madalen Mills), Mari (Eden Grace Redfield), and Lola (Sanai Victoria)–intend to spend it together, playing in the bright sunshine without an adult in sight. Summering sets out to capture the magic of youth, friendship, and growing up. Ponsoldt's camera captures highly stylized sequences of them all running in slow-motion and making dreamlike leaps over creeks, magical moments with enchanted music underneath. If the whole thing feels a bit too cheesy, it's clearly because he can't help himself. But then again, with this much joy and beauty being captured, why would you want to?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BEyJP5pHcU
However, the magic is quickly countered when they stumble upon a dead body in their secret spot in the woods (cue Stand By Me). Interestingly, they aren't scared or even shocked. In fact, they stoically and smartly decide not to tell anyone about it, knowing they'll just be coddled ("They'll think we're like, traumatized.") (Side note: they're not?).
Ponsoldt doesn't forget that these young friends are still just kids. But what he does here is treat them with respect, and give them a sense of autonomy and agency. They stake their claim with their discovery: "This is our body." They make a secret pact, and the remainder of the movie follows their shared journey to discover who the deceased man was and bond along the way.
While Summering feels like a very family-friendly film–at times, too packaged and kiddie–Ponsoldt still puts forward interesting themes that the kids discuss. They're a few days from entering middle school, but their conversation ranges to talking about death, even the topic of suicide arising (perhaps it speaks to their collective impressive intelligence on the matter, but their inability to truly understand it just yet).
Although it's not destined to become a new classic in the coming of age genre (nor high on my personal list of Ponsoldt's films), Summering may very likely be a movie that gives a new, younger moviegoer and their friends something to connect to and bond over.
87 minutes.
Sundance: 'The Exiles' is an Education of the Tiananmen Square Massacre
"How do I describe myself? Fuck you, how do you describe me?" These are the words of the greatly influential (and highly spirited) documentarian Christine Choy, the central figure of the new documentary, The Exiles.
The Exiles is the winner of this year's Grand Jury Prize in the Documentary section at this year's Sundance Film Festival. It begins as a biography of Christine Choy, the rowdy, rambunctious, and prolific political activist, whose contributions to documentary filmmaking have helped shaped the art form as we know it today.
Don't worry if you haven't heard of her before, as she quickly makes herself known. The Exiles begins as an introduction to and biography of Choy. Loud-mouthed and confrontational, she's a fiery Chinese woman with Tazmanian devil energy. The kind of person who would become a part of the Black Panther Party for resonating with their efforts to progress the rights and cause of marginalized people (she did).
Judging from her slender, skinny frame alone at first, her singular attitude and swagger it's not immediately clear. But once she starts talking–cussing up a storm, with a constantly lit cigarette in one hand and her preferred drink in the other (vodka on the rocks)–it's immediately clear her conviction to be a formidable and passionate activist who inspired filmmakers today.
Directed by first-time feature filmmakers Violet Columbus (Chris Columbus's daughter) and Ben Klein, Columbus and Klein are both Choy's students, and Joker director Todd Phillips–a former student of Choy's–sits for an interview to sing her praise, with Choy bobbing in the background).
It's a fun intro to meet this wild woman, rocking to the beat of her own drum. As we soon learn, among her many contributions to documentary storytelling, we learn her 1989 film Who Killed Vincent Chin? landed her an Academy Award nomination, but didn't win in part because there were no Asian members in the branch at the time.
Columbus and Klein then widen the documentary out to show her connection to the historic and horrifying event in Chinese culture that still affects today. With a mix of humor, shock, heartbreak, The Exiles is an accomplished film that entertains and enlightens.
It's all fascinating and fun to learn of Choy and her story, whose work in political activism got her attention to cover the Chinese student protests, We soon enough learn that one of her unfinished projects was capturing the protests. As history would soon show, this turned into the Tiananmen Square protests. As The Exiles shows, this was not just a protest: the Chinese government turned their military on the students. To this day, there is no account as to how many died (by some accounts, thousands) as bodies were whisked away and cremated immediately.
The Exiles is eventually about Chinese exiles who were ex-communicated from their homeland, and Choy meets the people who she once interviewed years before. They are scattered around the world, the US and France. We see how that historic day forever shaped their lives.
Christine Choy is a staple in documentary work and continues her story today. The fact that this won the Grand Jury Prize should help get more people aware of Choy and the Chinese people.
If You Haven't Seen Any of Asghar Farhadi's Films, Start With 'A Hero'
Where to watch: 'A Hero' is now playing in select theaters and available to stream on Amazon Prime this Friday, January 14th.
I'll admit, I hadn't seen a film by Iranian director Asghar Farhadi before watching his newest film, A Hero.
I guess the only positive thing that I can say to that is, without having seen any of his other movies to date, I was able to watch his newest film with eyes anew (hey, we're all here to continuously discover new films, aren't we?).
Although, it is particularly embarrassing that I (a film critic) am just now seeing my first of Farhad's films, an accomplished director who has won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film twice, for A Separation (2011) and The Salesman (2016). It's a feat shared by only a few directors worldwide.
His newest film, A Hero (which is also Iran's official submission to this year's Academy Awards), has been on a lot of 2021 year-end lists and has received a ton of critical reception to date. Last year, it won the Cannes Film Festival's Grand Prix (the second-most prestigious prize of the festival after the Palme d'Or).
Knowing all of this, and very much wanting to begin my journey into seeing the Oscar-winning director's work, I watched a digital screener of the film at home in advance of the film going up on Prime Video this Friday.
First off, A Hero is a film without an obvious directorial style to it. It's not visually flashy and doesn't use grandiose camerawork in its storytelling. I don't even think there was any score, either. So, it's not exactly a film that rings as "cinematic," in those senses.
However, forgoing style makes its substance resonate so deeply. The people in this story, who are brought to life by a fantastic ensemble cast of actors, make the story feel even more human and real. And for a film that is intent on exploring the human condition, removing these layers of cinema to let the performances and story shine is exactly the right choice.
At 2 hours and 7 minutes, A Hero is about Rahim (Amir Jadidi), a man imprisoned for not being able to pay back a loan, and on temporary leave for two short days. With only a part of the money he needs to pay back his debt, he asks his creditor to withdraw his complaint against the payment of part of the sum. When the creditor denies, Rahim enacts a plan to attempt to settle his debt.
Fabricating a story of goodwill that is picked up by the local media, Rahim instantly turns into an overnight hero in his community. However, just as soon as his fame has risen, cracks in his charitable story start to emerge threatening his reputation, and his plans of freedom.
What makes A Hero such a great film–which it is–is that it's not a movie that lets you easily pass judgment or ascribe labels on people or their motives. Rahim may sound like a calculating, contemptuous figure, but what Farhad adds in his excellently written script is to show that Rahim, in fact, has purer motives underneath.
While he may not be telling the full truth in his story, the larger truth is that Rahim embellishes his story as a means to an end, looking to use his new goodwill to land a job to then pay back the creditor the rest of his money. Farhad's nuanced writing and shrewd observation of such a complex and conflicted character, as well as the larger human condition, forces the audience to consider the entire spectrum of ethics, as well as our own.
So, if you're like me, and have been largely unfamiliar with Asghar Farhadi's films to date, start with A Hero. You'll not only find a wealth of rich, thrilling drama that looks at the human condition but even consider the ethics by which you live your own life too.
2 hours 7 minutes. 'A Hero' is rated PG-13 for some thematic elements and language.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAJ6_lmr_HQ
In 'Italian Studies,' Vanessa Kirby Wanders New York Without Her Memory
Identities are an elusive thing. While having a fixed identity gives each of us the cognitive ability to function as humans within a society, it also ends up confining us to live lives based upon the limits of who we are; or, as Adam Leon poses in his new film–Italian Studies–who we think we are.
Originally premiering at last year's Tribeca Film Festival and releasing in theaters and on-demand this Friday, Italian Studies explores how we live our everyday lives based on the stories we tell ourselves.
Adam Leon's new film–which he wrote and directed with his film's muse, Vanessa Kirby–stars Kirby as a nameless woman walking around New York City. She's beautiful but very clearly suffers from severe memory loss. She doesn't know who she is, whether or not she eats meat, or even if she's Jewish or not. She doesn't know where she's supposed to go but does have the feeling that she's supposed to be looking for a girl.
Essentially, that's the outline of the story. Leon and Kirby conceived Italian Studies based on the simple idea of what would a film be like about a woman wandering around New York with no recollection of who she is. So, don't expect a conventional plot-driven movie here. A more "genre" version of this film would have Kirby needing to remember who she is against some sort of arbitrary ticking clock plot device to make for a thrilling movie.
That's not to say that Leon and Kirby don't create an intriguing film here. Italian Studies uses the mystery surrounding Kirby and her character in a suspenseful way. The more characters that she meets (a group of highschoolers become the main supporting cast) as well as what we learn of her backstory (and the meaning behind "Italian Studies"), the deeper the film's core theme and questions become. It's a mystery-filled arthouse movie that's definitely experimental in nature, channeling major "neo-realist" vibes that are likely very aware of the films of John Cassavettes.
For a movie like this to work, it all comes down to whether or not Kirby can pull off the highwire act of being intriguing enough to an audience while only being able to play dazed and confused. And yet, she's alluring and magnetic. Coming off of her last film, 2020's devastating Pieces of a Woman (which earned her an Oscar nomination), Kirby proves that she can hold down the center of a film with nothing more than her instincts and enchantment.
Italian Studies is an intriguing, dreamy, and altogether hypnotic film that stands as one of the best new films that you can watch in this early part of the year. Vanessa Kirby is someone you won't soon forget.
1 hour 21 minutes. 'Italian Studies' is in theaters and on-demand this Friday, January 14th.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBgubizv64g&ab_channel=MagnoliaPictures%26MagnetReleasing
In 'Licorice Pizza,' Paul Thomas Anderson Follows His Bliss
You might not think that the same person who made a movie named There Will Be Blood would also make a movie as un-serious and sweetly-named as Licorice Pizza.
But writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson's ninth feature film is as funny and heartfelt a film as he's ever made. Licorice Pizza is a coming-of-age story centered around young love set in the 70s-era San Fernando Valley. And its cinematic bliss that will overjoy movie lovers.
Sweetly Nostalgic
After seeing her from afar on school picture day, 15-year-old Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) instantly falls in love with 25-year-old Alana Kane (Alana Haim). Gary immediately pursues the somewhat older woman. Though he's sweet and sincere, she instantly laughs off his innocently expressed advances with incredulous disbelief. In her eyes, he's just a doe-eyed kid.
But Alana is also lost and wandering in her own life. Gary continues to show interest, and she slowly starts to connect to him as another young person of pure-hearted intention and entrepreneurial ambition. It leads the pair to embark on adventures of all kinds throughout the San Fernando Valley.
First-Time Actors Wow
Paul Thomas Anderson has shown his talent for directing some of the biggest movie stars in the world. His resume has included collaborations with Daniel Day-Lewis, Joaquin Phoenix, and Adam Sandler, to name a few. In Licorice Pizza, he casts two young talents who have never acted in a movie of any kind before. It's a bold and unorthodox move for anyone making a movie. Let alone for one with a sizable budget and Oscars chatter.
But being a master of modern cinema, Anderson's intuitive casting choices are right on the money. Playing Gary is Cooper Hoffman, son of the late Academy Award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman (one of Anderson's regular actors). The young Hoffman channels his late father's cherubic charisma and brings an irresistible charm to Gary. He wins over the audience by starting out as a childhood actor and ends as both a waterbed salesman and pinball store manager.
But stealing the show is first-time actor Alana Haim, whose center Licorice Pizza orbits. Music fans will recognize her as the youngest of the all-sisters rock band Haim. But here, she makes her feature film acting debut–and to impressive acclaim. Her performance is one that holds her own against some of the other real movie stars in the film, including Bradley Cooper, Tom Waits, and Sean Penn.
Free-Wheeling and Heartfelt
Hoffman and Haim's effortless performances give the film a laidback and lighthearted vibe. The Boogie Nights director Anderson himself has said that American Graffiti and Fast Times at Ridgemont High were among Licorice Pizza's main influences. Their adolescent episodic adventure natures can definitely be seen here. It also has the artistic ambitions of channeling a time that the director knows and wishes to re-create so well. Much like Tarantino's Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood did for the end of Los Angeles's sixties era.
Beyond its all-around enjoyability, Licorice Pizza advances Paul Thomas Anderson's filmmaking style and voice as a director. And that's entirely exciting to see at this stage of his career. The film is quite simply one of the best-looking films of the year as well (Anderson again hops behind the camera as cinematographer). I saw the film projected on 70mm film at Westwood's The Regent theater, and it was one of my very favorite big-screen experiences I've had at the movies this year. I can't recommend seeking out this heartfelt and incredible film for everyone I know.
2 hours 13 minutes. 'Licorice Pizza' is rated R for language, sexual material, and some drug use. Now playing in theaters everywhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofnXPwUPENo&ab_channel=MGM
'Spencer' Imagines the Unbearable Duty of Being Diana
A Royal's holiday duties
Since you, dear reader, likely aren't royalty, you might think that the holidays are a time for simply unwinding, relaxing, and being yourself amongst your closest loved ones.
For royalty, however, holidays are orderly affairs of the strictest manner. Meals are orchestrated and scheduled at exact times. You must be on your best behavior always, smiling courteously in your already-chosen outfit for each event (and don't even think about swapping your morning and afternoon attires).
Much like your entire life, it's a performance. A wholly lifeless charade where enjoyment and self-expression have no place at the table.
These dignified traditions continue from one generation to the next, as the Royal family sees the highly fashionable acts as fulfilling a duty to their country.
But times change, and pressures grow. They certainly did for Princess Diana, a young woman at the center of the media sensation and the public's fixation on the world's largest stage.
How might the pressures of one's highly scrutinized life reveal over a holiday gathering? What sort of psychological horrors would hide behind those castle's looming doors and drape-drawn windows?
An impressionistically painted portrait
That is the question that Spencer asks. Director Pablo Larraín, having last showcased John F. Kennedy's late wife in 2016's Jackie, once again returns to examining the inner sadness of a stoic matriarch.
Related: ‘Neruda’ Review: Director Pablo Larraín Ends Year on a High Note with Poetic Biopic
This time around, though, Larraín (with a screenplay from Steven Knight) takes greater artistic liberties by inventing the events that happened over one holiday weekend.
Based on the factual accounting of a stay that Princess Diana (Kristen Stewart) spent at home with her large Royal family, Spencer imagines the conversations, events, and episodes that the Princess of Wales may have secretly suffered.
While the events themselves might not have happened in the way they are depicted in the film, the impressionistic portrait makes for a different kind of honesty: one that's more truthful of an emotional state versus events.
In taking such narrative liberties, Spencer is free to tread into dangerous, almost horrifically surprising grounds. Stuffy dinners aren't just seen as uncomfortable, but as grotesque nightmares in which we are trapped, panic-stricken, and helpless. It's beautiful, but also an unshakeable fever dream of anxious, overly suspicious proportions.
Kristen Stewart's finest hour
And of course, the film holds together with a captivating and career-defining performance from Kristen Stewart.
Stewart might not be the first person you'd think of to play the late figure (perhaps because she's only 31, and isn't British). But when you look at Stewart's career of playing anguished, grief-stricken women–along with her own history of being fixated upon by the media and public alike, the elements all come together. They make for an experience that feels spiritually connected (credit the costume and makeup department too, for masterfully capturing the look).
Stewart exudes a wide range of emotions: the tender grace in her lighter moments, as well as a heavier sense of hurt in darker moments. Spencer builds to hallucinatory anxiety, in which she spirals over her lack of control in her life. Of not owning your identity, and living life as a construction of others' perceptions.
In Spencer (one of the best films of the year), Larraín and Stewart do something that I was reminded of after seeing Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood, and what that did for the late actress Sharon Tate. By inventing a new story about a young woman who was also tragically taken from the world too soon, Spencer gives Diana her life back–at least in the public's perception. A life that's liberated from obligation and expectation. Here, she is able to live on her terms–duties be damned.
1h 57m. 'Spencer' is rated R for some language. Now playing in theaters everywhere.
'The Souvenir: Part II' is a Brave, Beautiful Bookend to a Personal Journey
Firstly, to properly discuss The Souvenir: Part II, we need to begin by remembering the film's predecessor.
Remembering The Souvenir
I was absolutely floored when I first saw The Souvenir upon its release in 2019. The film began as a simple depiction of a troubled relationship. Masterfully, it unfolded into a larger, devastating story. A portrait of how one person struggled to support, and then survive in the shadow of the other's darkness, which sought to consume and doom them both. Upon seeing the film's final frame, my mind was blown. Then, the end credits revealed that The Souvenir would return in a second part. Aghast, I instantly wondered: "Where would this story go from here?"
The Souvenir: Part II, which is now playing in select theaters, answers that question.
An Auto-Biographical sequel
Director Joanna Hogg continues with the semi-autobiographical story of Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne). Her devastating relationship with Anthony (Tom Burke) has ended. Nervously, she must figure out how to move forward in the aftermath of those recent tragic events—independently and alone.
The Souvenir focused mainly on Julie and Anthony's turbulent relationship, ending by only briefly showing Julie entering film school. The Souvenir: Part II sees Julie towards the end of school and embarking on making her thesis film. The story that Julie, the student filmmaker, decides to make is that of a young woman in a turbulent relationship.
Joanna Hogg's cinematic catharsis
Fascinatingly, Joanna Hogg–a woman who previously made a film about a woman navigating a dark chapter in her life–has now returned with a film about a woman making a film about a woman navigating a dark chapter in her life, bringing an even deeper level of poignancy and meta-reflection to the storytelling.
This sequel (of which the format type is rarely seen beyond superhero movies and prestige TV) works wonderfully here. If the story of The Souvenir was to have ended with that film, we would have been left to create the rest of her life's story in our own heads. The Souvenir: Part II provides the necessary closure and cathartic release to Julie's story, which its director feels deeply connected to resolving.
Spell-binding cinematic closure
Beyond its incredible emotional honesty, the film is beautifully constructed from a cinematic level. Visually, the film is lensed through a soft, pastel world, which perfectly captures Julie in 1980s London. The Souvenir films should be admired for their visual and technical artistry just as much for their emotional storytelling. The focus of the drama in this film is, while Julie is now liberated, can she process and make sense of her life's recent events? Still timid and soft-spoken (the white she wears likens her to a floating ghost), those around her throw unsure glances. How will she process this heavy trauma? Is she even capable of doing so?
However, if there's a shortcoming that I found in my experience with Part II, it's that there isn't the same effect in the grandly measured reveal that defined the first film. The Souvenir bloomed into a large and suspenseful story. Part II is more defined by seeing how, or if, she will come to terms with her past, and how, or if, she will realize her artistic vision.
Takeaway
Still, it's all told so bravely, and shot so beautifully, that I am enthused to recommend not just this film, but both, to everyone. Truly, they are among the most special pieces that have been shared about a person's life, and depiction of an artist's struggle, that I've seen shown on film in recent times. The Souvenir films should forever be cherished as a thing to have to remember a life-changing journey by.
With 'The French Dispatch,' Wes Anderson Invents With Short Stories
In a conversation I was having with some cinephile friends earlier this week, one asked the group–ahead of The French Dispatch releasing in theaters today–"Does anyone else feel Wes Anderson-ed out?"
I'll admit, I considered the question at length. I remembered the exuberance I felt while watching the film on the Aero theater's big screen. But the question remained. With his ninth feature, had I finally had my fix of Wes Anderson's fastidiously designed films? Had my storybook sensibilities been utterly exhausted?
Anyone who has seen all–or even just one–Wes Anderson movie knows that every outing from the prolific auteur is pure dessert for moviegoers. A mere moment is among the richest of intricately made confectionary treats. Eating an entire box in a single sitting is either the most savory of experiences, or the most uncomfortably stuffing.
A familiar brilliance
Throughout his entire filmography, Wes Anderson has stayed his course in realizing a vision that recalls the European cinema of the past. With his symmetrical compositions, his vision is unmistakably unique, and utterly his. He's detoured only slightly in his filmography, opting to pit-stop into stop-motion animated films twice (both of which feel just as natural in their meticulously crafted nature as with his real-life films).
The question I pose is, considering the entire body of familiar and brilliant work that The French Dispatch will enter into the company of–like the next ornamentally designed hardcover book slotting into his shelf of others–how and where does it fit in?
I'm happy and relieved to say that the new film is actually, again, something of another detour in Anderson-land. Where Wes' previous eight films have all adhered to a single plot-driven storyline, the writer/director breaks from that convention only slightly in creatively making The French Dispatch an anthology series of short stories.
That larger backdrop is a fictional magazine (the Liberty Kansas Evening Sun) and its press, which he clearly loves the history of both. It's actually obvious to see how The New Yorker magazine–which he was fascinated with as a child (can't you just picture it?)–inspired his particular and creative writing style that evokes high-society intelligentsia. The French Dispatch is an homage to the institution and people that shaped that early artistic vision.
Anderson, and the anthology
The film's structure breaks from his previous films, in that this outing is a series of short films–articles within an edition that cleverly mirrors a magazine itself. And it's this anthology structure that makes it so welcome and appetizing at this point in his filmography (where was he supposed to go after the enormous accomplishment that was the decades-spanning screwball caper The Grand Budapest Hotel?).
Anderson's recognizable camerawork and cast fit together like clockwork once again: Bill Murray leads the ensemble as the magazine's Editor in Chief, Arthur Howitzer Jr. His personal sayings "No crying" and "Just pretend you meant to write it like that" can't help but call back to Wes' own fixation with composed deliberateness.
The rest of his regulars pop up again as well, all understanding their assignments. Owen Wilson strolls the city as a "man about town" bicycling reporter. Tilda Swinton earns laughs as an art lecturer. Adrien Brody entertains as a greedy art dealer, and newly-minted Oscar winner Frances McDormand shows she can deliver dry humor better than any.
It's the new faces though that make the biggest splash, and who provide the most exciting time in the film. Benicio Del Toro and Léa Seydoux star in the film's second short story, playing a brilliant but tortured artist/prisoner, and that prisoner's muse/guard. "It" boy Timothée Chalamet stars as a student protestor attempting to lead a revolution in 60s France. And in the film's fourth story (and most emotionally profound), Jeffrey Wright plays a writer and food critic with a larger story to tell.
Welcoming the short story
Following Anderson's last feature film, 2018's stop-motion pup tale Isle of Dogs, The French Dispatch feels like the right welcome back for Wes to display his filmmaking mastery. You can feel how excited he is at giving himself the opportunity to create not just one, but five (and within that, 500) worlds to play in.
However, the nature of the short story is also the film's biggest limitation. For all of its brilliantly-staged choreography that binds everything together, I was left without feeling a deeper significance to invest into, rather than let myself simply be in awe over these madcap comedies. Anderson clearly connects to these stories and characters: of Del Toro's tortured artist, Chalamet's youthful rebel, and Jeffrey Wright's melancholic food critic, in which we see Wes offer profundity and poignancy in a very welcomed way.
I don't think that The French Dispatch will be included in the shorthand of Wes Anderson's most memorable films. However, it is a different sort of achievement in its own right. A love letter to journalism and the writers and institutions that crafted himself as an artist, you can admire the heart that Wes shows here. And I shouldn't downplay that fact that it really does rival the intricate complexities and huge vision that The Grand Budapest Hotel displayed too. Just try and mentally pause any frame at any moment in your head, and notice the mastery of any one shot.
What was the question again? "Anyone else feel Wes Anderson-ed out?" To that, I say this: empty your head beforehand. Leave your memories, expectations, and projections behind. And then watch it, with eyes anew. I did. And the endless awe and inspiration that I drew from it gave me something worth writing about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcPk2p0Zaw4&t=1s&ab_channel=SearchlightPictures
'The French Dispatch' is in theaters Friday, October 22nd.