We can be sure of one thing every time we pick a Wes Anderson movie: unique, magical, old-fashioned fun.
Mankind took a while to acknowledge this guy wasn’t making a career out of of pseudo-hipster films fit to be part of some twisted indie film fest. Hell, we took a while figuring that out too.
Anderson’s filmography is not yet particularly extensive. From Bottle Rocket (1996) to the Academy Award nominee The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) you can only count 9 batches of whimsical scripts and quirky surroundings wrapped into 9 unique films.
Wesley Wales (indeed that’s his name, clearly destined to great things) pairs, in most of his productions, the responsibility of directing with the role of screenwriter, so far only missing The Squid and The Whale, a plot left to Noah Baumbach writing abilities. He frequently revisits crew members. Baumbach helped him come up with the stop-motion animated comedy Fantastic Mr. Fox. One thing about this Fantastic Mr. Fox, in case you haven’t seen it, DO.
Funny thing about Wes Anderson, he graduated in philosophy in 1990 (Yes, we occasionally take a look at Wikipedia). He left the University of Texas at Austin with a nice degree and a future blond, crooked nose collaborator in his cinematographic quests. Owen Wilson is no stranger to Anderson’s genius since he co-wrote his first three major films: Bottle Rocket, Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums and figures in the cast of half of this other blond, crooked nose dude’s filmography. Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody and Roman Coppola also take part of Anderson’s productions quite frequently, although there is one very special name we make sure to keep in mind when it comes to this matter – Robert Yeoman, the cinematographer delivering every single obsessively symmetrical child that sir Wesley carries in his creative womb.
Sound is a very particular feature of Anderson’s filmmaking. Every soundtrack is composed to fit the peculiar surroundings created. Although you get different rhythms from the different movies, they’re all cheery and fast-passed, building up funny and vibrant moments throughout the films.
Yet, it’s not all fun and games. You always get some melancholic elements from his character-driven comedies. From the unlikely friendships and “bye byes” to innocence of Moonrise Kingdom to The Grand Budapest Hotel‘s grief, including (as one does) a fine dose of abandonment and adultery. This is one of Anderson’s biggest qualities, how he allows you to have fun with meaningful, serious stories, sparing you the guilt of cruel laughs and leaving plenty of room for deeper reflections and personal experiences. Wes Anderson’s movies are all different, yet all the same, all of them stay colorful, despite the fact they’re all colored in a different way.
A peculiar color palette, flat space camera moves, a bunch of hand-made miniatures of sets and symmetry, symmetry (have we mentioned symmetry?) can lead you through one of two paths: either you love Anderson’s ballsy looking films or you despise them (actually, you can have mild feels about them, we just wanted to make this more dramatic). Either way, we can assure you this: the way you look at film shall never be the same after you make yourself sit through this guy’s resume. We guarantee plenty of laughs, a reasonable amount of wtf’s and an unique, quirky and whimsical new way of looking at life.
Are you fan of Wes Anderson’s work? Is there a movie of his that you could watch over and over again until the end of time? Do you wish to add some other considerations to this matter? Just comment bellow and let us know.
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