Wes Anderson’s unmistakable cinematic style proves delightfully suited to periodical format in this missive from the eponymous expatriate journal, published on behalf of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun from the picturesque French town of Ennui-sur-Blasé. Brought to press by a corps of idiosyncratic correspondents, the issue includes reports on a criminal artist and his prison guard muse, student revolutionaries, and a memorable dinner with a police commissioner and his personal chef. As brimming with finely tuned texture as a juicy issue of a certain New York–based magazine to which the film pays homage, THE FRENCH DISPATCH features precision work from a full masthead of collaborators (including Bill Murray, Timothée Chalamet, Tilda Swinton, Benicio del Toro, Frances McDormand and Jeffrey Wright), each propagating inventive dedication to detail. Anderson’s deadpan whimsy is complemented by the film’s palpable sense of nostalgia. (Synopsis from the New York Film Festival)
“Exceeding expectations, this film is wholly entertaining, inventive, and so filled to the brim with quirky characters and storylines that you cannot let your mind wander for even a second, for fear of missing out on one of the many clever jokes and visual gags.” —Alysha Prasad, One Room With A View “A welcome salute to storytelling as a way to make sense of the world…. THE FRENCH DISPATCH is akin to Anderson inviting audiences into his laboratory as he mines for gold from real material, and fuses it with his homegrown artistry.” —Eric Kohn, IndieWire “The director's 10th feature is among his most visually remarkable, each frame filled with meticulously crafted small details that add up to a dense, inviting cinematic jewel box.” —Tim Grierson, Screen International
