The French Dispatch
I was really looking forward to this movie! It was one of my most anticipated movies of the year. This and “Dune.” Yes, it’s probably because both of them have Timothee Chalamet in them but putting that aside, I don’t really know what drew me to this particular film so much. Could it have been the all-star cast of actors slated to appear in it? You had Benecio Del Toro, Adrien Brody,
Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Timothee Chalamet, Jeffery Wright, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Saoirse Ronan, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe. That only names a few. Okay, let’s put that mystery to bed. Of course it was the incredible cast that drew me to the movie! I love stuff like that! I love famous actors and actresses and I figured that if all of those people signed on to work in this film, it must be at least kind of good. Right? Well, yes, I was right. It was good. Not great, but good.
I don’t see this film transcending time and winning a bunch of awards like “The Grand Budapest Hotel” did. This movie was basically that. All Wes Anderson films, oh, he is the writer/director, look the same to me. You know, come to think of it, maybe I was so stoked for this film because I was not into film when “The Grand Budapest Hotel” came out so I missed getting onto the rave wagon for that film and I did not want to miss that again so I wanted to get ahead of everyone else and get pumped assuming it would be a hit. Yeah, that sounds like something I would do.
I could not, for the life of me, figure out the reason for being in color or in black-and-white. I mean, the black-and-white aspects of the film were neat little additions but I don’t understand their purpose or how they benefited the film. Maybe it benefitted the film just by making it look interesting. Is that a thing filmmakers do now? I don’t like that notion.
I liked it, don’t get me wrong. I did feel transported to another world, however there was not anything that popped out for me as something that would make this movie extraordinary. The world that the film was set in was interesting. We had already seen something similar from Wes Anderson before, though. Same with the language that was an interesting aspect but same thing, we had already been exposed to similar language by Wes Anderson. I did think the screenplay was really neat! I mean, having four different, sectioned-off stories in a film about a newspaper is really interesting and I applaud Wes Anderson and his team of fellow writers for deciding to make a film this way. I also really loved the score! I was surprised by how much I loved it seeing as how I had heard nothing about the score beforehand. It is not exuberant, like “Dune,” but it is quiet and kind of sneaks up on you. It has the same underlying feeling as a newspaper has. The feeling of being progressive and doing something positive and proficient with your time- even though, realistically, you’re not doing anything but sitting and reading. This film gets that feeling across rather well I would say.
The acting was...fine. No, the more I think about it and the farther I get away from this film the more I appreciate the acting, and especially the acting done by those actors who are known for their comedic acting. Bill Murray and Owen Wilson, to be more specific. I was unaware that they were able to act outside of their genre of expertise. The other actors who I thought were particularly entertaining to watch were, of course, Timothee Chalamet, Frances McDormand, and Elizabeth
Moss, she is an underrated actress, by me. Oh! And Saoirse Ronan! I love her! I usually think that Tilda Swinton is so great and I am always excited to see what she does. I was underwhelmed here, in a big way. It took me a minute to get over the fact that they all had American accents rather than French accents but once I did get over it, I was fine. I mean, at least the accents were consistent, right? Well, right, until we have Tilda Swinton trying to do an American accent and failing. I mean, Saoirse Ronan could do it! Whatever. At least she was trying.
Overall, I quite liked “The French Dispatch.” It did not live up to the ridiculously high hype that I had built the film up to be in my head but it was fun. In a way, it was kind of like a newspaper, if I lower my expectations a bit before reading it, then I tend to enjoy it more. Go watch it. Just do it.
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