The French Dispatch, Wes Anderson’s tenth feature, is a wonderfully inventive triptych focused on a fictional American magazine produced out of France. With a massive cast filled with regulars and newcomers to the writer-director’s stable, the film plays with various elements of style and formalism. The result is a relentless and often hilarious deep dive into both the realm of journalistic production and various historical contexts and events.
The film begins with a longtime American magazine editor’s death in France and the subsequent preparations for what will be the publication of the final issue. After this introductory sequence, Anderson splits his narrative between three separate stories, each represented as a work of journalism researched by and included in the magazine. Benicio Del Toro stars as an incarcerated artist whose work is discovered and represented by Adrien Brody as a deceptive and determined art dealer. Timmothée Chalamet plays the leader of student protestors in France during 1968, alongside Frances McDormand as a writer chronicling the negotiations between the young politicos and the authorities. Finally, Jeffrey Wright stars as a writer covering fine dining who is swept up in the investigation of a kidnapping involving the son of the local police chief.
Anderson’s writing is typically clever and well structured. The most interesting aspect of this script and it’s execution comes from the way he moves through each story in a way that mirrors the production of writing within the industry of news media. While his sets and the way each frame is designed as a grandiloquent tableau echo his previous films, in The French Dispatch Anderson jumps between multiple aspect ratios and also features different frames onscreen at once. These more experimental flourishes give the film a congruent sense of depicting a representation of journalistic endeavour and also distinguish it within Anderson’s filmography as a departure from his usual style.
All of the cast perform well, though a great many only have very minor cameos. Out of those with larger roles, Brody and Del Toro serve as excellent foils for each other in their segment. Chalamet and McDormand are also particularly good. Chalamet does well with the comedic aspect of his role, seeming like an outsized and exaggerated version of a student revolutionary with little understanding of the irony that stems from the gulf between his age and dramatic circumstance. Jeffrey Wright is understated and nuanced in his delivery of both dialogue and expression, giving his moments onscreen a slightly knowing and playful quality.
The most impressive aspect of Anderson’s latest is the way it all goes together so well. Each moment is handled singularly for it’s own sake, but also flows within the overall construction just like turning a page from one story to another in a magazine. This strength is sustained throughout and the cast all seem to compliment the tone of the film in their delivery of many hysterical lines and looks. The French Dispatch is very much like watching a craftsman at the height of his powers, while also managing to progress in a new and impressive direction.
5/5
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