Wes Anderson Films, Ranked

[Dannyalcatraz]

Just to be the bard delivering Snarf’s erroneously bepineappled pizza, I have to say I haven’t seen much of Wes Anderson’s work. However, I must say that I’ve really enjoyed the ones I’ve seen, and several of the ones listed DID pique my interest. (See the David Fincher thread for relevance.)

For context & explanation, it’s not that I don’t enjoy watching movies, but a personal quirk greatly limits how many I see in theaters. I really hate going to theaters solo- seeing a movie in public is a social event to be shared, meaning I rarely go alone. So most movies I watch are either broadcast on some tv channel or played on a DVD.

Are you sitting, @Snarf Zagyg? The last film I saw at the movies was The Avengers, in IMAX 3D.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Are you sitting, @Snarf Zagyg? The last film I saw at the movies was The Avengers, in IMAX 3D.

Well, the last movie I watched (two days ago) was Surf II. Not only apex Eric Stoltz, but the movie that should have won all the Academy Awards in 1983. And Cannes. As Godard said, "Surf II is a movie."

Je ne regrette rien.

 

[Deset Gled]

Well, the last movie I watched (two days ago) was Surf II. Not only apex Eric Stoltz, but the movie that should have won all the Academy Awards in 1983. And Cannes. As Godard said, "Surf II is a movie."

Je ne regrette rien.

In a similar vein, I watched all of the Species franchise over the weekend.

It felt like a reasonable decision towards the beginning.

So most movies I watch are either broadcast on some tv channel or played on a DVD.

No streaming services?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

No streaming services?

Nope. Just basic expanded cable, with no premium subscription/movie channels. I rarely even use our providers’ library of free on-demand stuff, or watch anything on my Mom’s Amazon Prime account.

So if it’s not “broadcast”, a DVD in my arm’s reach*, or part of some “1 free month of HBO” type promo deal, I probably haven’t seen it.






* to be fair, Mom buys DVDs almost like I buy CDs. So there’s hundreds if not thousands to choose from. A few months ago, I watched The Barbie Movie with her. We haven’t gotten around to Oppenheimer yet, but it’s sitting next to her player.

 

[jian]

I haven’t watched them all, so I’ll rank the ones I have seen.

1: Fantastic Mr Fox. An excellent adaptation of the book (which is fun but limited and honestly rather hypocritical of the author) with some clever and heartwarming extrapolation. His best film all round.

2: The French Dispatch: I think Anderson is at his best when he’s working episodically (also the case in FMF, above) and this is the acme of that style as well as a love letter to The New Yorker. Really light and enjoyable, excellent performances.

3: The Grand Budapest Hotel: An accomplished and entertaining homage to Stefan Zweig books but honestly I think A Gentleman in Moscow did it better.

4: The Royal Tenenbaums: A more heartfelt study of family and dysfunctionality than the above two films, but frankly I didn’t engage with any of the characters.

5: Asteroid City: It’s fine, but again the characters are scattershot and rather superficial, so what you get most is Anderson’s direction style as the main character, which was too much for me.

We’ve now seen Moonrise Kingdom (on Tubi) and it’s excellent, so it’s going in at number 2.