Wes Anderson is an American film director, producer, and writer who is known for his unique style of the film. His debut film, “Bottle Rocket (1995),” was filmed in black and white and featured Owen Wilson and Luke Musgrave. Since then he has continued producing, directing, and writing multiple films such as Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Isle of Dogs (2018), Asteroid City (2023), and Henry Sugar’s Wonderful Life (2023).
One thing that all of these movies have in common is Anderson’s unique film style and writing. The best way I can describe his style is artificial. His sets are built using lots of colors and props enhancing the man-made appearance. There is very little greenery or nature in his films adding to the artificial aesthetic. The best example of this is in “Asteroid City” where the entire town and surroundings were made using miniatures. I think that this form of cinematography is a breath of fresh air, especially since modern day cinema is dominated by CGI and green screens.
In addition to appealing the “man made,” look, Anderson’s creative choices when filming are slightly different to the norm. The average take in today’s movies is around 5-10 seconds. By contrast, Anderson uses very long cuts ranging from 15-30 seconds. This choice can make some scenes feel very eerie and strange, especially when it is just a close up of someone staring straight into the camera.
My only complaint would pertain to his writing style as it can be very bizarre. It’s as if the actors were reading from a book instead of a script. This can lead to long monologues that may make the audience feel confused or lost when watching. In one of his most recent films, “The Rat Catcher,” the character played by Ralph Fiennes, has a very long fast monologue about rats. The dialogue comes across as very boring and there is no real emotion because of its pace. I feel that it sounds like a middle school play where the actors and actresses are just saying their lines and listening for cues instead of putting emotion into it.
Overall, I personally feel that Wes Anderson brings a fresh take to modern cinema. While most directors use the same color palette and recycle plots from previous films, each of Anderson’s works feel unique and memorable.
