Wes Anderson is a unique director, and when you see one of his movies, it's easily recognizable as his style is a one-of-one. While we wait for the release of his latest film, Asteroid City, here are his best movies ranked by Rotten Tomatoes.
10 The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) - 57%
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is Anderson’s homage to Jacques Cousteau, creating a similar, if much more damaged character, in Bill Murray’s Steve Zissou. This is one of Anderson’s most underrated movies; one where the director shows his imagination by creating unique undersea animals, while also having some drama in the relationship between Zissou and his newfound son, Ned (Owen Wilson).
Visually, the film is still like nothing else the director has done, and the soundtrack of David Bowie songs performed in Brazilian by Seu Jorge is one of the best ever made.
9 The Darjeeling Limited (2007) - 69%
The Darjeeling Limited tells the story of three brothers that go to India to spend time together and see their mother, one year after their father has died. Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, and Adrien Brody give great performances as the three brothers, with a lived-in, believable chemistry between them. The movie also has some fun observations about brotherhood, and how even in adulthood, there are some familiar roles each brother plays.
The film shows India through Anderson’s lens (especially while they’re on the train), creating a picture full of color, love, and tragedy, and making it a fire baptism for the three brothers who leave the film transformed and much more in sync with each other and life.
8 The French Dispatch (2021) - 75%
The French Dispatch is the most recent Wes Anderson film released; one that didn’t leave people indifferent, as audiences either loved it or hated it. The movie tells the story of a New Yorker kind of magazine called The French Dispatch, where great writers can publish unique stories. Each of those stories is a sequence in the movie. An obituary, a brief travel guide, and three features give that same structure to the film. All the stories have their unique rhythm, aesthetic, and actors, making it a movie like no other Anderson has directed before.
About the film and its structure, Anderson told The New Yorker: “I wanted to do an anthology movie. Just in general, an omnibus-type collection, without any specific stories in mind. (The two I love maybe the most: “The Gold of Naples,” by De Sica, and “Le Plaisir,” by Max Ophüls.)”
7 The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) - 81%
The Royal Tenenbaums tells the story of a family of young geniuses, who, many years later, are in their worst moment ever and decide to all go back home. This was the first time Anderson had an incredible cast, and he delivered. The three actors playing the kids, Luke Wilson, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Ben Stiller have never been better, and Gene Hackman’s role as the pater familias might be his last great performance ever.
The movie mixes comedy, pathos, and drama perfectly, making the suffering (and suicide attempt) realistic, while also making fun of all the idiosyncrasies and traumas these characters have, and creating a unique arc for each of the kids and their father. Owen Wilson’s (who also helped write the script with Anderson) gonzo performance as Eli Cash has to be mentioned as he goes all in and makes it work, although he’s almost as crazy and lunatic as a Looney Tunes character could be.
6 Bottle Rocket (1996) - 85%
Bottle Rocket is Wes Anderson’s first film and his breakout movie. Written with his college friend Owen Wilson, and starring his brother Luke Wilson, the movie tells the story of three friends who want to pull a heist, and when it goes catastrophically bad, they go on the run.
While Luke Wilson is the romantic lead (the way Anderson tells he has fallen in love with Inez is beautiful), Owen Wilson’s Dignan is like a dog who can’t help himself from doing crazy things that he knows are going to get him in trouble. Even though the film's budget was minimal, the story works perfectly. So much so, that it got the attention of Hollywood, especially James L. Brooks, who decided to executive produce the movie.
5 Rushmore (1998) - 90%
Rushmore is the film that introduced most people to Jason Schwartzman as Max Fischer, the overachieving lead of the movie. It’s also the first time Bill Murray and Anderson collaborated; one of those incredible pairings in the Scorsese-De Niro mold that keeps on giving today. Max Fischer is a student wise beyond his years, that falls in love with one of his teachers, Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams), and starts a friendship with an old man, Herman Blume (Murray). When he discovers they’re having an affair, Max doesn't know how to deal with it.
Although this is only Anderson’s second movie, there are already some of his favorite tricks at play here, from an incredible soundtrack to some shots in slow motion, and a colorful unique lead character, who sees the world differently than most.
4 Isle of Dogs (2018) - 90%
Isle of Dogs is Anderson’s second stop-motion animated film, one where dogs are sent to Garbage Island after the government decides the “dog flu” is killing everyone. One kid, Atari (Koyu Rankin), is not okay with all this and goes to garbage island to find his dog. The film has an incredible voice cast, and it’s pretty fun, as these dogs and their personalities couldn’t be more on the Anderson style if they tried. The change of scenery of doing it in Japan also gives the director another style to play with (the scene with the poisoned sushi proves he should do a movie about a chef).
About the movie, Anderson told Little White Lies: “The story really could have been set anywhere, but our big inspiration with the movie was to make it about what we loved in Japanese cinema, and it grew into something more to do with all kinds of Japanese culture and our enthusiasm for it.”
3 The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - 92%
The Grand Budapest Hotel is a story inside another one, as an old lobby boy tells a writer the story of the hotel in its glorious years, during the war, and everything he learned from his boss, M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes). The film has stories inside stories about everything that happened there, and the characters that inhabited that world, especially M. Gustave, one of Anderson’s best characters ever.
Be it about war, love, sex, inheriting a painting, or getting killed by the mob, the film is able to sustain its almost fun, but not quite tone through the film, showing a colorful film (pink has never been so prominent in Anderson’s films), while also having fun with it.
2 Moonrise Kingdom (2012) - 93%
Moonrise Kingdom tells the love story between two thirteen-year-old kids, Sam (Jared Gilman) and Suzy (Kara Hayward), while also showing a unique society in a small New England town. The film is all about young love, and curiosity, until halfway through it where things start getting much grimmer and scary (basically, when the dog dies, everything changes), and yet, this might be one of Anderson's most mature films, as it shows the start and end of love (with the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Bishop).
As always in Anderson’s films, the cast is one to die for, with Bill Murray and Frances McDormand as the Bishop, Edward Norton as the clueless Scout Master Ward, Bruce Willis, in what might be his last great role, as Captain Sharp, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Bob Balaban, and Lucas Hedges.
1 Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) - 93%
Adapting a story by Roald Dahl, Fantastic Mr. Fox was Anderson's first incursion into stop-motion animation, and it’s also his best film ever, according to Rotten Tomatoes. With an incredible voice acting performance by George Clooney, the mix between the director’s quirky style and animation and the Dahl story makes for a unique movie about growing up, loving your family, letting go of your worst tendencies for the better of those you love, and hating farmers.
This is one of Anderson’s two animated movies, and some say the better one. What's for sure is that the movie has a great voice cast, with Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, Willem Dafoe, and even musician Jarvis Cocker (from the band Pulp).
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