3/5

My fourth Wes Anderson film this year and certainly the weirdest one so far. As usual the film making itself was incredible, Anderson’s scenes remain a visual feast and even at this earlier stage of his career his style was very well developed. The plot was, well, meandering. Like Fantastic Mr. Fox or Asteroid City we started strong but as the film progressed the cohesion of the narrative slumped. While the emotional intensity of the third act was gripping, I felt like I was watching a different film by that point. The cast was a who’s who of early 2000s stars but Gene Hackman absolutely stole the show as Royal. I’m beginning to think these movies are likely the sort of thing that improves with re-watches as I’ve struggled with 3/4 of the Anderson movies I’ve seen this year.