It’s kind of crazy to think that Wes Anderson’s last live action film (Isle of Dogs was 2018), came out 6 years ago. 6 years. A lot can happen in that stretch. For instance, the distributor he’s worked with several times (Fox Searchlight Pictures), lost their first name! Yet, just when you think he couldn’t top the visual splendor and cast list of The Grand Budapest Hotel, he goes and quadruples down. Which is to say that the first trailer for The French Dispatch (of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun) has all the hallmarks of an Anderson film. Plus, Timothee Chalamet.
Should you have by chance been spending that entirety of that trailer merely counting the number of known actors who appeared on screen, here’s an official synopsis for you:
“The French Dispatch brings to life a collection of stories from the final issue of an American magazine published in a fictional 20th-century French city.”
See, that cleared everything up. Absolutely no questions, whatsoever. If your brain is still intact, here’s a poster for you to contemplate buying immediately.
The main takeaway from this trailer is that Anderson is going for broke, throwing everything at the screen. It could be argued that he does that in every film he makes, but that feeling just feels grander here. Stuffing each and every frame (of shifting aspect ratios and use of color) with any and all recognizable faces. Ensuring there is at least one actor here, to cater to everyone. That’s not a complain! The fact that it feels he’s going for some loose form of anthology of sorts in The French Dispatch, is cause for excitement. However you shake it, this looks utterly compelling. This is one you’ll absolutely want to mark your calendars for, since it hits on July 24, right in the heart of the summer season.
