The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun

 Movies: The French Dispatch

Even though The French Dispatch is a "typical" Wes Anderson movie, what with its perfectly centered, vibrantly colored shots and dry humor, it's also a departure from his previous films in one big way: it's a frame story. Or an anthology. Basically, there is the overarching plot which is the story of the final issue of The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun--a small publication published out of an office in Ennui, France by an editor, Arthur Howitzer Jr. (Bill Murray) and a band of expatriate journalists. It's the Dispatch's final issue because Mr. Howitzer is dead (we're told this at the beginning of the movie, so it's not a spoiler). 

Within that frame, there are 4 stories: 

The Cycling Reporter

A quick overview of Ennui by "the cycling reporter", Herbsaint Sazerac (Owen Wilson), who profiles the city via a cycling tour.

The Concrete Masterpiece

A profile of an incarcerated artist, Moses Rosenthaler (Benicio del Toro), whose muse, Simone (Lea Seydoux), is also a prison guard. The journalist is J.K.L. Berensen (Tilda Swinton), who also claims to be an ex-lover of Moses. 

Revisions to a Manifesto

Journalist Lucinda Krementz (Frances McDormand) writes a feature about a college-aged revolutionary, Zeffirelli (Timothee Chalamet), whom Krementz also has an affair with (side note: there is a lot of sex in this movie for a Wes Anderson film). 

The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner

Easy the best of the short stories, this tale is told by Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright, doing an homage to James Baldwin), a journalist who lived it firsthand. Wright is invited to a dinner at the Ennui Police Commissioner's home (Mathieu Amalric).  As he and the other dinner guests get prepared to eat a feast cooked by a legendary chef, Nescaffier (Stephen Park), the Commissioner's son is kidnapped and held for ransom.

When the kidnapped boy indicates he's hungry, a plan is formulated in which Chef Nescaffier is allowed into the home of the kidnappers to cook them all a meal as long as he of course taste-tests it for poison first. He does so, and the kidnappers feast. Unbeknownst to them, the food is poisoned, and they all die (Nescaffier survives due to the strength of his stomach)...except for one man who grabs the boy and leaves, leading the Commissioner and Wright on a high speed chance through the streets of Ennui. This chance is depicted as an animated sequence.

***

Although The French Dispatch as a whole is a bit disjointed and it nearly sags under the weight of all the stars in it, jockeying for a line or a scene (just take a look at this stacked cast...stars as big as Saoirse Ronan and Christoph Waltz have like, two lines each), I love that Anderson tried something different this time around. The film does not achieve the emotional depth of some of his other films, such as Moonrise Kingdom or even Isle of Dogs, but under all the fast-paced twee language is something warm and human and essential, as their always is within each Anderson movie. The man has a gift and you're either into it or not.

Grade: B+