Every Wes Anderson Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

Every Wes Anderson Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

Here’s every quirky and eccentric movie by director Wes Anderson, from The Royal Tenenbaums to Fantastic Mr. Fox, ranked worst to best.

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From his early days as a hopeful young filmmaker who grabbed the attention of the Sundance Film Festival, to an established auteur with numerous Oscar nominations, Wes Anderson has maintained an undeniable impact on cinema. For this reason, ranking his movies is no easy task. Anderson’s prefers working with a tight-knit group of friends, such as Bill Murray and Owen Wilson, and has a love of flat space and strong color palettes. Because of this, Anderson movies have a style that’s distinct and immediately recognizable.

That being said, much has also changed throughout Anderson’s extensive career. Despite some of his detractors accusing him of repeatedly making the same film over and over, it’s more accurate to say that he’s explored similar themes, but offered different approaches each time. The familiarity largely comes from Anderson’s directorial voice, which is a very difficult thing for any filmmaker to develop. Any great artist always seems to make what they do look easy, and in this respect, Anderson is no different. Whether utilizing actors or puppeteering, there doesn’t seem to be a limit to the 51 year-old filmmaker’s creative impulse. Style is at the forefront of everything he does and each new release is always an event.

Though the release of Anderson’s tenth film, The French Dispatch has unfortunately been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it too promises the key hallmarks of the director’s style. It’s already been six years since Anderson last released a live-action film, and rich variation of setting and unique blending of comedy with pathos has been dearly missed. For now, at least, fans will have to content themselves with revisiting Anderson’s work. In the spirit of that, here’s a ranking of each one of the director’s nine films – from worst to best.

9. Isle of Dogs

Anderson’s second foray into the world of stop-motion told the story of a young Japanese boy who sets off to Trash Island in search of his beloved dog. While critically acclaimed and often raved about by audiences, the film came at a time when many would have preferred a live-action feature instead. This was Anderson’s follow up to the wonderful variety of The Grand Budapest Hotel, and as such it couldn’t quite hold on to or expand the momentum of its predecessor. Though Isle of Dogs was a spectacular visual and technical achievement, the medium of stop-motion had already been explored nine years earlier in The Fantastic Mr. Fox – a film that arguably offered a more immersive and humorous use of Anderson’s creativity.

8. Moonrise Kingdom

Yet another of Anderson’s most critically lauded films, Moonrise Kingdom followed two pre-teen runaways who fall in love on the fictional island of New Penzance, New England. Ranked at the time as Anderson’s highest grossing release in North America, Moonrise Kingdom was a mainstream hit that gave a lot of people their first introduction to the director. Many of the stylistic flourishes that have become synonymous with Anderson are present in the film, but these feel excessive at times, and as a result Moonrise Kingdom maintains a self-awareness that comes off as insincere and forced. For a filmmaker who had been quietly doing his own thing for years, Moonrise Kingdom seemed to be reaching for bigger things – all while ticking off boxes on a checklist of Anderson’s expected storytelling and stylistic approaches.

7. The Fantastic Mr. Fox

Expectations were high when it was first revealed that Anderson was going to try his hand at not only adapting this classic Roald Dahl tale, but by doing it through the painstaking medium of stop-motion animation. With a stacked cast of voice acting from the likes of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray and a brilliant turn by Willem Dafoe as the street savvy Rat, The Fantastic Mr. Fox takes the source material to new heights. There’s nothing particularly wrong with the film, except for an arguable loss of momentum in the third act. Some fans also found the cutesy whistle and click noise of Mr. Fox cloying.

6. Bottle Rocket

Oddly enough, the film that kick-started Anderson’s career is also the one that almost ruined it. Largely panned by critics and audiences alike upon its release, Bottle Rocket was such a flop that Owen Wilson (who plays the hare-brained Dignan) seriously contemplated forgoing an acting career in order to join the Marines. The film follows three friends who are largely coerced by Dignan to rob a bookstore and go on the lam. Not a whole lot happens, but watching the film today offers fascinating insight into both Anderson and Wilson’s burgeoning talents. Many of the signature touches that would go on to characterize Anderson’s filmmaking are alive and well in Bottle Rocket, though still in need of some polishing.

5. The Darjeeling Limited

Given that family and brotherhood have always been prominent themes in Anderson’s work, The Darjeeling Limited offered one of the strongest takes of the filmmaker’s career on these concepts. Starring Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman as brothers who undertake a journey through India after their father’s death, The Darjeeling Limited benefits substantially from repeat viewings. The film’s plot isn’t particularly bold, but the Indian setting and art design are truly gorgeous works of art, awash with color and detail. At times the film feels like an experiment of sorts, and in this respect it’s a great success – with plenty of emotion that keeps resonating long after the final credits roll.

4. The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou

Once again Anderson delves into the relationships of a dysfunctional family dynamic – this time with a nautical theme. Bill Murray plays washed up oceanographer Steve Zissou, who vows revenge after his colleague, Esteban de Plantier, is eaten by a mysterious shark species. Things become increasingly difficult for Zissou as he’s repeatedly confounded by money troubles and his long lost son Edward “Ned” Plimpton turns up. The film was not a box office success, but its rich cast of characters and slow, deliberate plotting make it well worth revisiting again and again. This was Anderson’s follow up to the Oscar-nominated success of The Royal Tenenbaums, and at the time, few thought The Life Aquatic stood on the same level as Tenenbaums. However, with the passing of time, Anderson’s Jacques Cousteau-inspired Life Aquatic has revealed itself to be one of the filmmaker’s greatest achievements.

3. Rushmore

The second feature length film in Anderson’s impressive body of work, Rushmore offers an extraordinary transition from what he did just two years before with Bottle Rocket. Marking the first of what would be many collaborations with Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman, Rushmore is a bold and mature declaration of Anderson’s worth as a filmmaker. Following the exploits of precocious playwright Max Fischer at an elite private school called the Rushmore Academy, the film fuses complex coming of age issues with an often wicked sense of humour. Love, rejection, life and death are just some of the themes that Anderson and co-writer Owen Wilson manage with a degree of skill that is rarely seen in young filmmakers, even today. In terms of Anderson’s film canon, Rushmore is often overlooked, but to do so is a mistake – there’s a great deal here to explore and appreciate.

2. The Royal Tenenbaums

Widely considered to be the film that truly put Anderson on the filmmaking map, The Royal Tenenbaums is a work of cinematic magic. Unfortunately, the film – which features a precocious New York City family not unlike author J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey – was the last screenwriting collaboration between Anderson and Owen Wilson to date. Nonetheless, Tenebaums afforded Anderson and Wilson their first Oscar nominations for writing. This acknowledgement should come as no surprise, either, as the film is layered with so many engaging, humorous and heartfelt stories in one beautifully presented package. It’s a film that nails the family dynamic in ways that some filmmakers spend their entire careers unsuccessfully attempting to replicate. For Anderson to have directed something of this calibre so early on in his career was proof, once and for all, that his stature as one of cinema’s finest filmmakers was secured.

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel

It may have taken 18 years to arrive, but The Grand Budapest Hotel quickly became Anderson’s highest-grossing film of his career. The reasons for this are numerous, as it is arguably one of the most detailed and moving films ever made. True to Anderson’s style, there is no shortage of humour either, and as per usual, the film offers a superb cast of frequently collaborating talent as well as new faces to the Anderson family, such as Ralph Fiennes, Saoirse Ronan and Tony Revolori. Set in the fictitious European nation of the Republic of Zubrowka, a string of chaotic events unfurl after the head concierge of The Grand Budapest Hotel (Fiennes as Monsieur Gustave H.) is willed a valuable painting by a former lover. Within the film’s 100 minute runtime, ongoing real world issues such as immigration, war and class loyalties are explored – all via a new branch of Anderson’s continued fascination with family. Beautiful from start to finish, The Grand Budapest Hotel feels like a culmination of everything Anderson has learned throughout his career. Fans can only hope that such expertise will continue to expand and grow in the years to come.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/wes-anderson-movies-ranked-worst-best/

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