Well written critisms of Wes Anderson

April 28, 2014 6:04 PM

So, until recently I've disliked all the Wes Anderson movies I've seen. However, I just saw Moonrise Kingdom and Grand Budapest Hotel back to back and I won't lie, I did enjoy them a fair bit. But I'm having trouble thinking about them beyond the surface level, because while I do like those two movies there is something really off-putting about all Anderson films to me, and I love odd, quirky, confusing movies so one would think he movies would be right up my ally. So, the crux of this question is: Is there, out there, good comprehensive critical analysis of Wes Anderson movies? I'm not looking for rants, but for thoughtful deconstruction.

I've read a little on some folk's thoughts on race within his films, and that seems to be part of it, but also seems to be only a part of the whole.

It is important to note, I don't have to agree with the analysis, I just want fodder for the hopper to think about.

posted by edgeways to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

Notes on Quirky (pdf)
posted by Tom-B at 6:16 PM on April 28, 2014 [3 favorites]

This is maybe a little fannish, but here's a whole book by critic Matt Zoller Seitz about Anderson's career with several long interviews. It got good reviews.
posted by leesh at 6:44 PM on April 28, 2014

This upcoming book is expensive, but looks like it will cover a lot of ground in the way you're looking for. Perhaps you could reserve it at a local library?

It may be helpful to google "wes anderson" class, as treatment of class within his films is something that people often are critically concerned with, in the same way there is concern about his treatment of race.
posted by eschatfische at 7:36 PM on April 28, 2014

Best answer: I enjoyed this quite a bit.
posted by introcosm at 8:09 PM on April 28, 2014 [5 favorites]

There's also this article from Jacobin magazine.
posted by mister_kaupungister at 4:39 AM on April 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: That Kartina Richardson piece is pretty good and gets the closest to what I'm looking for.

I'll see about looking for The Films of Wes Anderson (must be a textbook, only reason i can figure it being near $90 for less than 300 pages wtf)

Notes on Quirky is interesting itself, but perhaps too fine grained in one sense and not specific enough in another. Yeah, the Seitz does look a little rah rah for me, thank you though. The Eileen Jones piece had some good points as well, but as a whole it lacks significant weight.

Sorry to be so picky, and I don't know why I even am interested in this, I do sincerely appreciate the offerings keep them coming if there are any more.
There seems to be very little in this vein, I may have to write my own in order to exorcise the demon.
posted by edgeways at 8:36 AM on April 29, 2014

Here's a recent article about his mise en scene.

Here's an article about his films use of Whimsy.

Here is a unified theory of tropes in WA films from overthinkingit.com.

Here is a series of excerpts from that MSZ Book.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:00 AM on April 29, 2014

This NY mag piece is about his life.

This piece is about his visual style. This is about rituals in Darjeeling Limited. This criticizes his use of race.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:16 AM on April 29, 2014