Wes Anderson gives troubled families exact rooms and dry dialogue, and we like him most when the people are allowed to be awkward. His care is worth our time; his elaborate storytelling can test our patience.
Fi1m perspective
In Bottle Rocket (1996), Dignan’s friends have to take his criminal plans seriously enough not to hurt his feelings. Owen Wilson makes that unreasonable demand touching. Written by Anderson and Wilson, the film lets the small negotiations between friends matter more than the mechanics of a heist. Its drift occasionally tries our patience, and the writing is less generous to the people around Dignan. But this is the Anderson we warm to: attentive to how much trouble people will accept for someone they care about.
Rushmore (1998) sharpened the style, while The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) expanded his ensemble approach to explore a troubled family. Symmetrical frames, rooms arranged like doll’s houses and deadpan performances became recurring habits. In The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), the care paid to the setting gave us a place we were sorry to leave. The difficulty comes when explaining how a story is being told takes time away from the people in it.
Asteroid City (2023) begins on a black-and-white television stage before taking us into a play set in a desert town. The changing frame and colour are inviting; the repeated reminders of act and scene are less so. We were bored through much of the middle because the children trading facts and the adults trading silences gave us so little to care about. Alexandre Desplat’s short, plucked-string cues sensibly stay out of the way. The film does reach us, but it takes too long.
The Phoenician Scheme (2025) is a welcome return to one story and one central figure, though it spends too long moving between meetings. Benicio del Toro gives the industrialist Korda a patient weight, speaking in complete paragraphs without making the performance feel pleased with itself. Mia Threapleton’s watchful Liesl holds her own against him, but the father-daughter writing too often stops at her disapproval. Anderson gets more from these actors than he gives their relationship to do.
Bruno Delbonnel’s warm ochres and greens leave some shadow in those interiors, and the barer frames help keep our attention on Korda. Adam Stockhausen’s rooms are still built to be seen square-on, but there is less clutter to compete with the performance. That restraint suits Anderson, whose precise arrangements need not prevent an actor from surprising us. Start with Bottle Rocket for the friendships; try The Phoenician Scheme for del Toro, with some patience for the itinerary.
Biography
Wes Anderson is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Born Wesley Wales Anderson on 1 May 1969 in Houston, Texas, he attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he met Owen Wilson. The pair began making short films together; their collaboration led to the feature Bottle Rocket (1996).
Anderson's subsequent films include Rushmore (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Isle of Dogs (2018), The French Dispatch (2021) and Asteroid City (2023). He wrote, directed and produced The Phoenician Scheme (2025). He founded the production company American Empirical Pictures in 1998.
Anderson received an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023). He has been nominated for several Academy Awards, including for Best Original Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture, and has won a BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay and a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
