We all take Wes Anderson for granted. As his career has gone on, he has seemingly leaned so hard into his singular vision for how a film should both look and feel that the end result has collectively transformed into a kind of punchline, with albeit varying degrees of bite and vitrol. No doubt, his truest fans have remained — and I'd like to count myself among them — but still, we're not immune to this, this, this... preception of the artist. On some level, this brings up fascinating notions about the ownership of art and how cultural osmosis peppers or obscures the experience, not just for the individual viewer but for the whole of cinephilia: for you don't need to read a review or some dope's website to know what's right there in front of your face. That's why his latest film (Asteroid City) felt like a breath of fresh air, at least thematically if not obliquely: Anderson's pictures are always going to look this way. To love him is to bow down to a static embrace of that fact. And no, they don't always come out perfect.
So here, in addition to reviews of his short film work which you can peruse here, I present to you the definitive ranking* of the filmography of Wes Anderson...
𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕀𝕤𝕝𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝔻𝕠𝕘𝕤 𝕋𝕚𝕖𝕣
11 ISLE OF DOGS
𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕍𝕖𝕣𝕪 𝔾𝕠𝕠𝕕 𝕓𝕦𝕥 𝕃𝕖𝕗𝕥 𝕄𝕖 𝕎𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕄𝕠𝕣𝕖 𝕋𝕚𝕖𝕣
10 THE FRENCH DISPATCH
09 FANTASTIC MR. FOX
08 BOTTLE ROCKET
07 MOONRISE KINGDOM
06 THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU
𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔼𝕩𝕔𝕖𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕟𝕥->ℂ𝕝𝕒𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕔 𝕋𝕚𝕖𝕣
05 ASTEROID CITY
04 THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
03 THE DARJEELING LIMITED
02 THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS
01 RUSHMORE
*subject to change