We ranked the Wes Anderson films from the worst to the best

His 12th feature film, The Phoenician Scheme, is presented in Cannes today, in official competition. Pending its release in theaters, on May 28, we ranked the films of the Texan director from the most anecdotal to the most exceptional.

11. Asteroid City (2023)

When Wes Anderson Pour into the caricature of Wes Anderson… as locked in his own aesthetics, the director turns empty with this pretty arid, dry tale, like this city lost in the desert which he films like a child. With Asteroid Citythe filmmaker pushes his style to the extreme: retro kitsch sets, millimeter frames, sumptuous artistic direction … Everything is sublime, but everything seems frozen. Behind the perfect vignettes and the parade of stars (Scarlett Johansson,, Margot Robbie and even Tom Hanks are there!), Life is struggling to emerge. His cinema goes around in circles, prisoner of his obsessions, beautiful to look but desperately hollow.

10. Bottle Rocket (1996)

Anderson plunges the brothers Wilson (Owen And Luke) in a comedy of totally offbeat amateur robbers. Anthony’s dummy escape and Dignan’s disproportionate plans already draw the contours of a universe where friendship and dreams of grandeur collide with a precision of watchmaker. We find in germ all the themes that will sign up: complex family relationships, marginal characters and quest for identity. It is no coincidence that James L. Brooks produced this first opus and if Scorse Placed him among his favorite films from the 90s: they had already detected the singular talent of an author in the making.

9. The French Dispatch (2021)

It is from there that Wes Anderson affects the limits of its system. With this film, the director is scattering and falls into the same flaws of what made the singularity of his cinema. Despite the vibrating tribute to the press and an apparently limitless creativity, The French Dispatch Druns in its references, its intrigues and its profusion of details. The genius of his troop of actors (all fantastic, of Bill Murray has Timothée Chalametpassing by Léa Seydoux,, Tilda Swinton,, Adrien Brody,, Benicio Del Toro,, Elisabeth Moss…) And the goldsmithery of each plan become almost suffocating, and are no longer enough to mask the absence of issues. The form has triumphed from the bottom… for how long?

8. Aboard the Darjeeling Limited (2007)

The fifth film ofAnderson is his signature work. This expedition to India of three bewildered brothers, largely tinged with nostalgia, respects all the filmmaker’s codes: bulk family, characters in search of meaning, eclectic soundtrack and stars cameos. And behind the oddities, the railway journey turns into dizzying introspection. But as the narrative arc is struggling to function and the characters are not as endearing as hoped for … the boredom is watching at the end of the tunnel. Remains the performance of the trio, and especially that ofAmara Karanwhich shines on the screen.

7. Dog Island (2018)

After Fantastic Mr. Fox,, Wes Anderson remains faithful to the technique of stop-motion for its second animated feature film. The intrigue of Dog Island takes place in a futuristic Japan, where an authoritarian regime led by the mayor Kobayashi establishes an anti-allou policy, forcing all the dogs to wander on a poubelle island. Blurned with rigor and beauty, always inhabited by this obsessive – almost childish taste – for symmetry and doll houses, the film is a delirious tribute to Japanese culture and its cinema. But behind the humor pinches-rire and the eccentric appearance of the characters, Anderson Mostly sign a real dystopia: his most political and biting film.

6. Rushmore (1998)

For the first time, Wes Anderson rubs Teen moviea genre that will then cross all its filmography. In this high school fable, he explores the teenage torments of Max (a Jason Schwartzman fantastic), an extravagant boy who falls in love with his teacher before entering rivalry with his friend, embodied by a Bill Murray impassive. But Rushmoreit is especially the moment when the filmmaker definitively imposes both his characters (young, desperate, chaotic romantic relationships) and his dandy style: pop art collages, millimeter framing, carefully worked soundtrack. He then became the greatest promise of American indie cinema.

5. Aquatic life (2004)

Diving with Steve Zissou marked his time. Building yourself as a filmmaker A arty,, Wes Anderson Sign a pop and melancholic odyssey, populated by imaginary creatures, vintage fantasies and slowly burlesque cracks. Retro BO, fabulous sets and emotions on edge make this film a unique reverie, sometimes fun, sometimes poignant, in a quiet burlesque tone, where the filmmaker gives free rein to his imagination with a millimeter refinement.

4. The Tenenbaum family (2001)

The first popular success of Wes Andersonwith more than $ 70 million in box office revenue. Surfing on the hype Ben Stiller (which then came out of success Mary at all costs And Zolander), the filmmaker offers visibility with a confusing family film, which finds a fascinating balance between drama and comedy. In all scenes. Each character, as eccentric as it is, carries in him an emotional truth, and Anderson excels to mix the insignificant and the grandiose. By adding these small touches, he builds a universe where the trivial becomes essential, a deliciously offbeat work, where every detail counts.

3. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Gather Meryl Streep And George Clooney in the casting (even vocal), it is a stroke of genius that only Wes Anderson could succeed. With This Mr. Fox,, He pushes the hitchhiking animation to new heights, instilling all his unique vision there. True to its favorite themes-the dysfunctional family, responsibility and transmission-the jack-of-all-trades mixture of sharp humor and poetry, with an absolute mastery of visual details. Each plan is thought, each movement a subtle choreography. His film is full of winks, malicious references, and offers a surprising emotional depth for an animated story.

2. Kingdom moonrise (2012)

Two love pre-teens clumsily dance by the water, on a small lost beach, to the sound of Françoise Hardy… welcome to the world of Wes Andersonthat of the Claudine neck dresses and large woolen vests, shifted dialogues and stylized decorations, spleen and bliss. With Kingdom moonriseAnderson pushes sophistication to the extreme, making up each plan as a work of art. This formal refinement fits perfectly with the universe of the tale, in an eminently graphic film that moves like a master canvas. Bruce Willisin a melancholy cop, finds one of his tender roles there.

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

The peak of the work of Wes Anderson. A concentrate of his art, of his sweet madness, in a twirling, funny and melancholy tale, carried by a virtuoso staging and a dazzling stripe. All his creativity, his sense of framework and his love for detail are at the service of an elegant tribute to Zweig and Europe of yesteryear. The text dictates the rhythm with jubilant precision. Anderson innovates in continuity with his most successful, most controlled film, a surreal candy that shines Ralph Fiennesin Mr. Gustave, a true Monsieur Loyal of this solar circus. Then Willem Dafoe,, Edward Norton,, Bill Murray Or Tilda Swinton surround the revelation Tony Revolori In his enchanting adventures.