The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

London Film Festival 2021

The French Dispatch

London Film Festival 2021: The French Dispatch | Review
12 October 2021
Selina Sondermann
Avatar
Selina Sondermann
12 October 2021

Movie and show review

Selina Sondermann

The French Dispatch

★★★★★

Links

Twitter

Special event

Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this summer, and arrives at London Film Festival this October.

With the death of its editor-in-chief (Arthur Howitzer Jr, played by Bill Murray), the eponymous French Dispatch magazine faces the production of its final issue. The plot is structured like a print publication, apportioned into different segments such as the Art section (starring Benicio del Toro as criminally insane artistic genius Moses Rosenthaler and Léa Seydoux as his muse) and Politics (featuring Timothée Chalamet playing a student activist in a The Graduate-esque love triangle). 

As with any anthology work, some episodes work better than others. It gets off to a strong start with Owen Wilson playing tour guide and introducing the city jn which the events unfold. The very latest one could be pulled in is the moment a metro train passes through a tunnel, plummeting it into darkness and revealing the mischief of rats living underground. The various narratives peak with the artist-prison storyline: perfect nuances of humour, bamboozlement and a pinch of romance. Towards the end, the Russian nesting doll setup that appears in the Culinary section is easy to lose track of, which is unfortunate considering the magazine itself is trying to go out with a bang.

Naturally, since the cast is comprised of Hollywood elite, some of the characters get the short end of the stick. It feels like casting pearls before swine to have Willem Dafoe, Christoph Waltz and Saiorse Ronan clock in just over a minute of screen time each. As in all of the director’s films, the performances are constrained – a deliberate stylistic choice. It is interesting to see Anderson-newcomers like Chalamet, usually lauded for emotional depth in his acting, handle this. 

The cinematography is gorgeous, as always, and blocked with immaculate symmetry, even in the rare instances a handheld camera is used. The shots are carefully crafted moving paintings that make up a bigger part of the The French Dispatch’s appeal.

A film that has been so eagerly awaited, with the most impressive ensemble cast since Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is almost bound to disappoint, with expectations set so high. Fortunately that’s not really the case here, though it does not exceed them. The French Dispatch hits its marks: it is quirky and entertaining – exactly what viewers have come to anticipate from Wes Anderson. Still, one can’t help but wonder if the incentive to see it would be as high if it weren’t for all the names attached.

★★★★★

Selina Sondermann

The French Dispatch is released nationwide on 22nd October 2021.

Read more reviews and interviews from our London Film Festival 2021 coverage here.

For further information about the festival visit the official BFI website here.

Watch the trailer for The French Dispatch here:

Related Itemsfilm festivalLFFlondon film festivalreview

More in Film festivals

November (Novembre)

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

Forever Young (Les Amandiers)

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

“Ruben is wonderful at picking holes in our behaviour and our egos”: Woody Harrelson, Ruben Östlundand and cast at the Triangle of Sadness press conference

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Summer Scars (Nos Cérémonies)

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Holy Spider (Les Nuits de Mashad)

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Men

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Diary of a Fleeting Affair (Chronique d’une Liaison Passagère)

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Don Juan

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Triangle of Sadness

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Selina Sondermann

The French Dispatch

★★★★★

Links

Twitter

Special event

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Albert Adrià reopens Enigma on 7 June as a “fun-dining” restaurant and cocktail bar
    Food & Drinks
  • Paolo Nutini at the 100 Club
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Crimes of the Future: Three new clips from David Cronenberg’s dystopian body horror film
    Cannes
  • The Father and the Assassin at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Plan 75
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • November (Novembre)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Forever Young (Les Amandiers)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • “Ruben is wonderful at picking holes in our behaviour and our egos”: Woody Harrelson, Ruben Östlundand and cast at the Triangle of Sadness press conference
    Cannes Film Festival 2022
  • Summer Scars (Nos Cérémonies)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Holy Spider (Les Nuits de Mashad)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Emergency
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Men
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Triangle of Sadness
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Aftersun
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Paris Memories (Revoir Paris)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

London Film Festival 2021: Great Freedom | Review
London Film Festival 2021: The Phantom of the Open | Review