Wes Anderson and his level of twee is not for everyone. There are apparently viewers who don’t like their comedies brimming with quirky charm, deadpan absurdity, and perfectly balanced cinematography. For them, Rob Schneider is probably still making movies somewhere. But for the rest of us who do appreciate Anderson’s particularly particular brand of cinema, there’s plenty to love across 30 years of movie-making, including his oddball characters (and their inevitably fraught familial relationships), his winking approach to naming them and the places they inhabit, and his marvelously detailed mise-en-scéne.
There are few working directors with an idiosyncratic style that is so immediately recognizable and imitated (but never equaled, despite the best efforts of AI). Anderson’s use of symmetrical shots with precise production design, huge casts of unforgettable characters played by a deep bench of big-name actors, and enough retro rock needle drops to fill an hours-long Spotify playlist marks a film as distinctly his.
For all their preciousness, these movies don’t take themselves too seriously, and never veer away from silliness and whimsy. However, we do take the task of judging them very seriously. Sticking with only the director’s 12 features (apologies to his shorts, including Netflix’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, which won him his first and to-date only Oscar), we’ve ranked Wes Anderson’s movies from worst to best.
His filmography doesn’t contain a truly bad film; some have curdled a bit over the years while others have aged remarkably well. Even those set in a particular era feel timeless thanks to the auteur’s style, which feels vintage but never dated. Which movie about a misfit — or misfits — will reign supreme?
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