This Wes Anderson film is set in an alternate universe in which for no obvious reason The New Yorker was published from a provincial French town. It's an enjoyable confection and probably best if not subjected to too much analytical thought. Anderson has settled into his own aesthetic to the extent that his films are now instantly recognisable and made in such a way that they are only going to appeal to people who already like Wes Anderson films. Oddly, the director this one most reminded me of was the USSR's Sergei Parajanov, particularly his The Color of Pomegranates, with which The French Dispatch shares a colour palette and a fondness for tableaux, combined with a disdain for anything approximating to a plot.
I have found myself thinking about whether this film would be eligible for the Hugo Awards, which recognise works in the fields of science fiction and fantasy. You would struggle to make the claim that The French Dispatch is a science fiction film, but you might be on better ground arguing that it counts as fantasy. After all, the eponymous French Dispatch newspaper never actually existed. The film is not just set in a made-up French town but in a fantasy version of France, so its connection to the real world is pretty tenuous. But I think it unlikely that it would attract so many nominations that the Hugo administrators would have to decide on its eligibility.
images:
The editorial office of The French Dispatch (Deadline: "Cannes Review: Wes Anderson’s 'The French Dispatch' ")
A tableau from The Colour of Pomegranates (New Minds Eye: "Subverting the Pomegranate—Is the Colour of Pomegranates Actually a Subversive Film?")
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