Isle of Dogs (PG.)
Directed by Wes Anderson.
Starring Bryan Cranston, Ed Norton, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray, Bob Balaban and Greta Gerwig. 101 mins.
This stop-motion animation about a future (but not Futuristic) Japan where all the dogs have been scapegoated and banished to an island of trash, is an extraordinary, unclassifiable, unique wonder that is a little bit up itself. After finally making a breakout hit that everybody loved, The Grand Budapest Hotel, this sees, Wes Anderson, the Scorsese of Twee, go back to being a bit precious and just playing to his little coterie of admirers.
Budapest began with a narrator relay race back through time, the film flicking through a series of potential framing devices before arriving at the heart of the film. It was a tricksy opening but rather than alienating viewers it sucked them in. Isle of Dogs opens with a prologue and a barrage of information, as it instals various layers of visual and aural filters between you and the narrative. The film's Japanese inspiration includes adopting their habit of filling a TV screen with boxes of text as it tries to outline its story about a corrupt politician in Megasaki turning the whole human population against their former best friends.
I don't think it can be overstated just how totally original, and visually remarkable the film is. For Anderson, the appeal of stop-motion animation is more in the stop than the motion. Anderson has always been a director to care about every detail of the frame and you can see how rigorously controlled every moment of the film is. Look how often the frame will be a face placed dead centre, to give the film the simplicity of a child's animation. This animation technique is a perfect vehicle for his droll comic sensibility. (It may also be some nod to Kabuki theatre.) I'm not sure any other movie works quite like this, not even the other Anderson ones, and I'm sure it's wild originality will be enough for many viewers.
The style though does work in opposition to its narrative. His previous animation Fantastic Mr Fox had the outline of a Roald Dahl story to keep it moving. Anderson's script (from a story concocted with Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman and Kunichi Nomura) has no real propulsion. It is contrived and wacky and so posed and outre that the impact of all these beautiful frozen moments of oddball deadpan joy is dulled and it doesn't really go anywhere.
But even so, it's kind of unmissable.
Directed by Wes Anderson.
Starring Bryan Cranston, Ed Norton, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray, Bob Balaban and Greta Gerwig. 101 mins.
This stop-motion animation about a future (but not Futuristic) Japan where all the dogs have been scapegoated and banished to an island of trash, is an extraordinary, unclassifiable, unique wonder that is a little bit up itself. After finally making a breakout hit that everybody loved, The Grand Budapest Hotel, this sees, Wes Anderson, the Scorsese of Twee, go back to being a bit precious and just playing to his little coterie of admirers.
Budapest began with a narrator relay race back through time, the film flicking through a series of potential framing devices before arriving at the heart of the film. It was a tricksy opening but rather than alienating viewers it sucked them in. Isle of Dogs opens with a prologue and a barrage of information, as it instals various layers of visual and aural filters between you and the narrative. The film's Japanese inspiration includes adopting their habit of filling a TV screen with boxes of text as it tries to outline its story about a corrupt politician in Megasaki turning the whole human population against their former best friends.
I don't think it can be overstated just how totally original, and visually remarkable the film is. For Anderson, the appeal of stop-motion animation is more in the stop than the motion. Anderson has always been a director to care about every detail of the frame and you can see how rigorously controlled every moment of the film is. Look how often the frame will be a face placed dead centre, to give the film the simplicity of a child's animation. This animation technique is a perfect vehicle for his droll comic sensibility. (It may also be some nod to Kabuki theatre.) I'm not sure any other movie works quite like this, not even the other Anderson ones, and I'm sure it's wild originality will be enough for many viewers.
The style though does work in opposition to its narrative. His previous animation Fantastic Mr Fox had the outline of a Roald Dahl story to keep it moving. Anderson's script (from a story concocted with Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman and Kunichi Nomura) has no real propulsion. It is contrived and wacky and so posed and outre that the impact of all these beautiful frozen moments of oddball deadpan joy is dulled and it doesn't really go anywhere.
But even so, it's kind of unmissable.
