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This is a review (work in progress) of Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs (2018)

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2017 (19 to 26 October)
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25 March

This is a review (work in progress) of Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs (2018), as seen in the non-dog-friendly preview screening* at The Arts Picture, Cambridge, on Sunday 25 March 2018 at 6.15 p.m. (in lovely Screen 1)

It is a pleasure to watch and want to write about such a film.

Rather than why The Square (2017) shows scant connection with the world of art (and might as well have been set in a bus station as a museum-style gallery ?), or wishing that Martin McDonagh's [ ] Billboards (2017) film [@3Billboards] had the credentials of his In Bruges (2008) - assuming that people realize that there are two McDonaghs, the other one being his brother Michael, who is the one who made The Guard (2011) and [ ] Calvary (2014)* ?

Sally Hawkins - even without words - is tremendous : should have won the Award from @TheAcademy ! https://t.co/0y7FuWsM6h

— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) March 25, 2018

Meanwhile, both offending films will sell plenty of tickets, and no one will notice that Sally Hawkins deserved The Academy Award for 2017, not Frances McDormand...

Such a bewildering repertoire of rendering physicality and immateriality in Anderson's vision and his crew's artistry, from wisps and clouds of cotton-wool and fibre to puppetry, hand-drawing, etc. - and never 'about' what it's about !

— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) March 26, 2018

A theme of injury or mutilation has been part of Wes Anderson’s world(s) since at least The Darjeeling Limited (2007), and, at the start of Isle of Dogs (2018), is introduced by the narration of Jupiter, who lacks his left eye… Other recurrent situations are being orphaned (e.g. Moonrise Kingdom (2012)), absent fathers / father-figures, escaping (right from the opening of Bottle Rocket (1996) onwards through to The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)) and imagined places (especially islands, and exploring them).



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End-notes :

* Much advertised, the dog-friendly screening had been at 11.00 a.m. on the same day.

**


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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)