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Comment by aaronbrethorst | Hacker News Reader

I enjoyed it quite a bit, but would rank it in roughly the middle of Wes Anderson's filmography. My personal rankings (in this particular moment) are:

    The Royal Tenenbaums
    Fantastic Mr. Fox
    The Grand Budapest Hotel
    Rushmore
    French Dispatch
    Moonrise Kingdom
    Isle of Dogs
    The Darjeeling Limited
    The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
    Bottle Rocket

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I think The Grand Budapest Hotel is definitely his best. For once, the retro bric-a-brac aesthetics isn't purely gratuitous but is used in a narrative framework where history (as a source of tragedy, melancholy and loss) has a real purpose beyond the faux-retro gloss. And the slapstick action-adventure mystery makes it a great Tintin story.

I like Rushmore as a coming-of-age movie.

The Grand Budapest Hotel was also one of Wes Anderson's strongest collaborations at the story level. Hugo Guinness was awarded a story credit for it and the framing of the film acts like it is an adaptation of a book by Hugo Guinness (that at least so far, has not been published as such). Grand Budapest leaves me wondering how much Wes Anderson would serve to benefit from more collaborators at the story level and larger writer rooms rather than soloing most of it. The French Dispatch being about that but written solo, seemed ironic in a bad way to me.

But of course, it could just be that Wes Anderson's writing doesn't speak to me as it does to some. I think Life Aquatic is often under-rated as a capture of what I find to be the more fun parts of Anderson's voice and Rushmore quite often over-rated. (I've just never liked Rushmore. It has never worked for me.)

Agreed, Life Aquatic is one of his strongest offering.

Totally different genres but what you are saying about Wes Anderson's writing remind me of Mamoru Hosoda's movies; left to his own devices, most of his movies after 2006 are basically a fevered fantasmagorical snippet of what his Facebook timeline would have looked like at the time.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is my favourite movie of all time. Partially because it's a great movie, but also because it's the last movie I saw with my dad before he passed away. It just holds a special place in my heart because of it.

It must be heart-wrenching.

Funny. I think he has decent engagement metrics behind the scenes because my list is

Moonrise Kingdom tied with Grand Budapest Hotel

French Dispatch

Then Fantastic Mr Fox

and not liking anything else he’s ever made, I tried. I thought I “liked Wes Anderson movies”, but really I like the direction his recent ones have gravitated more towards

and the French Dispatch doubled down on what he’s become known for, and I’m glad he did it. Third act was too much and I like the limited series idea.

I definitely think his audience may have changed (maybe at the risk of being too niche and alienating) because I really liked it

so, praise the algorithm

This seems to be a love it mildly or loath it kind of movie. I thought it was the worst Wes Anderson movie, by a long margin, full of the "Wes Anderson" style but little substance. It made me re-evaluate his other films

Bottle Rocket is at the bottom for you? I find it charming, but I do have an affinity for first films/albums/novels.

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