{"id":4265,"date":"2018-07-31T00:01:58","date_gmt":"2018-07-31T04:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/?p=4265"},"modified":"2022-10-24T20:25:42","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T00:25:42","slug":"my-new-least-favorite-wes-anderson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/my-new-least-favorite-wes-anderson\/","title":{"rendered":"Snausage Fest: Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I was rather astonished to find Isle of Dogs<\/em> defeat my expectations and become one of my least favorite Wes Andersons<\/a>, if not the least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anderson is one of my absolute favorite filmmakers (I know, I know, join the club), but like a lot of my faves, I have significant reservations. It’s no great insight to point out that all of his films are male-centric, all with male protagonists, all with predominantly male casts, and all featuring at best one primary female supporting character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He’s hardly unique in this respect, so it’s unfair to single him out when there are far more egregious examples (like, for example, almost every director ever). But it feels especially overt in the context of a fantasy fable, where anything goes. Why on earth did this have to be such a Snausage fest?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a little effort, I count maybe five speaking female characters from memory. Of those, two are — sorry for this, but quite literally — bitches bred to be pretty or bear litters. Interpreter Nelson may share narration duties, but she merely translates the words of other male characters. Yoko-ono is practically mute. That leaves Tracy — about whom I barely know where to begin. At a time when pop culture is calling for greater representation of asian characters in film, the best I can say about her is thank goodness she wasn’t a Japanese character voiced by post-Ghost in the Shell<\/em> Scarlett Johansson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Isle<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sorry to go on and on about the lack of female representation in an animated dog movie, but I just cannot overlook here what I could previously accept as a given with Anderson. It was worth it for his singular visual style and quirks, and he would occasional feature complex female characters like Margot, Suzy, and Miss Cross amidst all the boys. In Rushmore<\/em>, Miss Cross is the love object of a precocious but immature boy emulating his notions of adulthood, and his inappropriate crush is part of the point. She is thankfully written and acted as far more than a token, but there’s no equivalently interesting female character in Isle of Dogs<\/em>, and what’s the excuse? Why does the little pilot have to be boy? Why does the entire pack of dogs have to be male? It’s just so frustrating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m also deducting points for another of my common movie complaints: when one of the most visually-oriented mediums that humanity has ever created — animation — is misapplied to primarily verbal works. The worst example of this in my mind is Richard Linklater’s Waking Life<\/em>, throughout most of which I could not fathom why the painstaking process of animation was applied to stationary talking heads. Although the animation craft on display in Isle of Dogs<\/em> is often extraordinarily wonderful, the screenplay is so verbose and overwritten that it often must halt to allow for a few pages of dialogue. Stop motion becomes stopped motion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was rather astonished to find Isle of Dogs defeat my expectations and become one of my least favorite Wes Andersons, if not the least. Anderson is one of my absolute favorite filmmakers (I know, I know, join the club), but like a lot of my faves, I have significant reservations. It’s no great insight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,2],"tags":[1700,32,1704,1703,57,1701,702,448,317,1702],"class_list":["post-4265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-3-stars","category-movies","tag-1700","tag-animation","tag-bill-murray","tag-bryan-cranston","tag-edward-norton","tag-frances-mcdormand","tag-jeff-goldblum","tag-scarlett-johansson","tag-wes-anderson","tag-yoko-ono"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/isle-of-dogs-feature.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa9lhB-16N","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1687,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/bottle-rocket\/","url_meta":{"origin":4265,"position":0},"title":"On the Run from Johnny Law in Wes Anderson’s Bottle Rocket","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"March 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Wes Anderson and co-writer Owen Wilson's feature debut Bottle Rocket is based on their 1992 short film of the same name. Like Kevin Smith's Clerks and Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, Bottle Rocket may not have turned the world upside down, but is now viewed as a key filmmaker's ur text.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "4 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bottle Rocket","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/bottle-rocket-field.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/bottle-rocket-field.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/bottle-rocket-field.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/bottle-rocket-field.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/bottle-rocket-field.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5153,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/maze-runner-the-death-cure-2018-movie-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":4265,"position":1},"title":"Teenagers shall inherit the world in Wes Ball’s Maze Runner: The Death Cure","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"October 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"While definitely not in the target audience, and without expressly setting out to do so, I've still somehow managed to see all three Maze Runner movies. 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A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/main-menu\/movies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Orphanage","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/orphanage-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/orphanage-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/orphanage-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/orphanage-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/orphanage-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5837,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/once-revolutionary-scream-now-feels-quaint\/","url_meta":{"origin":4265,"position":3},"title":"Once revolutionary, Scream now feels quaint","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"April 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It's easy to forget how revolutionary Wes Craven's Scream seemed in 1996, and how influential it\u2019s been since. 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While technically true, it's actually a very disappointing runaround decidedly lacking in the most routine pleasures that come with thrillers. Where's the expected third-act twist? Is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"2 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/2-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Red Eye","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/01\/red-eye.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/01\/red-eye.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/01\/red-eye.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/01\/red-eye.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/01\/red-eye.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5840,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/scream-2-is-a-self-fulfilling-prophecy\/","url_meta":{"origin":4265,"position":5},"title":"Scream 2 is a self-fulfilling prophecy","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"April 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"There's nowhere else the Scream franchise could have gone other than here: an ironic, self-aware sequel to an ironic, self-aware horror film. When one the characters states \"Sequels suck! Oh please, please! By definition alone, sequels are inferior films!\", it's something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. 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