East 1 Avery East Review Writing Quill and Scroll 6 February 2024 When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer The summer of 2023 marked the return of the film industry after the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the shutdown in 2020, many people lost interest in attending movie theatres, which was added to by the fact that not many big movies were being marketed. The summer of 2023 changed that. The return of the Mission Impossible franchise, the infamous “Barbenheimer” event, and even Haunted Mansion drew huge crowds to theatres around the world. One movie, however, managed to fly mostly under the radar of a regular movie-goer. Asteroid City was released on June 15, 2023. The film made nearly double its budget at the box office, but $50 million still pales in comparison to the numbers made by other movies released that summer (Domestic Box Office for 2023). Asteroid City was met with mediocre reviews by critics and audiences alike, but this is largely due to the nature of the film. The artistic, stylized story and directing confused most viewers, and they wrote it off entirely. However, to truly understand Asteroid City, the viewer has to go beyond the movie itself and look at the life behind it. Asteroid City was directed by Wes Anderson, the most stylistic director of our time. He was born on May 1, 1969, in Houston, Texas (IMDb). Anderson does not direct for an audience; he directs to tell stories. He does not aim to please or win awards; he aims to have an outlet for his art. So far, Anderson has directed eleven feature films and several short films. Each film shares several similarities that help you define it as a Wes Anderson film. He uses symmetry, whip-pans, color-grading, slow-motion, head-on camera angles, etc. (Warren Buckland). However, it took years for him to truly master his style. As you move chronologically through his filmography, you can see it slowly start to take form, ending with Asteroid City. Asteroid City is the culmination of every film Wes Anderson has made over the years, both in style and in substance.
East 2 Wes Anderson made his directorial debut with Bottle Rocket in 1996. Looking at it straight on, there is nothing special about Bottle Rocket. The film made very little money at the box office, not even enough to cover the budget. Starring Robert Musgrave alongside Owen and Luke Wilson, the film is about three friends attempting to commit elaborate heists. It begins with Owen Wilson’s character, Dignan, breaking his friend Anthony (Luke Wilson) out of a mental hospital, where Anthony has been staying because of his “exhaustion.” Even though the hospital is voluntary and he can check out whenever he wants to, Anthony allows Dignan to believe that they are breaking him out because it makes Dignan happy. This sets an immediate tone for their relationship throughout the movie: Dignan has a more loose, whimsical view of the world, and Anthony enables him to keep him happy. The two team up with Bob (Robert Musgrave) to commit their first successful heist, and then the three are on the run. They stay in a motel for a few days, where Anthony falls in love with Inez, a maid who speaks only Spanish. Initially, Inez rejects him, but as Dignan and Anthony are leaving, Inez uses a translator to tell Dignan to tell Anthony she loves him. Dignan thinks the translator is speaking on behalf of himself and does not tell Anthony. During the drive, the two get into a fight and end up going their own ways. Sometime later, Dignan finds Anthony again and asks him to join in one last heist with Dignan’s mentor, Mr. Henry, and his new crew. Anthony agrees, once again proving the dynamic established early in the film. In the end, Dignan goes to jail, and the last scene in the film is Bob and Anthony visiting him (Bottle Rocket). This film kickstarted Wes Anderson’s career, as well as the Wilson brothers’. Because this is the first film Anderson directed, there is very little of his style there, but the beginnings of it can still be seen. The story, for example, has the same witty, slightly whimsical premise that Anderson loves. It deals with themes of family and friendship. One of the main characters is involved in a romance plot that the audience can not help but root for, even if it is a little odd. The film also uses music to create an atmosphere. A prime example of this is the use of love songs when Inez and Anthony are first getting to know each other. Even with such a long way to go to get to the Anderson of the current day, you can still find subtle hints of it in these older movies.
East 3 Two years later, in 1998, Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson again collaborated to write a script. Rushmore stars Jason Schwartzman in his acting debut. Alongside him are Bill Murray, Olivia Williams, and (once again) Luke Wilson. Jason Schwartzman plays Max Fischer, a student at Rushmore Academy who is involved in every single extracurricular activity and is still failing every one of his classes. He has a special passion for writing plays. Max has only two friends: a parent of two other kids at school, Herman Blume, and a younger student, Dirk Calloway. He is crushing on a teacher at the school, Rosemary Cross, almost to the point of an obsession. After trying to court Rosemary by hiring a construction crew to build an aquarium in the baseball field, Max is expelled and sent to a local public high school. Meanwhile, Rosemary and Herman begin a small romance, leading to a series of revenge pranks done by Max and Herman to get back at each other. In the end, both Max and Herman realize that Rosemary will never love them back properly, and Max is readmitted to Rushmore Academy (Rushmore). Rushmore received much more acclaim than Anderson’s previous film, earning $17,105,219 and multiple awards. Rushmore has a few more bits of recognizable Anderson style. The plotline is even more whimsical than Bottle Rocket. Anderson himself was largely inspired by Roald Dahl (Winters), an inspiration that has continued to fester and grow over the years. Again, the story has themes of odd, unlikely friendships and relationships, such as the one between Max and Herman. Anderson again uses music to create an atmosphere. When Anderson and Wilson wrote Rushmore, they were both fairly young, and Max came off as a reflection of their younger years. When choosing the soundtrack, Anderson used music that had appealed to him when he was a child to reflect how young Max is. With the introduction of Rushmore also came the introduction of Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray in his movies. These are two people that Anderson would continue to work with for years to come. Anderson’s first movie of the twentieth century was The Royal Tenenbaums, which came out in 2001. After Rushmore, Anderson had grown in popularity, giving him more freedom to stylize his next movie. The Royal Tenenbaums features a few familiar faces, such as Owen and Luke Wilson and Bill Murray, alongside some new ones. The film follows a family with the children in their adult lives as their mother remarries and their estranged father tries to insert himself back into their lives. It opens with a
East 4 period about their childhoods, including an introduction to each character. The three children are Chas Tenenbaum (Ben Stiller), Margot Tenenbaum (Gwyneth Paltrow), and Richie Tenenbaum (Luke Wilson). The mother is Etheline Tenenbaum (Anjelica Huston), and the father is Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman). The supporting cast includes Owen Wilson as Eli Cash and Danny Glover as Henry Sherman. All of the children were child prodigies and are now somewhat disgraced in their fields. Chas is struggling with the recent tragic passing of his wife. Richie is dealing with his festering romantic feelings for his adopted sister, Margot. Even Eli Cash, a friend of the Tenenbaum children, is dealing with an addiction to drugs and another set of feelings for Margot. The Royal Tenenbaums ends with Etheline and Henry happily marrying, Richie and Margot accepting their odd relationship, and Chas and Eli accepting that they need help (The Royal Tenenbaums). For over a decade afterward, The Royal Tenenbaums was accepted as Wes Anderson’s best movie. Even now, it is the epitome of his early work. The story is strange but fun and explores family dynamics and relationships. This film also marks Anderson’s first venture into framing devices, something he would use for the rest of his films. The Royal Tenenbaums is structured as if it were a book, read out loud by the narrator, Alec Baldwin. Another aspect of Anderson’s style beginning with this film is an ensemble cast, which is seen in most of his films since. Besides those pieces, it shares the qualities previously seen in Rushmore and Bottle Rocket. In 2004, Anderson released The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which he wrote alongside acclaimed writer Noah Baumbach. The film is an homage to famed French diver Jaques Cousteau, who was briefly mentioned in Rushmore. The Life Aquatic is about a crew led by Steve Zissou, who travels bodies of water and films lackluster and unpopular documentaries. On their last voyage, one of their crew members was eaten by a “jaguar shark,” and Zissou devotes himself and his crew to finding and killing the elusive creature. Joining him on this journey is Ned Plimpton, who believes Zissou is his father, and reporter Jane Winslett-Richardson. Both Zissou and Ned are in love with the reporter, sparking another one of Anderson’s classic, awkward love triangles. Along the way, the crew encounters Zissou’s ex-wife, Eleanor, and her lover, as well as Zissou’s nemesis, Alistair. Ned is revealed to not be Zissou’s son after
East 5 all but sacrifices his life for him nonetheless. Without Ned, Zissou and friends still manage to find the jaguar shark, but they spare its life. The documentary made out of this adventure, which is met with rousing applause, is dedicated to Ned, who, in spite of everything, is listed as Zissou’s son. (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou). The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou marked a change from Anderson’s early work. After the success of Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, Anderson felt comfortable enough to make his most stylistic movie yet. The Life Aquatic takes a lot of aspects of the previous movies and amplifies them tenfold. The casting, for one, exemplifies this.This film features a lot of familiar faces: Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, and Anjelica Huston. It also introduces a few actors who would work with Anderson in the future, namely Jeff Goldblum and Willem Dafoe. The story also features a world in which the nonsense meter is slightly higher than normal but not high enough to be unbelievable. Once again, you can see Roald Dahl's influence on Anderson. As mentioned previously, this movie is full of different romance plots, none of which are focused on completely. The concept of framing devices is revisited as well, as this film is told through the lens of a documentary. The music, the acting, and the camera shots are all similar to Anderson’s previous work, although the scale is much higher because he was encouraged by his previous success and a larger budget. Anderson does try something new in this movie, however: an emphasis on sets. In the past, his movies had been mostly filmed on location, and while this is true for most of The Life Aquatic, much of it had to be done with miniatures, a scaled-down replica of the set, which can be used in far away shots to make an intricate looking set piece. The Belafonte itself, Zissou’s ship, is a miniature. Another thing Anderson found a passion for in The Life Aquatic is stop motion, which he uses for almost all of the sea creatures in the film, including the jaguar shark. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, however, was met with very poor reviews. The most stylized Wes Anderson movie, thus far, was a box office disaster. Anderson took this in stride and released The Darjeeling Limited in 2007, a less extraordinary production than its predecessor. The Darjeeling Limited marks the return of Jason Schwartzman to Wes Anderson’s side after nine years. Alongside him is Owen Wilson, continuing his streak of being in every
East 6 Anderson movie up to that point. The third star of this film is Adrien Brody, working for the first time with Anderson. Bill Murray and Angelica Huston each have brief cameos. Wilson, Brody, and Schwartzman play brothers who have not seen each other since their father’s passing a year ago. The film is structured mostly in the present, where the three meet to take a spiritual trip to India, planned by Francis Whitman (the eldest, played by Wilson). There are a few flashback scenes to the year prior, with the Whitman boys on their way to their father’s funeral. The Darjeeling Limited is a character-based film, with little emphasis on the plot. It all surrounds the three brothers coming together again and realizing that they need each other after all (The Darjeeling Limited). The Darjeeling Limited is incredibly reminiscent of The Royal Tenenbaums and shows very little recognition of The Life Aquatic. Both films showcase strained sibling relationships and the journey to put the pieces back together. The Darjeeling Limited is shot on location, with no emphasis on sets or stop-motion elements. Schwartzman and Brody’s acting resembles the blunt, slightly dull style that Paltrow and Luke Wilson utilized in their portrayal of the Tenenbaum siblings. It seems that Anderson, spurred on by the success of two films in a row, took a risk on The Life Aquatic, and when it did not turn out, he doubled back and toned down his style. For the time being, it seems to work out for him. The Darjeeling Limited was received with much more acclaim than The Life Aquatic.. Again encouraged by the success of his earlier film, Anderson tried his hand at a children’s film. Fantastic Mr. Fox was released in 2009 and seems to take beats both from Anderson’s well-recieved films and The Life Aquatic, likely due to the return of Noah Baumbach as a writer. Fantastic Mr. Fox is an entirely stop-motion adaptation of a children’s book written by Roald Dahl. It follows a family of foxes living in a tree hole. Mr. Fox, now a newspaper columnist, itches to return to his old job raiding farms. Unfortunately, he promised his wife that he would stop after they had their son, Ash. While he struggles to hide his raids from his wife, Ash struggles to get along with his cousin, Kristofferson, who seems to be better than him in every way. After the farmers try to kill Mr. Fox for his crimes, the animals are forced to hide in escape tunnels underground. They find their way into a supermarket owned by the farmers, and all manage to reconcile and enjoy their newfound food source (Fantastic Mr. Fox).
East 7 This film appears to be a passion project for Anderson, because of his continued inspiration from Dahl. Fantastic Mr. Fox features several familiar friends of his, such as Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, and Willem Dafoe. Even Wes Anderson himself has a voice-acting role inside of this movie. The only thing that this movie introduces to Wes Anderson’s style is the use of original music, composed by Alexandre Desplat. The movie was received with resounding success, replacing The Royal Tenenbaums as the fan-favorite of Anderson’s movies. At this point in his filmography, Anderson has hit the balance between The Life Aquatic and The Royal Tenenbaums. He is comfortable in his style but has not yet immersed himself in it. He is still directing for audience reviews but is telling the story the way he wants it to be told. This pattern continues as we move into the 2010s with another children’s movie. Moonrise Kingdom was released in 2012 and features a variety of Wes Anderson’s regulars, including Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray. Similarly to the pattern followed before, this film introduces a few faces that will quickly become familiar, such as Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, and Frances McDormand. What differs in this film is the introduction of child actors to Anderson films. Moonrise Kingdom follows two children, Sam Shakusky (Jared Gilman) and Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward) on their journey to run away from home. Sam is an orphan who has been abandoned by his foster family and sent to an Eagle Scouts summer camp. Kara feels forsaken by a broken family, with a mother who is having an affair and two siblings who constantly overshadow her. The film follows the love story around these two, as well as Kara’s father (Bill Murray) and Sam’s camp counselor (Edward Norton) trying to build a relationship with the kids (Moonrise Kingdom). Moonrise Kingdom was also received with great acclaim, which makes perfect sense, looking at the pattern in the past. The film follows much of the same format as Fantastic Mr. Fox, even down to the target audience. Other than the child actors, this film introduces nothing new into Anderson’s style. It follows the same fun plot, awkward romance, interesting music, and blunt acting as its predecessors. Nonetheless, Moonrise Kingdom was beloved by audiences and quickly accepted as a classic
East 8 coming-of-age movie. It quickly beat out Fantastic Mr. Fox, becoming the highest-grossing Wes Anderson film in North America for the next two years, until the arrival of his next film (Khatchatourian). Anderson released The Grand Budapest Hotel in 2014, written and directed by himself. The film itself was another experiment in going slightly further in his style, and it made for a film like nothing he had done before. The Grand Budapest Hotel is told in several different framing devices. A young girl sits down to read a book where the author is recounting a story he once heard while staying at a once-renowned hotel. Zero Moustafa, our story’s narrator and an illegal immigrant, tells of how he was once a lobby boy under Monsieur Gustave H. After the death of his affair partner, Gustave and Zero travel to collect what she left for Gustave in her will, a painting entitled Boy with Apple. The Madame’s son, Dmitri, is jealous beyond belief and sends for the death of the pair by a hitman. Gustave is sent to prison, and Zero returns to the hotel to find his lover, Agatha, who works for a bakery nearby. After Gustave breaks out of jail, he and Zero reunite and prove his innocence. Unfortunately, Gustave is killed protecting Zero from soldiers looking to deport him, and Zero inherits the hotel (The Grand Budapest Hotel). The Grand Budapest Hotel topped every other Anderson movie thus far as his most popular and highest-grossing film, and it retains that legacy to this day. In fact, the movie earned a total of four Academy Awards, five BAFTA awards, and one Golden Globe (Full Awards and Nominations of the Grand Budapest Hotel), by far trumping Anderson’s previous record of only one Golden Globe for The Royal Tenenbaums. If asked what film is most accessible to be a newbie’s introduction to Wes Anderson, almost every fan would say this film. This film is full of Anderson’s regulars: Edward Norton, Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, etc. In fact, this movie marks the brief return of Owen Wilson to Anderson’s filmography. Alexandre Desplat returns to compose an original soundtrack. This movie also involves a unique color grading and a young romance for the audience to root for. The result of this film’s success was similar to The Royal Tenenbaums, encouraging Anderson to move deeper into his style once again. This time, however, was different. In 2014, Anderson was in his mid-forties. He was growing more confident in himself and his work – confident enough to release another passion project two years later.
East 9 In 2018, Anderson collaborated with Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman, and Kunichi Nomura to write and release Isle of Dogs. Once again, Anderson works with actors such as Edward Norton, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, and Frances McDormand to tell his story. Another stop-motion piece, Isle of Dogs, follows a world where Japan has banned dogs from their land due to government propaganda. All the dogs have been banned to an island and left to fend for themselves. The film surrounds a little boy, Atari Kobayashi, the mayor’s nephew and ward, who travels to the island in an attempt to find his lost dog. A pack of dogs, including a stray dog, Chief, helps Atari on the way. Back in Japan, a group of students who oppose the anti-dog laws have mobilized and are fighting back against the government. Atari finds his dog, Spot, and discovers that Chief was from the same litter as Spot all along. Chief, Atari, the school children, and the other lost dogs join forces to take down the corrupt government, and Atari inherits the mayorship (Isle of Dogs). Highly stylized and told mostly in Japanese, Isle of Dogs was not necessarily a hit. Critics and cult fans of Anderson enjoyed it, but the film did not do well with typical audiences. It is clear, however, that this film was a passion project for Anderson, similar to Fantastic Mr. Fox. His love for stop-motion and political commentary comes heavily forth in this movie. But even though it was not a rousing success, Anderson did not let this slow him down. He jumped headfirst into a new movie, even more stylized than Isle of Dogs, showing audiences that he was unapologetically comfortable in who he was and the stories he had to tell. The French Dispatch was released in theatres in 2021 and is undoubtedly Wes Anderson at his finest. Told in the style of a publishing company’s last newspaper before closing, the film moves through several mini-stories. Owen Wilson returns to do a segment as a traveling reporter. Tilda Swinton follows, presenting the art profile about a jailed artist and his muse, a prison guard. Frances McDormand gives a rousing political piece about teen revolutionaries in France. Jeffrey Wright makes his Anderson debut in the food section of the paper, detailing his evening having a private dinner with the police commissioner when the commissioner’s son is inexplicably kidnapped, and Wright gets caught up in the plot to get him
East 10 back. The film’s last segment is an obituary for the newspaper’s founder and leader, Arthur Howitzer Jr (The French Dispatch). In his filmography thus far, this is Wes Anderson at his most comfortable. Unfortunately, The French Dispatch is also widely considered as his worst film. Audiences and critics hated the blunt stylization and the choppy segments with little segue between them. It was still looked on with respect, however, because people were finally beginning to trust Wes Anderson in his storytelling. Despite the negative feedback, there is a certain charm in The French Dispatch that can only be seen after one is familiar with the rest of Anderson’s work. The film radiates care, like it was beloved by everyone who worked on it. Any viewer can tell that Anderson, Alexander Desplat (who returned to compose an original soundtrack), the screenwriting team that Anderson worked with (including Jason Schwarzman and Roman Coppola), and all the actors cared for this film as they worked on it. For many viewers, this improves the experience of watching. It also invokes a feeling of seeing all these old friends; watching Owen Wilson in a Wes Anderson film feels nostalgic, like you are seeing Dignan (Bottle Rocket, 1996) once again. The same feeling is recurring throughout the film, as you see Peter Whitman (The Darjeeling Limited, 2007), Max Fischer (Rushmore, 1998), and even Scoutmaster Randy Ward (Moonrise Kingdom, 2012). Even if a viewer is not a big fan of the film’s content, it does not have to interrupt the enjoyment of other aspects of the film itself, and because of this, Wes Anderson could finally immerse himself in his style, unworried about reviews. This leads us finally to Anderson’s magnum opus, Asteroid City. Another collaboration with Roman Coppola, Asteroid City features Jason Schwartzman in his first lead role in an Anderson movie since 2007. Alongside him is a fantastic ensemble cast, reminiscent of the large casts we have seen in the past few films. Told in two different stories, Asteroid City is a play done by a group of aspiring actors. Throughout the film, we see the play being told in color and brief glimpses into the actors’ lives told in black and white. We see firsthand the two-way street: how the actors influence the characters and how the characters influence the actors. The play itself is somewhat simple; it is about a town where an alien drops in and havoc, spread by public fear and government intervention, follows, even though the alien in and of itself is harmless. Our main characters have all been summoned
East 11 to the town for “Asteroid Day,” a festival where they celebrate the day an asteroid hit their town by granting one aspiring young inventor a scholarship. Inside the play, we also find a family relationship: Auggie Steinbeck, a widower, and his four kids. Auggie spends the play processing the death of his wife and finding love in the arms of Midge Campbell, an actress also staying in town for the festival. The actor playing Auggie, Jones Hall, has struggles of his own: namely, how to play the character. Filling out the lives of Auggie and Jones are the ensemble cast, all with a counterpart actor in Jones’ world: Auggie’s children, the other children in the running for the scholarship, the townspeople, and even the alien. In style, Asteroid City is hugely reminiscent of The French Dispatch. To any other director and even Wes in his earlier years, the reactions to The French Dispatch may have scared them back into their shell, but Anderson chooses to embrace it instead. Asteroid City brings together nearly everyone Anderson has ever worked with before, save for a few players with scheduling conflicts. Once again, Alexandre Desplat creates a fantastic original soundtrack, but to fill it out, Wes chooses to bring back his old custom of using previously written songs to create atmosphere, reminiscent of the days of Rushmore or The Royal Tenenbaums. Here, he uses songs written in the fifties to build the period piece of the play. The film's color grading draws influence from The French Dispatch, half told in bright colors that once again set the viewer inside the 50s and half told in black and white to create a contrast between the two stories. There are several romance plots within Asteroid City, including the young spark between Auggie’s oldest son and Midge’s daughter, the relationship that really survives throughout the movie. Even beyond looks, Asteroid City draws inspiration from Anderson’s previous experiences in film. A running motif throughout the movie is the message, “You can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep.” There are a few different interpretations of this line, but the one that fits the most is an application to art itself. If you do not take a step back or take a break instead of examining every small detail of a piece, the art will never take form. Wes Anderson, as a director, is incredibly detail-oriented, and this aspect of the film likely drew influence from his own struggles to take a step back. Every character in the film struggles with the ability to take a step back from their work. The characters, like Auggie and Midge, are stuck throwing themselves into their work so completely that their relationships with their children are faltering.
East 12 Jones Hall, the actor himself, has a speech about putting all of himself into his character to the point of his mental health deteriorating as a result of it. Only Woodrow, Auggie’s only son, is the one to “fall asleep.” He, an aspiring, young scientist, has the choice to either commit himself to finding answers about the alien that visited or letting it go and moving on to the next project once he hits a dead end. He chooses to embrace the unanswered questions and live a happy life. This calls to mind Wes Anderson’s choice to embrace his style instead of being weighed down by what people think of him. All things considered, Wes Anderson is not a well-known director. He is nowhere near the fame of directors like Christopher Nolan or Martin Scorcese. He is not selling out theatres or winning awards with every movie. Fortunately, however, those are not the qualities that make an important director. Wes Anderson is important because he is a proper inspiration for those who have seen his journey firsthand. He is unapologetically himself, showing the younger generation that it pays to be yourself. Awards and fame are not everything; it is also important to stay true to the story you were always meant to tell.
East 13 Works Cited “Asteroid City.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 23 June 2023, www.imdb.com/title/tt14230388/. “Bottle Rocket.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 21 Feb. 1996, m.imdb.com/title/tt0115734/. “The Darjeeling Limited.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 26 Oct. 2007, www.imdb.com/title/tt0838221/. “Domestic Box Office for 2023.” Box Office Mojo, www.boxofficemojo.com/year/2023/. Accessed 16 Jan. 2024. “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 25 Nov. 2009, www.imdb.com/title/tt0432283/?_encoding=UTF8. “The French Dispatch.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 22 Oct. 2021, www.imdb.com/title/tt8847712/. “Full Awards and Nominations of the Grand Budapest Hotel.” FilmAffinity, www.filmaffinity.com/en/movie-awards.php?movie-id=817968. Accessed 21 Jan. 2024. “The Grand Budapest Hotel.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 28 Mar. 2014, www.imdb.com/title/tt2278388/. IMDb. “Wes Anderson | Director, Writer, Producer.” IMDb, IMDb.com, m.imdb.com/name/nm0027572/. Accessed 16 Jan. 2024. “Isle of Dogs.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 13 Apr. 2018, www.imdb.com/title/tt5104604/. Khatchatourian, Maane. “‘Grand Budapest Hotel’ Hits $100 Mil, Becomes Wes Anderson’s Highest-Grossing Pic.” Variety, Variety, 15 Apr. 2014, variety.com/2014/film/box-office/grand-budapest-hotel-hits-100-mil-becomes-wes-andersons-hig hest-grossing-pic-1201157267/. “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 25 Dec. 2004, www.imdb.com/title/tt0362270/.
East 14 “Moonrise Kingdom.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 29 June 2012, www.imdb.com/title/tt1748122/. “The Royal Tenenbaums.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 4 Jan. 2002, m.imdb.com/title/tt0265666/. “Rushmore.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 19 Feb. 1999, m.imdb.com/title/tt0128445/. Warren Buckland
Reader in Film Studies. “The Wes Anderson Recipe – a Detailed Guide on
How to Recreate the Director’s Aesthetic.” The Conversation, 23 Aug. 2023, theconversation.com/the-wes-anderson-recipe-a-detailed-guide-on-how-to-recreate-the-directorsaesthetic-206886. Winters, Laura. “An Original at Ease in the Studio System.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 31 Jan. 1999, www.nytimes.com/1999/01/31/movies/film-an-original-at-ease-in-the-studio-system.html.