There are very few directors I trust enough to risk buying a movie I have not seen. Wes Anderson is one of those directors. Isle of Dogs was on sale for $10 bucks on Amazon recently. I clicked that Purchase button without even thinking. It’s not Wes Anderson’s best movie. But who expected it to be? I still thoroughly enjoyed it, and will undoubtedly watch this movie a few more times. It’s such a strange idea for a movie that I can’t help but kind of love it. There are scores of great actors doing great voice work on this film. I love Bryan Cranston as Chief, and Liev Schreiber is great as Spots (oh, and why did I not know that Liev Schreiber has been the Hard Knocks narrator for like 17 years??). Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Scarlett Johansson, Jeff Goldblum, Frances Mcdormand, F. Murray Abraham, Bob Balaban, Tilda Swinton, Greta Gerwig. All great. The dialogue and script is classic Wes – plenty of quotables and humor and every now and then a dash of unabashed earnestness. The technical artistry is insane. It’s actually kind of mind-blowing to think of all the work it took to put this movie together and make it look so sleek and, frankly, awesome.
I know there are criticisms here, what with the cultural appropriation and “White Savior” complex. And those are valid concerns, I guess. But I don’t think Wes Anderson was out to make some grand political statement with this movie. I think he wanted to tell a specific story, based on ideas, experiences, and feelings from when he was a kid (he’s even said as much in interviews). He wanted to tell a story about dogs and humans. A story about man’s best friend. And, as always, he told that story very well. He always does.