“Fighting vainly the old ennui”

- ”I Get a Kick Out of You,”

Cole Porter

“Anything Goes” (1934)

“The French Dispatch” is not very French nor much of a dispatch.

It is, however, very Wes Anderson.

If you’re a fan of writer-director-producer Wes Anderson’s films, you will take great delight in “The French Dispatch.”

If you are not a fan of Wes Anderson, what are you waiting for?

Anderson is the contemporary cinema’s American auteur. His films are emblematic of a fierce, unflinching, yet sweetly sympathetic investigation of the human condition.

Anderson’s films are typified by cartoon-like characters, brilliant casting, unusual, miniaturist production design, a silent-movie sensibility of physical comedy, and art direction that transports the movie-goer to the WACU (Wes Anderson Cinematic Universe). It’s as if you are in Wes Anderson’s brain. Soon, it’s as if he’s in your brain.

The film’s full title, “The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun,” gives you an idea of where Anderson is going with his latest tome. Anderson has called the film a “love letter to journalists.” Back at ya, Wes.

“The French Dispatch” has a list of thank-yous in the end credits to writers and editors associated with the New Yorker magazine, including Harold Ross, co-founder with his wife Jane Grant of the New Yorker in 1925.

In “The French Dispatch office,” Harold Ross morphs into Arthur Howitzer Jr. (Bill Murray), editor of The French Dispatch, a magazine insert in the Sunday edition of the Evening Sun, not unlike The New York Times Magazine in the Sunday New York Times, or New York Magazine, which began in 1963 as a Sunday-magazine supplement in the New York Herald Tribune newspaper, becoming a stand-alone when the Trib folded in 1966.

There’s an Oz-like sensibility to “The French Dispatch.” At times, the movie is as corny as Kansas cornfields. Here, the Yellow Brick Road is a trail of words leading the characters back to square one, not unlike the feeling after reading a good book, story or article. Along the way, Anderson spoofs the art world, student activism and the culinary arts, among a movable feast of culture-war targets.

“The French Dispatch” is set in the fictional city of Ennui-sur-Blasé, France, where the anthology of the film’s three main stories unfolds. Each writer reports to Howitzer, who like his namesake, takes aim at the writers’ copy and egos, mowing them down like the artillery field weapon. I’ve worked for editors like him. They shall remain nameless.

Into the realm of the printed scourge, characters appear in vivid focus and hilarious complexity. Each of the three stories unfolds in a formalistic way with chapter titles, voiceover narration and Anderson’s straight-on framing scene composition, incredible tracking shots, and alternating pastel colors and stark black and white. Welcome to the dollhouse.

In “The Concrete Masterpiece,” Moses Rosenthaler (Benicio del Toro) is a prisoner whose artwork, inspired by Simone (Léa Seydoux), a prison guard, sends art dealer Julien Cadazio (Adrien Brody) and many a movie-goer all a-titter. Of course, it demands interpretation and that’s where the critic J.K.L. Berensen (Tilda Swinton), a writer for The French Dispatch, comes in. Get thee to a lecture podium. And away she goes.

Next up is “Revisions to a Manifesto,” not by way of “All the Young Dudes,” the 1972 recording by Mott the Hoople of the David Bowie song (“We never got if off on that revolution stuff”), but rather in the personage of Zeffirelli (Timothée Chalamet), a student revolutionary modeled after leaders of the May 1968 student protests in France. There to chronicle the ramparts is Lucinda Krementz (Frances McDormand), a journalist for The French Dispatch, who gets a little too close to her subject.

Finally, and most deliciously, in the anthology is “The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner,” as Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright), a food journalist, spills the beans to a talk show host (Liev Schreiber).

Surfacing in this cinematic French soufflé is a huge cast, often in not much more than cameos, including Owen Wilson, Elisabeth Moss, Henry Winkler, Bob Balaban, Christoph Waltz, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe and Saoirse Ronan.

The actors are chosen for their distinctive screen persona, magnified under the lens of Director of Photography Robert D. Yeoman (Oscar nominee: “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” 2014), guided by director Anderson, who wrote the screenplay and cowrote the story with frequent collaborators, Roman Coppola (Oscar nominee, screenplay: “Moonrise Kingdom,” 2012), Hugo Guinness (Oscar nominee, screenplay: “The Grand Budapest Hotel, 2014) and Jason Schwartzman (“The Darjeeling Limited,” 2007).

The music by Alexandre Desplat (Oscar recipient: original score, “The Shape of Water,” 2017; “The Grand Budapest Hotel”) is effectively spare.

Anderson is a seven-time Oscar nominee: animated feature film, “Isle of Dogs,” 2018; picture, director, screenplay, “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” 2014; screenplay, “Moonrise Kingdom,” 2012; animated feature, “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” 2009; screenplay, “The Royal Tenenbaums,” 2001).

Wes Anderson is so clear and precise in his concept, representation and execution, it may take repeated viewings of “The French Dispatch” to read him. I’m in. Are you?

“The French Dispatch,”

MPAA rated R (Restricted Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. Contains some adult material. Parents are urged to learn more about the film before taking their young children with them.) for graphic nudity, some sexual references and language; Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance; Run Time: 1 hr., 48 min. Distributed by Searchlight Pictures through Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Credit Readers Anonymous:

“The French Dispatch” was filmed in Angoulême, Charente, France.

At The Movies:

“The French Dispatch” was seen on the big screen in standard format at AMC Center Valley 16, the Promenade Shops at Saucon Valley, Upper Saucon Township.

Theatrical Movie Box Office,

Nov. 5-7: “Eternals” opened at No. 1 with $71 million, in 4,090 theaters, proving that the two-week reign of “Dune,” which dropped from No. 1 to No. 2 with $7.6 million, in 3,546 theaters, $83.9 million, three weeks, was temporal.

“Eternals,” directed by “Nomadland” Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao, opened a new chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), but, while hope springs eternal, it didn’t surpass opening theatrical box office weekend openings of recent CCU (Covid Cinematic Universe) era MCU blockbusters: “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” $90 million; “Black Widow,” $80.4 million, and “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” $75.4 million.

3. “No Time To Die” stayed in place, $6.1 million, 3,007 theaters, $143.1 million, five weeks. 4. “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” dropped one place, $4.4 million, in 2,640 theaters, $197 million, six weeks. 5. “Ron’s Gone Wrong” moved up three places, $3.6 million, in 2,650 theaters, $17.5 million, three weeks. 6. “The French Dispatch” moved up four places, $2.6 million, in 1,205 theaters, $8.4 million, three weeks. 7. “Halloween Kills” dropped five places, $2.3 million, 3,098 theaters, $89.7 million, four weeks. 8. “Spencer,” opening, $2.1 million, in 996 theaters. 9. “Antlers” dropped three places, $2 million, in 2,800 theaters, $7.6 million, two weeks. 10. “Last Night in Soho” dropped three places, $1.8 million, in 3,016 theaters, $7.6 million, two weeks.

Box office information from Box Office Mojo as of Nov. 7 is subject to change

Unreel,

Nov. 12:

“Belfast,”

PG-13: Kenneth Branagh directs Jude Hill, Lewis McAskie, Caitriona Balfe and Jamie Dornan in the Drama. A young boy’s experiences in a working class family in Northern Ireland during the late 1960s are chronicled.

“Clifford the Big Red Dog,”

PG: Walt Becker directs the voices of Darby Camp, Jack Whitehall, Izaac Wang and John Clee and the Animation in the Adventure Comedy Fantasy. Clifford is one big dog.

“Apex,”

No MPAA rating: Edward Drake directs Bruce Willis, Neal McDonough, Corey Large and Alexia Fast in the Action Thriller. Mercenaries on a deserted island become the target.

“Night Raiders,”

No MPAA rating: Danis Goulet directs: Amanda Plummer, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Brooklyn Letexier-Hart and Alex Tarrant in the science-fiction film. A mother joins vigilantes to try to rescue her daughter.

Theatrical movie opening dates information from Internet Movie Database as of Nov. 7 are subject to change.

Five Popcorn Boxes out of Five Popcorn Boxes