The French Dispatch looks like Wes Anderson to the max

The trailer for Wes Anderson’s latest star-studded movie, The French Dispatch is here, featuring Frances McDormand, Saoirse Ronan, Tilda Swinton, Benicio Del Toro, Adrien Brody, Anderson’s talisman Bill Murray... and Timothée Chalamet in the bath

Video by Jamie Dunn | 12 Feb 2020

It’s fair to say that we at The Skinny, along with most film fans in the world, are very excited to see Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, his first live-action film since 2014’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. The poster and the first images from the film arrived online yesterday, but our excitement has certainly been piqued by the first trailer that appeared online this afternoon.

From the very first seconds of this new promo, it’s clear we’re in Anderson’s universe. The fastidious director’s trademark style is all over this new feature set inside the world of the titular publication, a New Yorker-style magazine run by Bill Murray’s Arthur Howitzer Jr. Frances McDormand’s character Lucinda Krementz provides a voiceover describing the magazine as a “factual weekly on the subjects of world politics, the arts (high and low), and diverse stories of human interest."

The magazine’s staff is made up of a “team of the best ex-patriate journalists of their time”, who include Anderson regulars like Tilda Swinton, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman, as well as newcomers to Anderson’s world, like Elizabeth Moss and Jeffery Wright. Among the subjects being written about by these journalists include Benicio Del Toro’s incarcerated painter, an art dealer played by Adrien Brody, a master chef played by Stephen Park and a student revolutionary played by Timothée Chalamet.

As well as being uber Wes Anderson, the film does break from his usual style with sections shot in black and white. Take a look at the trailer in the player above or on YouTube.


The French Dispatch is released in UK cinemas on 28 Aug