Let’s talk about Dune, The French Dispatch, and Last Night In Soho
Our critics dive into three new movies from three major directors
Film Features The French Dispatch
The fall movie season is in full swing, and that means we’re getting a look at some of the most buzzed-about movies of the rest of 2021. On this week’s episode of Film Club, critics A.A. Dowd and Katie Rife review three of October’s major auteur works: Denis Villeneuve’s enormous adaptation of the sci-fi novel Dune, which is now in theaters and on HBO Max; Wes Anderson’s foray into anthology storytelling, The French Dispatch, which is also on the big screen now; and the latest genre-blender from Edgar Wright, Last Night In Soho, which opens next Friday. Did these big names deliver with their big, highly anticipated, COVID-delayed fall movies? Let’s discuss.
Here’s what A.A. Dowd had to say about The French Dispatch in his written review:
It should come as no great surprise that Wes Anderson is a longtime, avid reader of The New Yorker. They share a sensibility, don’t they? Call it an appreciation of the finer things, coupled with a neat and pleasing organizational sense. Anderson, director of live-action movies with the visual imagination of cartoons and cartoons with the soul-deep neurosis of live action, has a style so singular it can be identified from a single frame plucked from the celluloid reels he still shoots on. Yet there is an antecedent for his beloved approach, and one big influence has to be the storied periodical he’s said to have consumed religiously in college, from whose pages he might have drawn a sense of humor at once refined and playful, an affinity for symmetries and pastels, and a voracious appetite for literary pleasures. Were Wes Anderson an airline, The New Yorker would be its in-flight magazine.
The French Dispatch Of The Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun, henceforth referred to by the first three words of its title, is Anderson’s love letter to that 96-year-old highlight of mailboxes and waiting rooms—and by extension, to the nearly century of art, writing, and reporting contained within. The publication has been lightly fictionalized as the overseas satellite outpost of an American newspaper—a staff of correspondents based in the made-up French town of Ennui-sur-Blasé. Their fearless leader, guiding and “coddling” their peculiarities, is Arthur Howitzer Jr. (Bill Murray), a benevolent crank plainly modeled on The New Yorker’s first editor.
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16 Comments
*checks to see Australian release dates for aforementioned films*Well, fuck this for a game of soldiers. This is why we have the highest piracy rate in the developed world.
Dune is not “hard” scifi. It’s instead a paradigmatic example of “soft” scifi.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_science_fiction#Examples
Less faithful adaptations seem to generally be worse, but “Under the Skin” did a great job while making so many changes some fans theorize it’s actually a sequel.
Just watched Dune. Wish I loved it more. The visuals are amazing, but the lead was boring as all get out.
Chalamet’s fine. The script is the weakest point.
Was it the script or the source material? Books are often better than their film adaptions, no argument there, but I can’t say I loved the novel in this case. I realize I’m in the minority here. I felt like it had weird pacing issues with how long it takes to establish itself, the time jumps, and the abruptness of the final act. Some of the themes didn’t sit well with me either, whether it was the eugenics or the “inspiration” it took from Bedoin cultures. I’m not even touching the whole white savior / messiah complex thing, because… well, I guess it comes with the territory, but it really shouldn’t get a pass there either.¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But hey, ornithopters are cool.I’ll check out the movie on my OLED. Maybe it’ll provide some spectacle and entertainment. I dig the director and a lot of the casting choices, although, I’m whatever on TC.
its not just you. all of Herbert’s books have pacing issues. He spends entirely too much time world building and setting the stage, plots the story for a book 2-3 times the size of the finished product, and then rushes the end once he realizes he has to end it sooner than planned. I always figured Herbert’s books are the result of an editor forcing the author to actually hit deadlines, for better or worse (essentially the opposite of GRR Martin).
The world building are the best parts of Dune.
In this case, the script. I enjoyed it a lot, already being a fan of the books and everything else, but the dialog was very sparse. Villaneuve went out of his way to remove exposition wherever possible. Personally, I think Chalamet does a fantastic job of facial emoting in the silent spaces where the dialog doesn’t exist.
Yeah, it’s defintiely in the script. Villneuve gave himself all kinds of breathing room splitting up the movie over 4+ hours, and does almost nothing with the extra time he’s given.
Fair enough
Chalamet makes a lot of sense as Part One Paul and handled the role okay, in my opinion; the trick is how he does as Part Two Paul.
I recall SNL imagined a Wes Anderson horror movie with Ed Norton, but that’s about it in terms of professionally done parodies I can think of (so I’m not counting that recut trailer for The Witch).
The mention of how many sets were used and the fact that this is Anderson’s first anthology makes me think of a different “Anderson”: Roy Andersson. He’s a lot more interested in the ugly side of the world though.
I love Edward Norton’s Owen Wilson impersonation.
I want to see Soho just because ATJ looks so drop dead gorgeous in it.
And she sings too!