Wes Anderson's "Isle of Dogs"

If one thing was going to bring this blog out of hibernation, you can bet it would be the new Wes Anderson movie.

Somehow, it has already been four. entire. years. since The Grand Budapest Hotel opened in all of its candy-colored glory.

Although it's only in limited release right now (I guess living in NYC has to have some advantages), we got to see Wes Anderson's latest fantastical adventure yesterday and I was not disappointed. The wider release opens across the USA on April 13, I believe.

The fact is, I'm just going to see a Wes Anderson movie no matter what it's about. The style of his storytelling is so unique that I'm just as charmed by the way he tells the stories as I am by the story itself.

Seeing one of his movies also feels like being in a little club where you get badges for all of the Wes Anderson-y things you can identify (or maybe I'm using this comparison because I'm thinking of Moonrise Kingdom's khaki scouts).

The feeling of being a part of this club is especially apparent as the cast appears in the movie. Bill Murray. Badge. Tilda Swinton. Badge. Edward Norton. Badge. One after another, all the frequent collaborators appear, and by this time, I know who to expect. It makes me smile.

Every time you see someone show up in one of his movies (or, in the case of the animated Isle of Dogs, when you hear their voice), it's like another person has arrived at the Christmas party that you host every year, and every year, they come.

It's very wonderful to me that, although his style as a filmmaker is so uniform, his color schemes vary with each movie. My personal favorite palette is the sugary pinks and purples of Grand Budapest, with the 1960s-style burnt oranges, teals and woodland greens of Moonrise Kingdom as the runner up.

After one viewing, the colors I see after Isle of Dogs are white, tan and reds. It's much more monochromatic than some of the other bright films and has more natural colors, but after all, most of the movie does take place on a place called Trash Island. But don't worry, it's far from boring. Yes, you're going to get the colors of trash and of dogs and secret labs, but you also have the colorful array of test tubes, mansions, political rallies and a metropolis, all in Wes Anderson style.

Something that never fails to amuse me about Wes Anderson movies is that absurd humor, like all of his characters have been picked up off the street and, unlike all the other glossy characters we're used to seeing on the big screen, all of the eccentricities of his characters have been left in. The humor is in those moments when one dog asks another dog if he's heard the rumor about so-and-so, and you laugh because this dog just loves gossip.

I can't wait for everyone to get a chance to see this enchanted world, with all of its strange bits and bobs, brought to life. If you love Wes Anderson, then you will love his new movie.

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