You can identify a Wes Anderson film almost from the moment you start watching. The acclaimed director is known for using chapters to break the story into parts, packing his soundtracks with ‘60s and ‘70s tunes, and collaborating with the same people over and over again. Wes Anderson movies are beautiful, shot symmetrically and likely to include slow-motion scenes. The native Texan likes exploring dysfunctional family dynamics and depicting shattering losses of innocence. Little wonder Anderson has won such critical and cult devotion—he’s never made a bad movie, and his films are all worth a watch.
Wesley Wales Anderson, Wes for short, is an American director born and raised in Houston, Texas. He began making films as a child. While attending the University of Texas at Austin and studying philosophy, Anderson roomed with the actor Owen Wilson, a frequent early collaborator. They worked together on Anderson’s directorial debut, Bottle Rocket.
This film, released in 1996, was a box office failure but a critical success, making Anderson a director to watch. In his next work, Rushmore, the young writer began to perfect his style. He also began his long-standing collaborations with Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray, which continue to this day. Anderson has directed 12 films, most recently the 2024 release, The Marvelous Story of Henry Sugar and Three More. His films have garnered universally positive reviews and top audience ratings, with most of them having mediocre performances at the box office. Wes Anderson’s films are known for their stylistic elements, such as long shots, a stylized color palette that is repeated throughout, original costumes, and monochrome set design.
Here are the 12 Wes Andersons in release order:
Anderson has never made a bad movie—all his films are masterpieces of varying degrees. His best box office performer, 2014’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, made $172 million, most of that internationally, but all his other films grossed below $100 million. His lowest-grossing movie was 1996’s Bottle Rocket, which didn’t even top $1 million.
Of course, while the box may measure popularity, that doesn’t tell the whole story. The Royal Tenenbaums is probably his best-known film, only grossing $52 million domestically, but its high-profile cast, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Danny Glover, Gene Hackman and, of course, Murray, and the Oscar for best screenplay attracted a lot of attention. I ranked his films from 12 to 1 based on their quality, popularity and prestige. awards and casting performance.
Anderson co-wrote Aquatic with another acclaimed American director, Noah Baumbach. It follows Zissou (Murray), an oddball oceanographer based partly on Jacques Cousteau, who disastrously tries to seek revenge on the shark that killed his partner.
The film received the least-glowing reviews of Anderson’s career, yet many critics still liked the concept, and it has risen to cult status in the two decades since its release. There’s even a Family Guy episode named after the film. You can rent Aquatic on Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu or Google Play Movies & TV.
A cast of Anderson all-stars, including Murray, Tilda Swanson, Adrien Brody and Owen Wilson, tell a story in three parts, which the director has called his ode to journalists. It focuses on a French newspaper where the editor dies suddenly. The three chapters depict different articles in his final edition.
The film was released while Covid-19 restrictions were still affecting the functionality of the box office and the film industry was suffering from a decline in advertising and revenue. Still, Dispatch has generated a stir at Cannes and has a cast made up of some of Hollywood’s biggest names. , adding Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Benicio del Toro, Jeffrey Wright and Henry Winkler. Anderson started creating Dispatch in 2019. It is available to stream on Hulu, FX. Now, and Sling, and you can sign up for it on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, or Google Play Movies
After their father’s death, three estranged brothers (Anderson stalwarts Owen Wilson, Brody and Schwartzman) undertook an exercise called Darjeeling Limited across India in an attempt to bond and overcome their dysfunction. Schwartzman also co-wrote the script with Anderson and Roman Coppola.
Parts of the movie were filmed on location in India. Darjeeling won the Little Golden Lion award at the prestigious Venice Film Festival, earning solid though not rave reviews. You can rent the movie on YouTube, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu or Google Play Movies & TV.
Anderson’s first film shows his future as a filmmaker, even if it lacks the stylistic flair of his later films. It stars his school roommate and co-writer, Owen, and Wilson’s real-life brother, Luke Wilson, as Luke Musgrave, as a trio of budding criminals whose heists never go as planned. seen the future.
Although the film was a limited-release box office failure, it garnered critical acclaim and put Anderson on people’s radar, paving the way for its follow-up, Rushmore. Rocket was founded from a 13-minute black-and-white film Anderson directed in 1992, which earned a spot at the Sundance Film Festival, allowing Anderson to secure an investment to make the film longer. Rocket is available on PlutoTV to stream. You can also sign up for it on YouTube, Apple TV, Array Amazon Prime Video, Vudu or Google Play Movies
Scarlett Johansson on the carpet of Asteroid City.
Anderson’s eleventh film earned false reviews, but it was not the most productive of his career. He teamed up with Coppola again to write the story of a grieving father who finds himself stranded with his family in the rural town of Asteroid City, their annual stargazing convention.
The cast includes Schwartzman and Anderson favorite Scarlett Johansson, as well as Bryan Cranston and Tom Hanks. The stylization is classic Anderson, presenting his vision of a 1950s city in Technicolor. The film took around 3 years to hit the screens since its initial announcement. City is streaming on Peacock or you can purchase it on Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu or Google Play Movies & TV.
In this visually animated stop-action film, Anderson follows a boy in Japan who sets off in search of his dog after all the dogs were banished from his island following an outbreak of canine flu. The voice cast includes Murray, Cranston, Jeff Goldblum, Johansson, and many other Anderson regulars.
It is one of two animated films by Anderson and the medium suits his style. He appreciates the wonderful freedom of color and symmetry, and his story is moving and affectionate. It took about 3 years of progression to produce Dogs, which you can stream on Disney+. It is available to rent on Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu or Google Play Movies & TV.
While Anderson has arguably made better movies, Rushmore is perhaps his most beloved and the one that brought him to national attention. It marked his first collaboration with Schwartzman and Murray, who play friends competing for the love of a young teacher (Olivia Williams).
Rushmore did well at the box office, but was a critical success. The film established Anderson as an emerging talent, earning him the Best Director award at the Independent Spirit Awards. The film, shot in less than two months, also revitalized Murray’s flagging career. You can rent Rushmore on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu or Google Play Movies.
Anderson and co-writer Coppola entered new territory with this coming-of-age film about a teenage couple (played by Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward) who run away together, sending the town’s residents into a panic. Bruce Willis plays the police officer who organizes a search for them, while Murray and McDormand play the girl’s parents.
The Kingdom has won praise for addressing the intellectual aptitude of minors. It garnered rave reviews in all spaces, as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. While the production took 3 months, the national search for young actors took 8 months. . You can sign up for Kingdom on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, or Google Play Movies
Actor Jason Schwartzman and director Wes Anderson attend the screening of “Fantastic Mr. Fox. “
Anderson’s other animated film is an underrated gem, thanks in part to the vocal talents of George Clooney and Meryl Streep as Mr. and Mrs. Fox. Anderson co-wrote the film, about a fox looking to escape his rural roots and his network combats local farmers, with Baumbach, the first of two collaborations.
It’s a cartoon, but Fox is sophisticated, with sight gags, satirical plots and commentary that goes over kids’ heads. The film features many of Anderson’s stylistic tendencies, even manifesting in another type of format. The film about Roald Dahl’s story took five years to make and won two Academy Awards. You can stream Fox on Max or Amazon Prime Video, or you can sign up for it on Apple TV+, Vudu, or Google Play Movies & TV.
Anderson is known for his tales of dysfunctional families, and the Tenenbaums may be the most dysfunctional of all. The family patriarch (Gene Hackman) returns years after abandoning his wife (Anjelica Huston) and gifted children (Stiller, Luke Wilson and Paltrow), who are struggling in adulthood.
The family’s duplicity and cunning, interspersed with several instances of staggering losses, make it the type of exercise twist of fate that is tricky to glance away from. Tenenbaums won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and Hackman won a Golden Globe. Anderson loosely founded the absurd-style movie on his own pahires’ divorce. You can hire the movie on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Vudu, or Google Play Movies
Hotel raked in the money at the box office for a reason—it is Anderson’s most fully realized film, with an engrossing, creative storyline and breathtaking cinematography. Ralph Fiennes stars as the concierge of an Eastern European resort accused of murdering a wealthy woman (Swanson); the whole story is told in flashback.
The movie, filmed over a two-month span in 2013, received a Best Picture Oscar nomination, along with eight other nods. It is available to stream on YouTube, or you can rent it on Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu or Google Play Movies & TV.
This film directed by Anderson and written by Anderson and Roald Dahl stars Richard Ayoade, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes in a collection of four short films based on Dahl’s stories. It earned a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film at the 96th Academy Awards.
The Phoenician Scheme is Anderson’s most recent endeavor and a release date has been announced. It will feature an ensemble cast, adding performances by Willem Dafoe, Bryan Cranston, Benicio del Toro, Michael Cera, Bill Murray, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Benedict Cumberbatch and Scarlett Johansson in a comedic spy thriller.
Conclusion
Wes Anderson is one of the greatest administrators of his generation, with a unique taste and vision that makes his films unique. You can’t miss any of its 12 films, no matter which one you choose.
Bill Murray has appeared in nine Was Anderson movies, the most of any actor. Murray is followed by Jason Schwartzman with eight movies and Owen Wilson with seven films. Anjelica Huston, Willem Dafoe, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton and Edward Norton have each appeared in five of Anderson’s movies.
Wes Anderson has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and in 2024 he won his first, in the Best Live Action Short Film category for “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.”
The early Rushmore films and The Royal Tenenbaums are smart entryways for adult audiences into Wes Anderson’s films, while kids might prefer to start with Fantastic Mr. Fox or Isle of Dogs.
All of Wes Anderson’s movies can be streamed on a variety of services. Details on where you can watch each film are at JustWatch. com.