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 workplace failure yet a critical success, making Anderson a director to watch. In his next effort, Rushmore, the young writer started to refine his style. He also started his long-standing collaborations with Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray, which continue to this day. Anderson has directed 12 films, maximum recently the 2024 release The Marvelous Story of Henry Sugar and Three More. His films have won universally smart reviews and top audience scores, maximum have been mediocre box workplace performers. Wes Anderson’s films are known for their stylistic elements such as long shots, a stylized colour palette that recurs throughout, original costumes and monochrome set design.
Here are the 12 Wes Andersons in order of release:
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 chart may measure popularity, it 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, which includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Danny Glover, Gene Hackman and, of course, Murray, and the Oscar for best film. The script attracted a lot of attention. I ranked his films 12 to 1 based on quality, popularity, awards prestige, and cast 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.
An all-star Anderson cast, including Murray, Tilda Swanson, Adrien Brody and Owen Wilson, tells a three-part story, which the director called his ode to journalists. It centers on a French newspaper whose editor-in-chief dies suddenly. The 3 chapters describe other articles from its latest edition.
The film was released while Covid-19 restrictions were still affecting box office functionality 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 the biggest names in Hollywood. , 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 purchase 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) conducted an exercise called Darjeeling Limited across India in an attempt to bond and overcome their dysfunction. Schwartzman also co-wrote the screenplay 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 style 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.
Though the movie was a limited-release box office bust, it earned critical kudos and put Anderson on people’s radars, paving the way for his follow-up, Rushmore. Rocket was based on a 13-minute black-and-white film Anderson directed in 1992, which earned a spot at the Sundance Film Festival, allowing Anderson to secure funding to make the longer movie. Rocket is available on PlutoTV to stream. You can also rent it on YouTube, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu or Google Play Movies & TV.
Scarlett Johansson on the carpet of Asteroid City.
Anderson’s 11th film received solid notices, though not the best of his career. He once again teamed with Coppola to pen this story of a dad in mourning who becomes stranded with his family in the rural town of Asteroid City during its 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 Anderson’s two animated films and the medium suits his style. He appreciates the wonderful freedom of color and symmetry, and his story is touching and affectionate. It took about 3 years of progression to produce Dogs, which you can stream on Disney. It is available to contract on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu or Google Play Movies
While Anderson arguably made bigger movies, Rushmore is perhaps his greatest beloved and the one who has garnered national attention. It’s his first collaboration with Schwartzman and Murray, who play friends who compete for the love of a young instructor (Olivia Williams).
Rushmore did well at the box office, but it 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 reinvigorated Murray’s declining career. You can sign up for Rushmore on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, or Google Play Movies
Anderson and co-writer Coppola entered slightly new territory with this coming-of-age film about a tween couple (played by Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward) who run away together, sending the local town into a panic. Bruce Willis plays the policeman who organizes a search to find them, while Murray and McDormand portray the girl’s parents.
The Kingdom has received praise for addressing the intellectual aptitude of minors. It earned wonderful reviews across the board, as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Although the production took 3 months, the national search for young actors was conceived in 8 months. You can subscribe to Kingdom on Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu or Google Play Movies & TV.
Actor Jason Schwartzman and director Wes Anderson attend the screening of “Fantastic M. 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 seeking to escape his rural roots and his network fighting local farmers, with Baumbach, the first of two collaborations.
It is a cartoon, but Fox is sophisticated, with sight gags, satirical plotlines and commentary that goes over kids’ heads. The movie exhibits many of Anderson’s stylistic tendencies, coming across even in a different type of format. It took five years for the film based on the Roald Dahl story to be made, and it earned two Oscar nods. You can stream Fox on Max or Amazon Prime Video, or you can rent 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 occasions of staggering loss, make this the kind of ruinous exercise that’s hard to look away from. Tenenbaums won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and Hackman won a Golden Globe. Anderson founded the absurdist-style film loosely based on his own parents’ divorce. You can rent the movie on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, YouTube, Vudu or Google Play Movies & TV.
Hotel made money at the box office for a reason: It’s Anderson’s most learned film, with a gripping, artistic story and stunning cinematography. Ralph Fiennes plays an Eastern European hotel concierge accused of murdering a rich woman (Swanson); The entire story is told in flashback.
The film, filmed over two months in 2013, earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, along with eight other nominations. It is available to stream on YouTube or you can purchase it on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu. or Google Play Movies
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 starred in nine Was Anderson films, the most of any actor. Murray is followed by Jason Schwartzman with 8 films and Owen Wilson with seven films. Anjelica Huston, Willem Dafoe, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton and Edward Norton starred in five of Anderson’s films.
Wes Anderson has been nominated for 8 Academy Awards, and in 2024 he won his first, for Best Live Action Short Film for “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. “
Early films Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums are good entry points for adult viewers of Wes Anderson’s movies, while kids might prefer to start with Fantastic Mr. Fox or Isle of Dogs.
All Wes Anderson movies can be streamed on a variety of services. Details on where each movie can be seen can be found in JustWatch. com.