‘The French Dispatch’ is classic, quirky Wes Anderson story telling

Fans of writer/director Wes Anderson’s wildly imaginative, quirky films will feel at home in “The French Dispatch.” Inspired by his avowed love of “The New Yorker,” Anderson describes his fictional magazine as “a factual, weekly report on the subjects of world politics, the arts (high and low), fashion, fancy cuisine/fine drink, and diverse stories of human-interest set in Ennui-sur-Blasé.”

That amusingly named city (the actual southwestern French city Angoulême overlooking the Charente River) includes a variety of old-town locations perfect for zany stories: “winding streets, staircases, small squares, grand mansions, a bridge, a castle, a cathedral, a town hall, and welcoming neighbors,” as press notes boast. The eccentric writers who populate Ennui seem to have internalized the surreal surroundings into their distinctive, idiosyncratic stories. It’s a perfect match of a foreign bureau complementing personalities, the kind Anderson served up in previous films, such as “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “Moonrise Kingdom” and “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.”

The staff, authors, and their escapades comprise an exhaustive and, at moments, exhausting array of live action and animation, music and sound, black-and-white and color. The usual Wes Anderson suspects appear: Bill Murray as editor-in-chief Arthur Howitzer, Jr. whose death in 1975 prompts the last hurrah in the four stories recounted here. Those spectacular journalists are Frances McDormand, Owen Wilson, Jeffrey Wright, and Tilda Swinton. Individuals on hand for support or interference include Willem Dafoe, Adrien Brody, Léa Seydoux, Timothée Chalamet, Saoirse Ronan, Elisabeth Moss, plus many more. All possess unique talent put on full display. For example, there’s Benicio del Toro as the astonishing, famous painter Moses Rosenthaler of the French Splatter-school Action-group who just happens to reside in a padded cell, with Brody/Julien Cadazio as Moses’ would-be agent. Add a student protest and a kidnapping of a Commissaire’s son intercut with a talk show meandering along as Talk Show Host Liev Schreiber and Jeffrey Wright/Roebuck Wright hold forth.

Several dozen iconic international films and celebrated, real-life authors provided the ideas for parody, satire, serious commentary, and, above all, humor. What Anderson calls “his collection of stories in one movie” is a patchwork quilt of fabulous flights of fancy. Check listings for “The French Dispatch.”