Isle of Dogs Review: The Peak of Cinematography

Wes Anderson has found himself back in the realm of animation for his 2018 film Isle of Dogs, An outstanding visual master piece with iconic story telling and quirky character. At this point it is clear that Anderson is on a voyage starting in his home state of Texas (Bottle Rocket 1996). From there Anderson has ventured to India (The Darjeeling Limited 2007), France (Hotel Chevalier), then over to Europe (The Grand Budapest Hotel 2014), and now easterly for his latest culture influenced stop motion creation. It was always clear that Wes Anderson found inspiration in unique places and portrayed his visions in perfected ways, and this film is no excuse. Isle of Dogs has an expected, but well executed, eccentric story line following the life of banished dogs and there rescuer, and although I cant emphasise enough of how powerful, emotional, funny, and over all enjoyable this film was I would like to touch on an aspect that Anderson includes in what I would consider his most notable works. Moonrise Kingdom, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore, even a little in the Grand Budapest Hotel, and now Isle of Dogs are rooted deeply in this particular aspect. I considered writing about this the first time I watched Moonrise Kingdom but after watching Anderson’s newest creation no time but the present seems a more appropriate time to express my thoughts. It seems as though Wes Anderson has become renowned for creating compelling, almost hypnotic, story lines that have progressively revolved more and more around the lives of children, and not just regular children but adult like adolescents, and on the other side of the spectrum has made immature adults. I cant speak on behalf on Wes Anderson but it seems as though he is trying to getting something across with this consistent use of subtle yet obvious character traits. Despite 12 year old Atari being a heroic figure it takes the educated political activists movements of Tracy, a foreign exchange student presumably the same age as Atari, to get the public to start opening there eyes to the corruption taking place. If not for a mighty team of teens and there dogs this film would have ended in the mass genocide of mans best friend. In there first year as teens one school class of zealous kids not only saved an entire species but eradicated corruption (at least to a parable level) in a country willing to kill dogs to avenge one renewed cat lover. This same mechanic has taken place throughout Moonrise Kingdom where it is even more obvious than that of Isle of Dogs and despite the fact that I do find this a great piece of story telling I found this to be Anderson’s most aesthetic motion picture to date. Not one scene hasn't been perfectly orchestrated in regards to placement of character, especially in regards to the setting from foreground to background, This film is a constant punch after punch of perfect content. I never witnessed the absence of magnificence for one moment, every shot had ether a faultless sense of symmetry or a sharpe straight, boundary forming, horizontal line. The occasional shot would have a nice enclosed boarder created by objects, structures, and sometimes characters to force the viewer to experience different emotions and feelings from isolation and restriction to dominance and power. These are what I consider my favourite aspects of a Wes Anderson film. When you cant take you eyes off the screen for a second as it contains just as much information as what your ears are picking up. Every scene a beautiful mix medium art work that individually deserves to be framed in a gallery just as much as that before and after it. The power of perfect placement.