The Wes Anderson Archive Is Pick of the Week

Ever since his 1996 directorial debut Bottle Rocket, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Wes Anderson has been the go-to for offbeat and whimsical tales of grief, loss, and dysfunction from the points-of-view of dreamers, losers, outsiders, and other lost souls. All ten films included in the 4K+Blu-ray disc set (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs, and The French Dispatch) offer light/dark comedy, pathos, and incredible soundtracks, as well as amazing (deadpan) eccentrics played by some of the best actors in the business, such as Anjelica Huston, James Caan, Frances McDormand, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe, and of course the Wilson Brothers (Owen and Luke), among others.

Also included is over 25 hours of supplements including audio commentaries, documentaries, deleted scenes, interviews, home movies, short films, visual essays, auditions, storyboards, commercials, trailers, and much more. Accompying the set are essays from older releases from critics/filmmakers such as Richard Broad, James L. Brooks, Martin Scorsese, Kent Jones, Dave Kehr, and more. The whole set comes in a deluxe clothbound box, with the discs included in ten illustrated books.

So, if you are a diehard fan of Anderson and his colorful brand of filmmaking, and collector’s sets, then this incredible collection is definitely for you, assuming you don’t already own previous releases (which are still currently available from Criterion).

Isle of Dogs and The French Dispatch, are also being released separately on 4K and Blu-ray editions.

Other solid releases:

Misercordia (Criterion Premieres): Alain Guiraudie’s triumph about an out-of-work man returning to his hometown for the funeral of his beloved boss, who stays with a widow, and gets entangled in a mystery involving a disappearance, a threatening neighbor, and an abbot’s shady intentions.

Dogtooth (Kino): Yorgos Lanthimos’ disturbing dark comedy about three trapped siblings living under the manipulation of their parents, who’s twisted view of the world isn’t any better than the outside world itself.

The Life of Chuck (Decal): Mike Flanagan directs Stephen King’s story about three chapters in the life of an ordinary man named Charles Krantz.

Winter Kept Us Warm (CIP): A groundbreaking Canadian queer film from 1965 centering on a very intense relationship between a charismatic senior and a timid freshman.