Isle of Dogs
Composite Score: 83.8
Starring: Bryan Cranston, Koyu Rankin, Edward Norton, Bob Balaban, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray, Kunichi Nomura, Akira Takayama, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Akira Ito, Scarlett Johansson, Harvey Keitel, F. Murray Abraham, Yoko Ono, Tilda Swinton, Liev Schreiber, and Courtney B. Vance
Director: Wes Anderson
Writers: Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman, and Kunichi Nomura
Genres: Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements and some violent images
Box Office: $64.34 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Isle of Dogs is Wes Anderson’s stop-motion animation film set in near-future Japan about a boy trying to rescue his dog after the government allocates all dogs to go live on Trash Island in response to an outbreak of dog flu. The film features the voice talents of many of Anderson’s typical partners in crime (Murray, Norton, Balaban, Johansson, etc.) and provides a thrilling exploration of people’s relationships with their pets. Excellent animation and aesthetic design are a hallmark of Anderson’s filmmaking, and they come through again in this one, creating a world just fictional and fantastic enough to help you reach the ideal suspension of disbelief for this story to unfold in an impactful way.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
Isle of Dogs is one of my favorite Wes Anderson films, but I cannot concretely tell you what its deeper meaning (if any) is. On the one hand, it feels like an engagement with increasingly fascistic governments and a call to the people to wake up. Unfortunately, that idea breaks down rather problematically when you carry it through to its natural conclusion that the dogs are supposed to represent some oppressed community in modern society – I don’t think calling oppressed people “dogs” is the best way to elevate them in the minds of the world. On the other hand, maybe it’s about people’s need for pets in their lives – this concept also breaks down when you consider the fact that cat lovers are the literal villains of the story, unless you’re willing to accept that cats just aren’t real pets and fail to provide the affection that dogs do for their humans. Again, beyond the surface-level story, I’m not totally sure what Anderson’s goal with this film was, but I still think it’s an excellent piece of artistry, worth checking out.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
Like basically every Wes Anderson film, the vibes in Isle of Dogs are immaculate. The postapocalyptic look of Trash Island, the aggressive propaganda of the Kobayashi political machine, the subtle indications of the mayor’s love for cats, the anthropomorphizing of the canine characters – all of it feels great and provides a wonderful cinematic experience. Anderson’s camera techniques and color palettes are still present even in a futuristic setting and an animated film. You’ve got whip-pans, tracking shots, symmetrical framing – everything you’d expect from Wes Anderson you can probably find somewhere within Isle of Dogs.
Aiding Anderson’s fairly ubiquitous good feelings is the film’s unique narrative, blending children’s concepts of cats vs. dogs with adult themes of political corruption and the dangers of a police state and with the universal theme of how close people are to their pets. Each theme on its own feels like it could be fleshed out into a single film, and in fact, I’m pretty sure they have (see Cats and Dogs, Malcolm X, and Marley and Me for reference). But Anderson manages to bring all the different concepts together into a cohesive story that carries a decent amount of emotional weight, particularly in the relationship between our hero Atari and the dogs that he bonds with. It might have some issues with it’s more extended metaphors, but the story and its heartwarming sensation are fairly undeniable.
Isle of Dogs is another example of Wes Anderson’s excellent artistic eye and expression, featuring one of the more unique stories ever put to screen, making the film one of the greatest of all time. Its lack of extended metaphor keeps the film a bit hampered in the relevance department, but the great time that most people expect from Anderson’s films is still present in its own unique way. This film is currently available to stream on Disney+ if you’re trying to find where to watch it.
