Wes Anderson and his level of twee is not for everyone; there are apparently viewers who don’t like their comedies brimming with quirky charm, deadpan absurdity, and perfectly balanced cinematography. For them, Rob Schneider is probably still making movies somewhere. But for the rest of us who do appreciate Anderson’s particularly particular brand of cinema, there’s plenty to love across 30 years of movie-making, including his oddball characters (and their inevitably fraught familial relationships), his winking approach to naming them and the places they inhabit, and his marvelously detailed mise-en-scéne.
There are few working directors with an idiosyncratic style that is so immediately recognizable and imitated (but never equaled, despite the best efforts of AI). Anderson’s use of symmetrical shots with precise production design, huge casts of unforgettable characters played by a deep bench of big-name actors, and enough retro rock needle drops to fill an hours-long Spotify playlist marks a film as distinctly his.
For all their preciousness, these movies don’t take themselves too seriously, and never veer away from silliness and whimsy. However, we do take the task of judging them very seriously. Sticking with only the director’s 11 features (apologies to his shorts, including Netflix’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, which won him his first and only Oscar to date), we’ve ranked Wes Anderson’s movies from worst to best.
His filmography doesn’t contain a truly bad film; some have curdled a bit over the years while others have aged remarkably well. Even those set in a particular era feel timeless thanks to the auteur’s style, which feels vintage but never dated. Which movie about a misfit — or misfits — will reign supreme?
11. The Darjeeling Limited
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Anderson’s films are populated with complicated characters who are sometimes more lovable than likable, but the trio at the heart of The Darjeeling Limited are his more insufferable and least interesting protagonists. Anderson regulars Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman star as three brothers grieving the loss of their father while they take a train across India. They’re looking to find themselves, and the people they encounter often serve as a part of the experience rather than real humans. It isn’t just the three protagonists who treat these minor characters this way; The Darjeeling Limited does so as well.
Anderson has often displayed a tendency to use either settings or cultures for his own purposes rather than engaging with them on their own merits. That habit might be at its worst in this 2007 comedy, in which he uses the death of an Indian child as a catalyst for the brothers’ growth. I’d mark this as a spoiler, but it’s not really relevant to the plot (and no one is watching Anderson movies for the plot anyway). Some growth happens, but these characters remain mostly selfish and stunted when the film reaches the end of its journey.
Yet amidst all the annoyance, The Darjeeling Limited is one of Anderson’s most vibrantly colorful films, especially in its use of highly pigmented yellow. The director also accurately reflects the dynamics of relationships between brothers in ways that feel authentic. It’s a shame he doesn’t devote the same care to literally any of the Indian characters.
How to watch: The Darjeeling Limited is available to rent or buy on Prime Video.
10. Bottle Rocket
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Anderson’s 1996 feature debut feels right at home with other early works from indie auteurs who launched their careers in the same era — David O. Russell’s Spanking the Monkey, future Anderson co-writer Noah Baumbach’s Kicking and Screaming, etc. — with its low-key, almost shaggy aesthetic, oddball characters, and deadpan humor. Yet while this crime comedy was less mannered and precise than future films from Anderson, Bottle Rocket still bears his hallmarks and feels like something only the Texas native could have made.
An expansion of his 1993 short film of the same name, Bottle Rocket stars Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, and Robert Musgrave as three friends and partners in crime who join a gang led by James Caan’s big boss for a bigger heist. Beyond the presence of the Wilson brothers not playing brothers — including Andrew Wilson in a small role as the brother of Musgrave’s character — the film features other frequently occurring motifs from Anderson’s work, like jangly vintage rock on the soundtrack, handwritten notes on screen, careful shot composition, and thoughtful mise-en-scène (including the requisite wallpaper). But there’s a moment in a burglary scene where Luke Wilson’s Anthony carefully adjusts a toy soldier that feels most like the filmmaker’s later work with its precision and wry humor; it’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it movement, but watching it decades later feels like you’re witnessing the birth of something big, even in something so small.
How to watch: Bottle Rocket is now streaming on Prime Video.
9. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
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After the success of The Royal Tenenbaums a few years prior, Anderson went bigger — but not better — with this 2004 follow-up. Bill Murray’s Steve Zissou doesn’t feel that far removed from Royal Tenenbaum as a bad (maybe) dad who says shit that wasn’t great in 2004 and plays even worse in 2024, and who is estranged from an ex-wife played by Anjelica Huston (in full-on siren mode here). Aquatic explorer Zissou takes his band of misfits (including Willem Dafoe, Noah Taylor, and Seu Jorge) on a mission of revenge after his best friend and best diver, Esteban du Plantier (Seymour Cassel), is eaten by a jaguar shark. Along for the ride are Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson), a Kentucky pilot who might be Zissou’s son, and Jane Winslett-Richardson (Cate Blanchett), a journalist doing a piece on the famed scientist and documentarian.
Co-written by Anderson and Noah Baumbach, the plot is a kooky modern-day take on Moby Dick with Zissou’s quest defying all reason, but the film feels rudderless, leaving the audience adrift on pure vibes in a sea of red stocking caps and custom Adidas sneakers. Yet The Life Aquatic with Steve Zizzou still has its charms: the Portuguese covers of David Bowie songs by Jorge, the loving feature-length homage to Jacques Cousteau, and the animated creatures created by Henry Selick that feel just fantastic enough. It’s not peak Anderson, but it’s pure Anderson just the same.
How to watch: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is available to rent or buy on Prime Video.
8. Rushmore
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Anderson’s 1998 sophomore film might be his last one with any semblance to the real world, if a posh private high school can be said to resemble the real world, but Rushmore still features his trademark absurdity. Jason Schwartzman makes his acting debut as Max Fischer, a prototypical Anderson protagonist who is at once precocious and stunted. A scholarship student at his beloved Rushmore Academy, Max gets terrible grades but excels at extracurriculars. He’s a bit of a dilettante, but he soon becomes singularly devoted to winning the affections of Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams), an elementary teacher at the school.
Rushmore doesn’t just feature the first collaboration between the director and Schwartzman, who he would go on to work with as both an actor and a co-writer for more than two decades. It’s also his inaugural work with Bill Murray, who stars as Herman Blume, Max’s mentor-turned-romantic-rival. Murray’s wry humor and up-for-antics attitude is a perfect fit for the wit of Anderson and Owen Wilson’s script, which is silly and smart and so very Anderson. It’s one of his smaller-scale films, but it still shows sparks of ambition and his inimitable style.
How to watch: Rushmore is available to rent or buy on Prime Video.
7. Isle of Dogs
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Anderson isn’t generally known for his deeply stirring narratives, but the emotion felt most while watching this stop-motion comedy is awe (plus some discomfort over how the movie handles its Japanese setting and the white savior narrative with Greta Gerwig’s character, but I digress). Fantastic Mr. Fox, which was released a decade before this movie, was an achievement. While Isle of Dogs is even more technically innovative and visually impressive in its meticulous craft, it’s less charming as a film overall and falls roughly in the middle of the pack of the director’s filmography.
This 2018 comic adventure is set in the fictional Japanese town of Megasaki City (eye roll), whose dogs have all been exiled to Trash Island by the mayor after a canine disease outbreak. Voiced by Koyu Rankin, the mayor’s nephew Atari (another eye roll) embarks on a rescue mission to the garbage dump to save his beloved pup. The story of a lost dog is nothing new in cinema, but Anderson brings his trademark quirk and imagination, making Isle of Dogs feel like something new and worthy of wonder.
Though its main characters are kids and dogs, Isle of Dogs isn’t purely a children’s movie with its message about immigration, sometimes surprisingly dark plot events (and their effects on its vulnerable characters), and accompanying PG-13 rating. It’s less of a good entry point to the director’s work than Fantastic Mr. Fox was, making for the most fitting viewing for devoted fans of either the filmmaker or the medium.
How to watch: Isle of Dogs is now streaming on Disney+.
6. The French Dispatch
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Anderson’s cinematic take on The New Yorker roughly follows the format of the revered magazine, featuring a masthead intro, brief travelog, three feature articles (one with a cartoon in the middle of it, naturally), and an obituary, mixing mediums and styles with aplomb. Anderson’s love of the written word has been present throughout his work — whether literally through handwritten notebook pages or through clear literary affection (or is that affectation?) and references — but it’s never been more on display than it is with The French Dispatch.
Within the framing of a magazine, the bulk of The French Dispatch is composed of a triptych of stories: one about a prisoner artist (Benicio del Toro) and his guard/muse (Léa Seydoux), a second about a French Dispatch journalist (Frances McDormand) and her intimate involvement with her subject (Timothée Chalamet), and finally an unconventional story of gastronomy about a police chef (Steve Park) and a kidnapping plot covered by a James Baldwin-esque writer (Jeffrey Wright). There are so many moments of joy in The French Dispatch, but the middle section sags a bit, somehow inducing a nap despite the presence of McDormand, Chalamet, and Mathieu Amalric.
The French Dispatch feels like a rejoinder to anyone who has criticized Anderson’s films like Isle of Dogs and The Darjeeling Limited for cultural appropriation and insensitivity. He takes an equally loose, stereotypical approach here, setting the film in Ennui-sur-Blasé, France, a fictional city replete with surface-level observations about a place and its denizens. See? He can do it with white people, too.
How to watch: The French Dispatch is available to rent or buy on Prime Video.
5. Moonrise Kingdom
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Anderson usually crafts films set in the vaguely indefinable present, but with an old-school soundtrack and vintage production design that make his movies feel wonderfully timeless. Yet Moonrise Kingdom is the first movie in his career that actually takes place in the past, and the nostalgic details and wistful approach are perfect for its 1965 setting.
Sam (Jared Gilman) and Suzy (Kara Hayward) are tween residents of the island of New Penzance who develop mutual crushes after a brief meeting followed by written correspondence. They decide to run away together — him from his Scout troop and her from her parents (Frances McDormand and Bill Murray) — and they’re pursued by the island citizens, including the local police captain (Bruce Willis), Sam’s fellow Khaki Scouts, their Scout Master (Edward Norton), and a brutal bully (Lucas Hedges), all while a storm bears down on the island.
Other than Rushmore, Anderson largely makes movies about adults stuck in childhood, so Moonrise Kingdom marks an interesting inversion to that formula. With Sam and Suzy, this 2012 romantic adventure focuses on actual kids who often act more like grown-ups, but it never loses its sense of tenderness and innocence in the wistful story of their young love.
How to watch: Moonrise Kingdom is available to rent or buy on Prime Video.
4. The Grand Budapest Hotel
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A story within a story within a story, set in the fictional Eastern European country of Zubrowka, The Grand Budapest Hotel is simultaneously ambitious and playful in its structure and silly and gravely serious in its tone. This Zubrowkan equivalent of a matryoshka doll spins the tale of a woman reading a 1985 book written by an author (Tom Wilkinson) about a 1968 encounter where the then-younger writer (Jude Law) learns of events in 1932 at the eponymous hotel.
At the now-fading Grand Budapest, Zero (F. Murray Abraham) recounts his youth as a lobby boy (Tony Revolori) who served under the venerated concierge Monsieur Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes). Gustave got in a spot of trouble when his habit of romancing the hotel’s oldest, richest female guests found him accused of the murder of Madame D. (Tilda Swinton in layers of makeup), setting Zero and his boss off on a series of misadventures with danger arriving from both the authoritarian regime and Madame D.’s family.
Inspired by the work of Stefan Zweig, this 2014 film has uncommon gravitas for an Anderson movie, as it explores the impacts of the Holocaust on Europe and its various minority populations. However, this tiered confection never feels overly heavy, nor does it make light of the tragedies it references. Anderson ably balances the tone, but Fiennes is a charming standout, even among a typically huge cast that also includes Jeff Goldblum, Ed Norton, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Owen Wilson, and Saoirse Ronan.
How to watch: The Grand Budapest Hotel is available to rent or buy on Prime Video.
3. Asteroid City
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Artifice has always been a hallmark of Anderson’s work, but there are new layers in his most recent feature, from 2023. Asteroid City is a thoroughly postmodern movie set in the Space Age; it’s a film of a TV production of a play, complete with a narrator, fourth-wall breaks, and intentionally unrealistic sets. The plot is often opaque (and not particularly important), but that somehow doesn’t lessen its crater-sized emotional impact.
The play is about a Junior Stargazer convention set in Asteroid City, during which a number of quirky young scientists and their families — along with a surprise galactic guest — converge on the small, remote town. Asteroid City is notably Anderson’s first movie without Bill Murray in two decades, but Tom Hanks ably steps into the elder statesman role, bringing a warmth that Murray often lacks to his part as a rich grandfather. In addition to Hanks, Asteroid City features a number of Anderson newcomers, including Margot Robbie and Steve Carell, as well as the usual stable of actors: Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Tony Revolori, etc.
Through all those layers of theatricality and absurdity, Asteroid City ranks with The Royal Tenenbaums as one of Anderson’s most moving films. It’s a profound meditation on how small we are in the universe, yet how truly special each and every life is. Asteroid City reflects on the power of the simple act of staring up at the sky, and how important human connection is in this crazy world.
How to watch: Asteroid City is now streaming on Prime Video.
2. Fantastic Mr. Fox
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The precision and preciousness that Anderson brings to every film feels like a natural fit for stop-motion animation, and he’s rarely been better than in his first full-length foray into the medium. Adapted by Anderson and Noah Baumbach from the Roald Dahl children’s novel of the same name, Fantastic Mr. Fox is a delight, even sillier than most of the filmmaker’s work in the best of ways, which is a perfect match for the source material and its intended audience.
George Clooney lends his voice to the eponymous hero, playing off his on-screen personas of Danny Ocean and Out of Sight‘s Jack Foley as a fox who just wants to complete one last heist, with Mrs. Fox (voiced by Meryl Streep) none the wiser. But instead of jewels or money, Mr. Fox is intent on stealing chickens from the nearby farms of Boggis, Bunce, and Bean (Robin Hurlstone, Hugo Guinness, and Michael Gambon).
Whether you’re an adult or a child, it’s impossible not to giggle with glee at Anderson’s accomplishments in this 2009 film. It’s marvelously detailed, down to the minute stitches and woven wool of the characters’ clothing. The animals generally behave like humans, even cursing in a wonderfully PG way, until they growl and snarl ferociously as they’re scrapping with each other or scarfing down a meal. Fantastic Mr. Fox is a wildly imaginative wonder that delivers the themes Anderson often returns to — like challenging father-son relationships, tensions between rivals, and the desire to reclaim past glory — but this time, he does it with brilliance for a new, younger audience.
How to watch: Fantastic Mr. Fox is now streaming on Disney+.
1. The Royal Tenenbaums
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Anderson’s more recent work is marked by sprawling casts filled with recognizable faces, but The Royal Tenenbaums was his first film that went big on its list of actors to fill out the Tenenbaums and those in their orbit. The introduction of all these people, with narrator Alec Baldwin speaking over The Mutato Muzika Orchestra’s cover of “Hey Jude,” builds the 2001 film’s version of New York City and constructs these characters with such love and care. The Tenenbaum kids — Richie (Luke Wilson), Chas (Ben Stiller), and Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) — are each struggling with adulthood in different ways, but the return of their reprobate father, Royal (a sparky Gene Hackman), brings them all back under the roof of their mother, Etheline (Anjelica Huston), at 111 Archer Avenue.
Written by Anderson and co-star Owen Wilson and set to an all-timer of a soundtrack, The Royal Tenenbaums is the director’s funniest film with marvelously quotable lines, but it’s also among his most moving. Familial relationships feature prominently through a lot of his films, but the most poignant moment in his work is when Stiller’s Chas chokes out, “I’ve had a rough year, Dad,” to Hackman’s Royal. Somewhere in the bowels of the internet, my MySpace quote is still “I always wanted to be a Tenenbaum,” just like neighbor Eli Cash (Owen Wilson). It’s easy to identify with his desire to be a part of this tribe.
How to watch: The Royal Tenenbaums is available to rent or buy on Prime Video.
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