Day 122 - Isle of Dogs

Day 122          Isle of Dogs [2018]

                          

Screenplay                    Wes Anderson

Director                         Wes Anderson

Cinematography             Tristan Oliver

Music                             Alexandre Desplat

Leads                             Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Bob Balaban, Kunichi Nomura, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Koyu Rankin, Akira Takayama, Akira Ito, Scarlett Johansson, F. Murray Abraham, Harvey Keitel, Tilda Swinton, Live Schreiber, Courtney B. Vance

Production                     Indian Paintbrush, American Empirical Pictures

IMDb                                 8.2/10

Rotten Tomatoes                90%

Before I get into the review I want to quickly address the debate over cultural appropriation that this film has been subject to. I will also say that my own knowledge of Japanese culture doesn’t extend too far beyond stereotypes and references to it in games, films and manga comics. Having spoken to a few friends and read a spattering of articles I was fully prepared for some embarrassing stereotypes of Japanese culture. However, I believe that this film is innocent for the most part and I don’t think I’m alone among the hipster racists and Wes Anderson fanatics in saying that (I’ll freely admit I am one of the latter). Even legends such as Katsuhiro Otomo (creator of manga Akira), who designed a poster for the movie, described it as ‘filled with homage to Japanese cinema’ and the fact he agreed to design a poster for the film suggests he was happy with how it represented Japanese culture. Yes, there are some potentially upsetting references such as the name of the city, ‘Megasaki’, and the references to gas chambers, as well as a dictatorial regime and a saviour in the form of a young American girl. Anderson’s inclusion of women is also weak but that goes for most of his work and should be discussed in a wider context rather than in the context of this specific film. Anderson himself is a perfectionist who adores Japanese culture and cinema and I believe this is more an homage to them than an insult. I encourage the ‘woke’ audience (for lack of a better term) to put any issues you may have aside and just enjoy the damn movie. Yes, every film has to be aware of the message it is putting out, but it’s all fictional. Fiction. Forgive me if you feel patronised by me writing that but you’ve got to allow filmmakers to express themselves and it is your right as an audience to critique them, but don’t let it ruin your enjoyment of films.

I love dogs. I loved it. I thought it would be hard for it to go up against Anderson’s last stop-motion masterpiece – Fantastic Mr Fox (Day 19) – but this proved me wrong and, in many ways, I think it was better. Perhaps the main reason was the music, scored by the superlative Desplat, with inclusions of scores used by Japanese hero Akira Kurosawa. The film bounces along with drums as it's heartbeat alongside the typical travelling scenes of Anderson movies past which manage to stir up feelings you didn’t know existed, in this case with the use of the emotional ‘I Won’t Hurt You’. The puppetry, set design, cinematography etc. etc. side of things was also out of this world. Every last detail is perfection and you can just imagine Anderson going over each piece of trash on the island with a magnifying glass. I loved each character with an ensemble of stars voicing both canine and human. I was a bottle of wine down when I watched it so would like to go into more detail, but I was too giddy with enjoyment to make any mental notes. The film is perhaps more an homage to dogs more than anything else and I hope the argument over cultural appropriation doesn’t spoil what I believe to be yet another Anderson work-of-art.

(Acting                           3 / 4)

Writing                           3 / 4

(Cinematography            4 / 4)

Music                             4 / 4

HWF rating                4 / 4