Isle of Dogs

The director and his hip writing partners (Jason Schwartzman, Roman Coppola, Kunichi Nomura) infuse their imaginary world with winning deadpan humor.

Wes Anderson's latest venture, Isle of Dogs, is another example of the writer/director's editing and camerawork craftsmanship. A triumph of his own Andersonian aesthetic, yet an albatross concerning his appetite for cultural window dressing.

With its beautiful formal imagery, its gallery of hugely likeable canines and its cheerfully crazy plotting, Isle of Dogs really is a unique experience, and a thoroughly enchanting one.

This is outwardly one of Anderson's bleakest films. It's also one of his dullest and least emotional.

It's almost as if Anderson is knowingly allowing the actors' personalities to seep through...the stop-motion is staggering...

Isle of Dogs is quintessential Wes Anderson - that fetishistic attention to detail and a deadpan-ness that saves his brand of whimsy from becoming twee.

The USP of Wes Anderson’s films is to turn even the most tried-and-tested indie narrative tropes into a borderline-absurdist adventure. “Isle of Dogs” feels right at home with the rest of his work.

Although this story may seem innocent, it hides a clear metaphor about the oppression of minorities by dictatorial orders, and the segregation, since a clear parallel can be drawn between the "Garbage Island" ” and a concentration camp or a slum.

Isle of Dogs once again illustrated Wes Anderson’s versatility as a director and was a bold move away from the trappings of The Grand Budapest Hotel which had earned such acclaim.

While Isle of Dogs could never clear the impossibly high bar of Fantastic Mr. Fox, it’s still a wonderfully creative and perfectly bittersweet tale about people and their relationship to the canine world.