YMMV / The French Dispatch

• Awesome Art:
  • A music video was released to tie into the film, featuring an alternate credits sequence rendered in atmospheric French bande dessinée art style, as seen here.
  • The animated car chase, animated in the same style, deserves mention as well. It's so well designed and animated that it can easily be confused for a scene set in the Tintin universe.
• Awesome Music:
  • The faux French pop track "Aline", sung by Jarvis Cocker, as heard here (it is in fact a cover of a song by an artist named Christophe).
  • Alexandre Desplat doesn't disappoint with the score once again, with Obituary being the highlight.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Roebuck Wright has been praised as the film's best character, being the most developed and played excellently by Jeffrey Wright. Even detractors of the rest of the film have praised his story.
• Genius Bonus:
  • This movie is set in a fictional French town called "Ennui-sur-Blasé." "Ennui" and "blasé" are both French words that mean roughly the same thing: boredom, apathy and sophistication.
  • Herbsaint Sazerac (Owen Wilson) was named after Herbsaint and Sazerac, both liquors hailing from New Orleans, Louisiana. Herbsaint is a type of anise-flavored liqueur and Sazerac is a brand of rye whiskey, and both are ingredients in a characteristically New Orleanian cocktail also called a "Sazerac."
  • The original name of the Liberty, Kansas magazine was "Picnic," which brings to mind a certain play of the same name. Said play was written by William Inge, an American playwright born in Independence, Kansas.
  • The song used at the start of the second story ("L'Ultima Volta" by Ennio Morricone) is from the 1964 mondo movie, Malamondo, which is described on Rotten Tomatoes as containing, among other things, "...a dangerous game played by French students".
• Magnificent Bastard: From "The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner":
  • Lt. Nescaffier is a Korean immigrant to France who is eager to make his mark on his adopted country as a culinary genius. Employed as the private chef to the Commissioner of Police of the city of Ennui-sur-Blasé, Nescaffier befriends his boss's young son and becomes man on the spot when the boy is held for ransom. Usually kind and humble, Nescaffier concocts a surprisingly ruthless plan to fatally poison all of the kidnappers by dosing an irresistibly tasty dish with toxin, even knowing he will have to sample it himself to gain their trust. Barely surviving, he is interviewed by journalist Roebuck Wright as to his reasons, and he confesses that after a life among haute cuisine that now seems boring to him, risking his death by one of his own dishes was the most exciting thing he's ever done.
  • The crime lord known only as "the Chauffeur" seeks to secure the release of mob accountant Albert the Abacus in order to guarantee he doesn't turn evidence against him and his associates. To this end, the Chauffeur kidnaps the young son of "The Commissaire" in order to ransom and threaten him in exchange for that demand being met and successfully hides him away while doing so. The Chauffeur, upon realizing he and his accomplices are found, also shoots and holds off police, expresses suspicion correctly about Nescaffier poisoning the food and upon being the only survivor of said poisoning attempt, he flees in a car and comes very close to escaping with the boy.
• Memetic Mutation: "Acting Like You're in A Wes Anderson Film"^note Acting Like You're in A Wes Anderson Film is a trend on TikTok in which users post videos filmed in the cinematography style of Wes Anderson movies under a variation of the catchphrase and caption, "You better not be acting like you're in a Wes Anderson film." The trend became increasingly popularized due to the usage of the track "Obituary", which was from The French Dispatch's original score.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Morisot's Surprisingly Sudden Death via jumping out of the barracks window.
    He's still not moving.
  • Even though it's largely Played for Laughs, the fact that, "8.25 bodies are pulled from the Blasé River each week, a figure which has stayed consistent despite population growth," is more than a little concerning. Just where are all these bodies coming from?
• Questionable Casting: Christoph Waltz is one of the most acclaimed character actors working today, with his famously whimsical line delivery sounding perfect for a Wes Anderson movie. His role here consists only of two extremely brief scenes. The first almost immediately after he speaks he's shut up. The second is one silent shot that lasts mere seconds.
• Tear Jerker: Zeffirelli's parents having to identify his body after his death.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Of the three main stories, only Roebuck Wright feels properly utilized, as he's actively involved throughout his whole plot and we learn quite a bit about him along the way. Lucinda Krementz is mostly just an observer of her story's action, and J.K.L. Berensen does little more than narrate hers, not even appearing in the narrative she tells until near the very end.
  • Arthur Howitzer Jr. is technically the central character, interacting and having an impact on all the writers. Unfortunately, he's mostly kept offscreen and the only relationship of his we get a clear look at is with Wright, as we get to see them meet and his review of Roebuck's story is his most extended interaction. Given the film is something of a tribute to Howitzer, it might have been better to have the stories play out as him actively reviewing the works of his writers throughout their stories rather than just tagging him on at the end instead.

---