may 1st, 2018

happy birdday, wes anderson.

i decided to write about the canine saturation crisis because today is wes’ birthday and i saw isle of dogs in a sea (!!) of the aforementioned quadrupeds, in the cinema, a few days ago. what about this crisis? well, it’s the core of the action, it’s the real or imaginary trigger of the story about the dogs displaced to trash island and little pilot who is small, as the name is hinting, but also big, in all the other ways in which none of the adults in the film manages to be. of course, if you take away many layers of visuals (or maybe i mean visions), you get to other cores, thicker ones, it’s an osteology that fits many narrative threads, many conflicts of ideas, stuff of the now, that sort of thing. long story short, these bones are first-rate.

and speaking of visions, i’d like to spoil (as in spoiler) a joke i really liked: the dog called oracle, who got his voice from tilda (swinton) herself, was this sort of, umm, oracle that the hero dogs of our adventure go to for advice. one of them, amazed at her prediction abilities, exclaims: “she sees the future!”. the answer comes fast: “no, she understands TV”. this television set, by the brand of ‘visions electronics’, is literally the source of her visions, but it is also the brand of wes’ mini, semi-subtle, cute humor.

even the title, and i’d give half my fortune and a horse to this wager, is surely not coincidental in sounding like “i love dogs” when you say it out loud. love you, wes. and love this group of people you’re having fun making movies with, too.

i don’t want to say anything more, nothing at all, everyone who has a heart has to go see this movie, no matter what state it’s in, the heart. i know (i wrote ‘i know’ but i should have used capitals) that it cannot not be liked by everyone. really. everyone. you know how people who don’t like dogs seem a little bit suspicious? i, for one, think so. not afraid of dogs, but just simply having a dislike for them. i’d be equally suspicious of someone who said they saw isle of dogs and didn’t like it. no one wants to pick this bone with me.

p.s. happy birthday, dude! (mr. anderson, that is)

p.p.s. i’d say this is wes’ most dessert-like movie. the grand budapest was more of a minestrone, but isle of dogs is just like a lemon cake that is sweet but has some sour in it, i had to hide some tears of endearment, but at the end i growled: “I bite.”