I felt he had to out-Wes Anderson himself, to stay ahead of the Wes Anderson AI parodies. He achieved that.

At this point he is beyond attempts at conventional criticism - you go to see a Wes Anderson film and you know roughly what you are going to get. However, compared to previous works, it did leave me a bit flat, although there were some genuinely funny moments in it.

I loved it! I felt it was a wonderful meditation on the experience of the Pandemic. The intensity, the confusion, the life happening in spite of quarantine, and even how everything got so ridiculous that we all stopped being shocked. In a lot of ways, I found it cathartic that somebody had managed to talk about the struggle of COVID without ever mentioning a disease. Like, I’ve had quite enough of ‘contagion movies’ now for a lifetime, so, I think that will help it hold up over time.

Imo, his finest.

Honestly it might be my favourite Anderson film so far. Really powerful in the way all the layers built up to the dénouement, and the blurring of the lines between the framing device and narrative was very well done. I think the emotional core of the story managed to shine through, too, without drowning in the stylistic aspects – probably because it was inextricably linked to the style.

I thought it was visually stunning with largely great dialogue but I struggled to connect with it emotionally. Even the balcony scene which seemed to leave an impact on people, I just didn’t feel much or felt like I understood the stakes. Though I intend to watch it again because I suspect it will be easier to process and appreciate

Edit: spelling