Collectors of physical media need to get their hands on Criterion’s box set of the year, a beautiful collection of the first ten films by writer/director Wes Anderson. Criterion has released Wes Anderson films before, but this is the first time they’ve assembled them into a box set, and they’ve marked the occasion with new 4K digital masters of all of the films, while also releasing the new 4K editions with new special features individually for “Isle of Dogs” and “The French Dispatch.” The set comes in a very Anderson-esque box that makes it look like each film is in a small journal, complete with reprints of various essays along with more recently commissioned entries. For example, you can read Martin Scorsese’s Esquire piece on “Bottle Rocket” all the way to Richard Brody’s examination of “The French Dispatch.” Just the reading material alone makes for an interesting analysis of an essential modern filmmaker with other essays by James L. Brooks, Bilge Ebiri, Moeko Fujii, Kent Jones, Dave Kehr, Geoffrey O’Brien, Erica Wagner, and more.
Of course, the most important element of any box set is the films themselves, and “The Wes Anderson Archive” really does feel like taking a film school class on the influence and trajectory of its creator. Anderson’s distinctive stye, one that’s arguably become more pronounced with each film, can be witnessed merely by viewing all ten works in this set. It’s fascinating to go from the relatively simple comedy of “Bottle Rocket” to the more expressive tableaus of “Rushmore” to what many consider Anderson’s perfect distillation of his early and later films in “The Royal Tenenbaums.” “The Life Aquatic” and “The Darjeeling Limited” feel like a double feature in terms of style, which then shifts further after Anderson’s foray into stop-motion in “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” His 7th film, “Moonrise Kingdom,” remains his most underrated in my opinion, a move away from the overly composed work of his lesser films into something that feels more like his first three. Of course, the set closes out with the Best Picture nominee “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” his second stop-motion flick in “Isle of Dogs,” and his tenth film, “The French Dispatch”. (If you want the full dozen, go pick up “Asteroid City” and “The Phoenician Scheme” in their standalone, non-Criterion editions or wait for this company to eventually get around to them. Both feel inevitable.)
A sampling of the films to discern their 4K quality is mostly positive. “Tenenbaums” has some passages that look a little visually degraded, for example, but “Life Aquatic” really pops, as does “Fantastic Mr. Fox”. Of course, the newest additions spark off the screen, and each film has been accompanied by 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio tracks that allow Anderson’s use of music to resonate.
Finally, the set includes dozens (literally) of hours of special features. The first eight films in this set were previously available on DVD or standard Blu-ray through Criterion, and all of their special features have been imported. And we all know how deep Criterion reaches when they assemble bonus material. Not only do you get insightful commentaries but incredible exclusives like the “Max Fischer Players Present” segments produced for the 1999 MTV Movie Awards, a segment produced by Albert Maysles around the time of “Tenenbaums,” home movies shot by Ed Norton on the set of “Moonrise,” and video essays from our very own Matt Zoller Seitz and the legendary David Bordwell on “Grand Budapest Hotel.”
Criterion Collection has released remarkable Blu-ray box sets in the past, usually around this time of the year, ready for holiday wish lists. Comprehensive “film classes in a box” for Agnes Varda, Ingmar Bergman, Wong Kar-wai and even the Godzilla legacy have been essentials in the past. It’s quite the thing to say that this is one of their best.
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