After not liking The French Dispatch or the a Netflix shorts, this was a nice return to form. It's a solid movie with excellent production values, even if the characters are more like cyphers or puzzle pieces than actual human beings.
It was kind of odd, though, that the movie ends with a "reveal" of the person behind del Toro's assassination attempts, even though the film had made no attempt to make a mystery of their identity in the first place. The "twists," of you can call them that, are rather obvious, so much do that I was waiting for further reveals that never came. The movie wants you to root for del Toro's character, even though it demonstrates time after time that he is not a good person. He almost felt like Elon Musk at times. There's also the fact that Anderson continues to employ people like Bill Murray and F. Murray Abraham, which isn't great.
All that said, if you turn your brain off and just go with the flow, this is an enjoyable 100 minute romp. I didn't mean to sound to negative. This is a Wes Anderson movie through and through, so by now it should be clear what you should expect from him. He's not reinventing the wheel here, so if you vibe with his style then this should be right up your alley.
variety.com
