This film, like many of Anderson’s works, is a collection of astonishing stories, historical anecdotes, and other charming tall tales, resembling vivid retro postcards. What binds them together is the director’s delightful authorial whim. To give it all a sense of coherence, Anderson invents a fictional newspaper published in a fictional French city in the mid-20th century. The French Dispatch is an invitation to flip through its pages at a dizzying pace.
