“Isle of Dogs” delves into the world of immaculately cultivated figurine canines, the detail is again second to none, but the setting is anything but beautiful. Co-written by Anderson, Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman and Kunichi Nomura, “Isle of Dogs” takes place in the fictional Japanese city of Megasaki. Snout-fever, a form of dog-flu, has hit the capital and its Mayor Kobayashi has decided enough is enough, the dogs need be deported. Enter Trash Island, which is mountainous in its accumulation of garbage, filled with worms, fleas, Sake bottles, and uneaten food, this is a landscape in which you can almost smell the disagreeable stench. Subplots pile up, so do flashbacks which try to better flesh-out the cast of characters, and it does sometimes feel like too much happening at once. If the film starts off strongly, the mid-section is a little less involving, especially when the wise-heads of the Island, Jupiter (F. Murray Abraham) and Oracle (Tilda Swinton), show up and stall the narrative on its tracks, but the film has so much brilliantly conceived slapstick, Anderson is now officially the best director in the world at physical comedy, that all is forgiven and the film quickly gets back on track. What a clever idea on the part of Anderson to have the barks spoken in English and the Japanese raw and unsubtitled, it adds to the quirkiness and makes this special gift of a movie filled an absolutely silly delight. The attention to detail is second to none, layer upon layer is revealed in every frame, the film feels like a series of paintings come to life. The action itself is remarkable as well, especially when Kobayashi decides to send robotic attack dogs, they’re supposed to replace the canines in Japanese households, to kill our protagonists. Contribute Hire me
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