Everyone is recreating Wes Anderson’s world. Wes Anderson isn’t happy about it
Name: Wes Anderson.
Age: Actual Wes Anderson is 54.
So we’re talking about the American film-maker known for his eccentricity and unique poetic style, as well as for being a big fan of symmetry, pastel colours, dysfunctional families, grief etc? That’s the one. The writer and director of Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Darjeeling Limited, Moonrise Kingdom …
Hang about, you said actual Wes Anderson? Is there another, less real Wes Anderson? Yes, kind of. Several, actually.
Paul Schlase, Tony Revolori, Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes in The Grand Budapest Hotel. Photograph: Martin Scali/Fox Searchlight Pictures/Allstar
And what do these other Wes Andersons do? Some of them make films – offbeat, sardonic, often pastel in colour, generally shorter than Original Wes’s though.
They’re film-makers, too? What are the chances! They also make memes and gifs and all of that stuff.
OK, so I think some explanation is required at this point. It’s a thing, on TikTok.
Inevitably. But not exclusively. We’ll start there, though, where the “Wes Anderson Challenge” has seen users imitating his style in videos and posts.
Such as? One user, Curious Refuge, uses AI to reimagine famous films through Anderson’s eyes, often generating the likeness of some of his favourite actors.
Give me an example then. Curious Refuge’s trailer for an imagined Lord of the Rings film presents it as a “heartwarming and quirky” adaptation of Tolkein’s masterpiece, featuring Timothée Chalamet as Frodo, Bill Murray as Gandalf and Owen Wilson as Sauron. Naturally, it has more than 1m views.
Grace Edwards and Scarlett Johansson in Anderson’s upcoming Asteroid City. Photograph: Courtesy of Pop 87 Productions/Focus Features
Ha! There are also trailers for Avatar, and Succession, a meeting between the Tenenbaums and the Roys, complete with tongue in cheek narration and quirky music. That’s not the end of it.
Good. Go on. There are plenty of creators on TikTok filming their lives as if they were in an Anderson film. One captured the moment she was laid off by email, in a Wes Anderson style. Another even managed to do the same for his trip to watch Millwall play football at The Den.
That’s impressive. And don’t forget the long-running Accidentally Wes Anderson Instagram account, which probably started the whole pastiche thing off in the first place.
Seems everyone wants to live in a Wes Anderson film. The director himself must be really chuffed. Not so much. “I’m very good at protecting myself from seeing all that stuff,” he said in an interview with the Times.
Why? “I do not want to look at it, thinking, ‘Is that what I do?’ Is that what I mean?’ I don’t want to see too much of someone else thinking about what I try to be because, God knows, I could then start doing it.”
Luke Wilson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Gene Hackman, Ben Stiller, Grant Rosenmeyer, Jonah Meyerson, Anjelica Huston, Danny Glover and Kumar Pallana in The Royal Tenenbaums. Photograph: Touchstone/Allstar
Actual Wes Anderson copying pastiche Wes Anderson (plus probably AI Wes Anderson) copying actual Wes Anderson … See? It starts to get a little complicated.
Do say: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
Don’t say: “Boris Johnson moved into a Georgian terrace townhouse in Downing Street in the summer of his 55th year. Over the next three years …”