This movie is a dependent sequel to Chinatown, and you may be somewhat lost unless you have a good recall. It’s not as sordid as its predecessor but it’s also not as gripping, plodding along vaguely until it peters out at the final solution. It retreads many of the superficial beats of the first film, too, using formula as ersatz meaning.
Closest comparison: It’s like The Long Goodbye by way of Chinatown.
Setting: Noir
Plot: Detective
Tone: Detective
This is a three and a half hour long film that any competent director could have made in one third the time without leaving anything out. It is painfully slow and insistently pointless, and the plot reads like a first draft run-on sentence, though the acting is fine, with Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci doing pretty well, but still just looking like the weathered statues of gangsters standing out in the rain, which does nothing for the story or the dryness with which it is told, where the editing could have been very helpful but instead actively inhibits the storytelling, and the extensive use of excellent CGI to de-age the main cast 20-30 years makes them look like they’re in their late 60’s playing characters in their 30’s, and the editing isn’t bad enough to be funny but isn’t good enough to be poor, although Scorsese has an eye for framing and set design that makes the images pop the scenes are ultimately still a very poor level of cinematography because of the still camera and boring staging, and in a movie about gangsters there’s no reason to have over three hours of the run time dedicated to meaningless interpersonal politics that don’t really go anywhere and never amount to anything more than ‘this guy doesn’t like that guy for no good reason’, but doesn’t even have the decency to end once the plot has been resolved but drones on and on and on and on until finally.
Closest comparison: It’s like a less interesting Casino (1995) with the pacing of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Setting: Political Drama
Plot: Gangster
Tone: Drama Epic
This movie is predictably funny, sweet, quirky, and occasionally a bit harsh in the signature style of Wes Anderson. It’s an evolution of The Fantastic Mr. Fox visually, but the story is more classic rescue adventure fodder with some fantasy and sci-fi elements thrown in. Its quirkiness will impact audiences differently, but where Darjeeling Limited and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou had the quirkiness on full display Isle of Dogs relegates it more to the deeper levels of story and narrative structure.
Closest comparison: It’s like The Fantastic Mr. Fox with a more grounded story.
Setting: Near Future Sci-Fi
Plot: Adventure
Tone: Quirky
