The Definitive Wes Anderson Rankings

I'm a white guy in his late-20s. Of course, I have some Wes Anderson opinions.

Yeah, I have some Wes Anderson takes.

I’m a white guy, who wants to be a writer, that lives in a metropolitan city. I’m a film buff/asshole, I have a Letterboxd account and I own a record player. It would be downright shocking if I didn’t have a ranked list of Wes Anderson films. Of course, I have one that I update frequently.

Honestly, it’s borderline miraculous that I don’t randomly start talking about Moonrise Kingdom once a day. I know my lot in life, and that lot is loving symmetrically-shot movies with a comedic exterior and a lonely, anxious filling. Sometimes, we are who we are. And I can’t deny my love for Anderson, his die-hard repertory company and what ends up on the screen.

Earlier this week, I saw Asteroid City, Anderson’s new picture starring Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johannsson and seemingly half of Hollywood. And you know what? I fucking loved it. It’s atop my 2023 list—stunning, I know—and I can’t wait to see it again.

With that said, I’ve seen all 11 of his full-length films (and a few of his shorts), and this is as good a time as any to rank his movies. This is the first time someone has ever attempted such a task—don’t google it—and it shall quickly become the definitive list.

Let’s do it.

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11. Rushmore

I know I’m in the minority here, but Rushmore just doesn’t work for me. I appreciate the parts: Jason Schwartman’s nebbishy jerk, Bill Murray and Brian Cox supporting roles and Olivia Williams as the center of the chaos. But the Max Fischer character grates on me in such a way that I have trouble getting into the movie. Yes, this is a fan favorite, but it’s at the bottom of my list. It is what it is.

10. Bottle Rocket

Anderson’s directorial debut is very good. Bold stuff from yours truly. There’s so much here that obviously foreshadows where Anderson is going, and I do think if I wasn’t a one-year-old in 1996, I would appreciate this one more. It’s more of a blueprint than a movie I love, but I can understand how missing this one in theaters could plummet it down my list. Owen Wilson is perfect as that kid you know that means well and also kind of sucks. It goes in some bizarre directions, but what else would you expect?

9. Isle of Dogs

I’ve only seen this one once, and it was for a date back in 2018. She showed up late to the movie. It didn’t last long between us. A perfectly fine stop-motion animated film, there’s nothing wrong with Isle of Dogs, it just isn’t as memorable as most of Anderson’s other work. Sitting in one of the front few rows most likely didn’t help my opinion of it. I should honestly check it out again, as I was pretty worried about the date the entire time. Maybe I’d like it more. Sidenote: I’m not built for movie dates.

8. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

From the title to the red beanies, this may be the most Wes Anderson movie. It’s designed within an inch of its life and is so twee that twee doesn’t even begin to describe it. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou features a few of my favorite Anderson performances with Bill Murray’s titular explorer and Cate Blanchett’s pregnant reporter, and yet this one doesn’t click for me the same way some of his others do. It has a dynamite denouement and wraps together nicely.

7. The French Dispatch

A series of vignettes beautifully encased in a New Yorker-esque “issue,” I find The French Dispatch growing on me. It’s meticulously designed in a way that feels like a perfectly-crafted Rube Goldberg machine, and just the cinematography is worth the price of admission. Not all of the sections work as well—I would rank it 1 then 3 then 2—but each one has its moments. The Jeffrey Wright soliloquy and the end of the opening art sequence are both some of Anderson’s best work, and everything is tied together in a neat, little bow. I liked this a lot more the second time than the first and would imagine it getting even better on the next watch.

6. The Darjeeling Limited

This is probably one of Wes Anderson’s lesser-seen movies and frankly one of my favorites. It went through quite a bit of backlash at the time for being a story of white men interacting with Indian culture, but I always saw their foibles and fuck-ups to reflect on themselves. They suck. That’s part of the text. As a slapstick comedy, this is one of Anderson’s bests as Schwartzman, Wilson and Adrien Brody play grieving brothers so well, it’s easy to forget that they’re not related. The setting and train that was mocked up for the film give this a slightly different tinge than the rest of his movies, in a good way. It feels like a circus, especially when the claustrophobic nature truly sets in.

5. Asteroid City

Some good news: The new one is great. Certainly a pandemic-era story without the COVID trappings, Asteroid City uses Anderson’s relied-upon story-within-a-story framing device in a newfangled way. It takes a while for all of the pieces to make sense in the structure of the movie, but once it does, everything comes together in a jaw-dropping scene near the end. As loaded a cast that he’s ever had, Schwartzman is what holds this all together as the forlorn war photographer looking for something. Anderson has always been great at getting strong performances from kids and he does so once again with a busload of school children, some tween geniuses and three “witches” trying to get over a difficult loss. It’s very funny, features some of his best one-liners and has Tom Hanks. What more could you want?

4. Moonrise Kingdom

This is where the rankings get really tough as the top four movies here could all be No. 1 depending on the day. I rewatched Moonrise Kingdom again semi-recently and was taken this time with the Bruce Willis performance as a dejected police captain. It’s one of his best roles and he does so much more with it than one might initially expect. The love story that keeps the movie going is one of Anderson’s best and the music is so damn good. I think this was the movie of his that got me to fall in love with his work, so it holds a special place in my heart. The Khaki Scouts are incredible.

3. Fantastic Mr. Fox

The runtime for this movie is apparently 87 minutes but it feels like seconds. Bolstered by one of his best casts including George Clooney, Meryl Streep and Billy Murray, it’s tough to sum up the magic that Fantastic Mr. Fox has to offer. It’s one of the best uses of stop-motion animation and does justice to the Roald Dahl story while also adding to it. It lost Best Animated Feature to Up, which is a true Sophie’s Choice. One of the best movies to just throw on no matter the mood. Clooney deserved an Oscar nomination for this one. 100% serious.

2. The Royal Tenenbaums

I watched this on my birthday a few years ago. This was one of many times I’ve seen The Royal Tenenbaums and it’s still maybe the pure ethos of what Wes Anderson is trying to do. It features his filmmaking and screenwriting tics from lonesome love to raucous score to chaotic sequences, which all support a barn-burner of a performance from Gene Hackman. Luke Wilson, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anjelica Huston, Owen Wilson and many, many more make up this cast and Anderson directs the entire wild story with aplomb. “I don't think you're an asshole, Royal. I just think you're kind of a son of a bitch.”

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel

What can I say about this movie that I haven’t said a thousand times? Not just my favorite Anderson movie, this is one of my favorite movies … end of sentence. Ralph Fiennes as Gustave H. is probably my favorite Anderson character and the bedlam inside the hotel never disappoints. Like many of his other movies, Anderson builds a self-contained world that is eerily similar to ours with plenty of flourishes; the fictional Eastern European country of Zubrowka has this candy-coated exterior and horrific inner workings. It’s a movie about making something of yourself, how quickly time can pass, the stories we tell that live on and what’s worth living for. Can’t say enough about The Grand Budapest Hotel. It’s his best creation. And that’s saying something.