Wes and Roald

Thank you Wes Anderson (and Netflix) for this most unexpected fall dandy - a quartet of short films based on the writings of Roald Dahl.   A welcome reunion (after THE FABULOUS MR. FOX) for two creative geniuses.  An inspired collaboration.  The films were released on the streaming service in late September.  A surprise bonus in a year we already received ASTEROID CITY. 

Ralph Fiennes appears in each as the author, beginning or picking up where other onscreen narrators - sometimes characters in the stories - leave off.  He will also be seen as a secondary character in THE WONDERFUL STORY OF HENRY SUGAR, the longest of the lot at nearly forty minutes, and more prominently in THE RAT CATCHER in the titular role.  Benedict Cumberbatch reveals comedic skill in SUGAR, and a more subtle but potent performance in POISON, in which he spends most of the seventeen minutes supine in a bed, trying not to awaken a sleeping snake on his chest.  Ben Kingsley plays a doctor in that one, and in SUGAR is the Great Yogi, a guru who teaches Henry how to see without his eyes. 

Anderson's breathless, whiplash style and verbosity is on hand for each film, which also includes THE SWAN, which in moments reminded me a bit of Monty Python.   Each in their present form could work as radio plays (or podcasts) as every bit of action is described.  It's curious as to what he decides to show and what is pantomimed.  The director even briefly hints at a gift for horror in RAT CATCHER. 

You might even consider the shorts as Max Fischer stage productions.

Wes' dense method may work better in short format, and I wouldn't mind seeing further such efforts.  I might've liked THE FRENCH DISPATCH more if its episodes were as succinct and clever as these.  Roald was a master. 

Almost certainly, a Criterion anthology disc is forthcoming.