Isle of Dogs

— For me, the storyline of a Wes Anderson film is usually secondary to the look and feel and detail of it. The premise of “Isle of Dogs’ is farfetched enough to make an audience-goer worry (don’t worry) since it focuses on a Japanese city where all dogs have been banished to a garbage island and on one young boy’s quest for the dog he loves. It’s stop-motion animation at its best with cleverness in most nooks and crannies. It’s also dark comedy with nods to classic Japanese cinema, that brings with it laughter and heartbreak and joy. Did I mention most of the humans speak in Japanese without subtitles while dog barks are translated into the English, so the focus is less on the boy and his quest and more on the motley group of alpha dogs who help him? A case could be made for cultural appropriation within the deadpan humor and amidst the meticulous detail and complex visuals, but I’ll leave that issue to others. It manages to give the viewer a glimpse of mankind’s worst side, while they root for some incredibly expressive canines. I wasn't a fan of Anderson’s first stop-motion film (“Fantastic Mr. Fox”), but this one is far better and worth seeing if you're not put off by the animation, the banished dogs, or the Japanese culture of the fantasy. I liked it a lot.

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[2018. 101 min. Directed by Wes Anderson. Featuring Bryan Cranston, Koyhu Rankin, Edward Norton, Bob Balaban, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, and Scarlett Johansson..]
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/apr/01/isle-of-dogs-review-wes-anderson