Since the release of his latest project, The French Dispatch (2021), many film lovers have developed a keen eye for detecting Wes Anderson-esque scenes in their daily lives. 26-year-old film connoisseur Ariel Marín is a huge fan of Anderson’s work, comparing it to things she sees everyday on the street like buildings with bright orange facades, delightfully simple moments of someone riding a bike or a couple sipping coffees in wrought iron chairs on a worn stone balcony, along with architectural symmetry, pastel color palettes, and, of course, white guys.
“I saw this white man walking by me and I immediately thought, ‘That’s so Wes Anderson,’” Ariel said. “I even turned to my friend and was like, ‘Doesn’t he look straight out of a Wes Anderson movie?’ to which my friend was like ‘Oh my god, yeah, he’s even wearing Adidas track pants!’ He was pretty much just your average white dude, and, in that way, perfect for a Wes Anderson flick.”
Ariel says, as a Wes Anderson enthusiast, she’s become pretty good at noticing when something she sees is reminiscent of his particular style.
“I usually reserve comments like that for when I see a bunch of pink chairs under a yellow awning outside a pink building or an anthropomorphic puppet fox, but I just couldn’t help myself this time!” she told reporters. “This guy looked exactly like Owen Wilson, in that he had blonde hair and I only saw him from behind.”
Angelica Sparks, the friend who was with Ariel at the time, also weighed in on the situation, saying, “It transported me. I felt like I was in one of Wes’s classic surreal yet still natural-looking shots, surrounded entirely by white guys in well-fitting corduroy suits. Minus, of course, the suits.”
She added, “It’s just fun when you suddenly feel like you’re living inside one of your comfort movies. Granted, being surrounded by white guys who talk a lot isn’t something that’s super out of the ordinary in my day-to-day life, but still!”
Although Ariel admitted The French Dispatch wasn’t her favorite Anderson film, she thinks it was one of his most stylistically-curated projects and says it has definitely made her more aware of potentially cinematic moments in her own life.
“I used to think my life was pretty boring,” she said. “But it’s actually chalk full of things Wes Anderson would deem beautiful and worth filming! I live in Portland, so I see a lot of small, aesthetic cafes and white people in big coats.”
At press time, Ariel and Angelica felt so inspired that they decided to pursue careers as auteur filmmakers, with Ariel stating, “Seems easy enough. We have an excess of eccentric, mustachioed white guys at our disposal. We just need to get our hands on a 35mm camera and we’re in business.”
