Including voice performances and narrators but excluding Mordecai the falcon.
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Wes Anderson creates remarkably intricate worlds and populates them with just as peculiar people.
The following 50 performances represent the best of the Andersonian Cinematic Universe (nowwhos pretentious?
), including voice performances and narrators but excluding Mordecai the falcon.
Its a survey of the finely tuned acting performances that stand on their own.
It didnt, and their moment goes as easily as it comes.
And yet shes also so credibly beguiling to young Sam.
The film doesnt work if Hayward cant do both.
She can and does.
Hes a psychopath who may well enjoy his role as a villain a bit too much.
She doesnt really play roles like this anymore, vulnerable and impulsive.
The Cate Blanchett ofCarolandTaris flinty and determined, not the firecracker that Jane is.
Its the only thing keeping the spunky (Cate Blanchett!
performance this low on the list.
Willem Dafoe as J.G.
Jopling is definitely a brute.
Dafoe plays the almost entirely nonverbal role as a fearsome physical presence.
ButDarjeelingsproblems as a film shouldnt count against Amara Karans performance.
Tilda Swinton as J.K.L.
She imbues Juliette with the half-formidable, half-bratty confidence of youth.
The performance is all attitude and narrowed eyes, which is exactly why you cast Anjelica Huston.
Julien is more complicated, though, bouncing between his capitalist and humanist impulses.
Brody plays these hairpin temperamental turns for maximum comedic effect in whats probably the funniest of his Anderson performances.
Spots is canine loyalty personified, and Schreiber voices the role like a dutiful soldier.
Temperamentally, Cranstons delivery makes for an odd fit with the Anderson style, more conversational than arch.
He sells Chiefs crumbling resistance and haunted past.
Adrien Brody as Peter Whitman inThe Darjeeling Limited
Brodys first appearance in an Anderson movie is a big success.
Peter is the most outwardly hostile and simultaneously most recognizably earthbound of the films three brothers.
Kylie is an actual major character, the meek opossum who eventually becomes Mr. Foxs right-hand man.
Hes territorial with Ned for Zissous attention.
Hes quick to anger yet easily wounded.
Dafoes tendencies toward rubber-faced emoting are indulged here to great effect.
Willis doesnt get too many laugh lines in the movie, but hes all heart.
But Huston plays her almost academic concern for them with sincere, if bemused, care.
Even better are her scenes opposite Gene Hackman.
Its a clever acting choice, especially in a Wes Anderson movie, where brusqueness is whats expected.
Krementz is fascinated by the student protests while also wrestling with her resentment of the students youthful naivete.
Its a performance thats more layered than it initially seems, both harder and more vulnerable.
Keitel begins the scene with an intimidating growl and ends it in rueful melancholy.
In between, the audience gets the gift of hearing Keitel say Fuzzball and also howl mournfully.
Its by far the best performance in the movie.
Abrahams performance far exceeds the function as mere narrator, though.
Its hard to imagine anyone better fit than Abraham to play this notion of wistful grandeur.
Johansson doesnt make any big choices to differentiate these two women, but the distinctions are precise and telling.
As Mercedes, shes icy and formidable, barely moving a muscle and communicating volumes.
It works, though, particularly as it builds up to Chas and Royals touching reconciliation.
He quickly proved to be a natural in this world.
For all his reputation as an annoyingly committed actor, Norton feels so loose and playful with Anderson.
Ward is a straight-arrow scoutmaster, and Norton hits every fastidious line reading with an eager snap.
But hes kind and nurturing inside that fastidiousness, which matches the tone of this, Andersons sweetest movie.
It turned out to be a lot more fun than it sounded.
Murrays disillusioned Herman Blume is the exact right foil for Max, exhausted but admiring of Maxs drive.
Anderson helped spark Murrays career renaissance, and in Murray, Anderson found his most enduring muse.
Schwartzman does so with a pronounced clench in his delivery.
Wess striving teenager is now grown up and melancholy like everybody else.
Hes hilarious at it, turning Eli into the films true wild card.
He earns bonus points for doing Foxys signature click-y whistle sound himself.
Jason Schwartzman as Ash inFantastic Mr. Fox
Ash Fox is little.
Its his defining characteristic.
Its what messes with his head and makes him angry and sets him against his golden-boy cousin, Kristofferson.
Schwartzman pours all of the requisite bitterness and petulance into Ash, including a few very funny tantrums.
All due respect to a mature and talented actor, but Jason Schwartzman whinessowell.
Owen Wilson as Dignan inBottle Rocket
Wes Andersons first film is also his least formally regimented.
Its more indebted to 90s indie styles than what wed come to recognize as signature Anderson.
Within that space, Owen Wilsons performance walks in two worlds.
With an abashed quarter-smile or a penitent downcast glance, he lets Dignans essential sadness shine through.
Hes also so funny in his ungainly physicality (just watch him dance).
Gilman garners the audiences sympathy but not our pity, gifting Andersons film with a most unlikely romantic hero.
Jeffrey Wrights dexterity in his line delivery is an invaluable skill for a performance like this.
The farther we get into this story, the more we see Roebucks verbosity for the armor it is.
Shes locked in as Margot, terminally unimpressed and smoking secretly in the bathtub.
Shes a symphony of bored micro-expressions.
As an exception to the rule it works quite well.
1 performance that really has no parallel.
The farcical energy that Ralph Fiennes brings toThe Grand Budapest Hotelis unequaled in the Wes Anderson filmography.
He imbues Gustaves impossibly rapid delivery with such dexterity that the audience misses nothing while still feeling slightly dizzy.
