THE FRENCH DISPATCH (Cert 15, 107 mins, Comedy/Drama/Romance, streaming from February 16 exclusively on Disney+, available to rent from April 2 on BT TV Store/iTunes/Prime Video/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services)
Starring: Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody, Timothee Chalamet, Benicio del Toro, Lyna Khoudri, Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Stephen Park, Lea Seydoux, Tilda Swinton, Jeffrey Wright.
WHEN Arthur Howitzer Jr (Bill Murray), editor of The French Dispatch, based in the town of Ennui-sur-Blase, dies after many years of dedicated service, staff prepare words of wisdom for the final edition.
Art critic JKL Berensen (Tilda Swinton) documents the efforts of dealer Julien Cadazio (Adrien Brody) to acquire a painting by convict Moses Rosenthaler (Benicio del Toro) of his muse, prison guard Simone (Lea Seydoux).
Lucinda Krementz (Frances McDormand) relays her personal involvement in a student uprising led by Zeffirelli (Timothee Chalamet) and his girlfriend Juliette (Lyna Khoudri) akin to the 1968 Paris riots.
Finally, food critic Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright) serves up the tall tale of Lieutenant Nescafier (Stephen Park), a pioneer of the gastronomic art of police cooking, who witnesses the abduction of the son of the commissaire (Mathieu Amalric).
The French Dispatch is a quixotic comedy of errors set in the offices of the titular magazine, which feels like an amuse-bouche compared with the meaty main courses of Wes Anderson's previous work.
The writer-director still tickles our palate with an assortment of complementary flavours.
Sweet romance is undercut by bitter regret and laced with wry humour.
The film-maker's devilish wit is in the smallest details of his on-screen designs, including judicious use of split screens to construct a detailed history of the town that Howitzer Jr and his team call home.
The script is structured as three vignettes and this intentionally disjointed form of storytelling lacks the emotional resonance and offbeat running jokes of Anderson's finest confections, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Royal Tenenbaums and Moonrise Kingdom.
Rating: 3/5
BEL-AIR (streaming from February 14 exclusively on Now, Drama/Romance)
MORE than 30 years after Will Smith made his debut in the award-winning sitcom The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, the Oscar-nominated actor acts as an executive producer of this dramatic reimagining of the original series.
Will (Jabari Banks) is uprooted from familiar surroundings in Philadelphia to live in Bel-Air with his wealthy uncle Phillip (Adrian Holmes), aunt Vivian (Cassandra Freeman), their three spoilt children, Carlton (Olly Sholotan), Hilary (Coco Jones) and Ashley (Akira Akbar) and house manager Geoffrey (Jimmy Akingbola).
The young man wrestles with his demons before channelling the talent and swagger he exuded back on the streets of Philadelphia into standing out from a new crowd, for the right reasons.
