Wes Andersonis a filmmaker known for his meticulous attention to detail. Down to the color palette, symmetrical framing, and carefully crafted narrative, everything in an Anderson film is in exactly the right place. His attention to detail is legendary,as is his ability to draw in some of themost elite levels of acting talentin the entertainment industry to his projects, even for the most minor of roles.
These minor roles in an Anderson movie are often equally rich as the main players. There is an uncanny depth to the characters in an Anderson film, where the viewers know there is a lot more to their story than what is seen playing out on screen.Each of his characters is fully fleshed-out, and comes with a unique and complex personality, which means that listing the 10 bestcould easily occur within a single film. For their complexity, intellect, and quirks, here are the all-time best Anderson characters, ranked.
10Jane Winslett-Richardson (Cate Blanchett)
‘The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou’ (2004)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissouis Anderson’s fourth film, and at the time of its release, its reception was relatively poor at the box office and with critics. The protagonist, Steve Zissou (Bill Murray), is an oceanic explorer at the end of his career, who is just realizing that it’s possible his best years are behind him. Steve is an example ofone of Anderson’s “bad dad” characters, since his zany quest to track down the leopard shark that murdered his partner takes a turn when he discovers an airline pilot named Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson) who claims to be his illegitimate son. Ned joins Steve on his mission, andthe pair’s developing relationship is the linchpin of the movie. Despite its initial poor reception, Anderson’s fourth release eventually developed cult status, and some evenconsider it to be his best film.
Amid the family drama and high-seas intrigue is a pregnant reporter developing a story about Steve, Jane Winslett-Richardson (Cate Blanchett). Jane spends the film attempting to interview a frustratingly evasive Steve, while also building a bond with Ned.Due to her inquisitiveness and her demeanor, many of the major revelations in the film come to Jane, like the moment when she admits to Steve she once had a heroic photo of him, and he recreates the pose for her, before admitting he never really felt that heroic. The tender moment is completely ruined when Steve leans in to plant an unexpected and undesired kiss on the reporter. Later, Steve’s ex-wife, Eleanor (Anjelica Huston), confesses to Jane that her ex-husband is sterile, and it is therefore impossible that he could be Ned’s father. Steve’s struggle with the concept of being a father, and his frank desire not to be one, are part of his emotional journey, as he eventually accepts Ned before his tragic demise, butwithout Jane’s presence their story wouldn’t be nearly as developed.
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
9Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright)
‘The French Dispatch’ (2021)
The fictional city of Ennui houses the “French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun” newspaper in Anderson’s tenth film,The French Dispatch. The expatriate authors working on the paper each express a sense of isolation, which the film queries to be necessary for the creative impulse.The writers come together to assemble the final issue of the paper, which features three stories and a travelogue, after the death of their beloved editor, Arthur Howitzer Jr (Murray).
These stories make up a part of the anthology film, which is also book-ended by an epilogue and a prologue. Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright), the paper’s food writer, authors the final article in the last edition of the “French Dispatch,” a reflection on his “solitary feast” lifestyle, as he recalls an evening spent with Ennui’s police Commissaire (Mathieu Amalric). Roebuck’s riveting tale of being entangled in a kidnapping plot involving the Commissaire’s son, witha cameo by the brilliant Saoirse Ronanas one of the abductors.Roebuck is a figure who speaks to the loneliness that the film posits as necessary to the creative impulse, andThe French Dispatchis a testimony to the brilliance and the whimsy ofthese kinds of special interest journalists.
The French Dispatch
This anthology film weaves together a collection of stories from the last issue of an American magazine in a fictional French city. Directed by Wes Anderson, it features a unique narrative structure, showcasing eccentric characters and their adventures, with each segment exploring different facets of human experience, love, and artistic expression.
8Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman)
‘Rushmore’ (1998)
Rushmoreis Anderson’s second feature film, after his premiere withBottle Rocketin 1996. So many tropes that would become staples in Anderson films are either established or solidified with the story of Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman),a precocious young man from a middle-class family attending an elite educational academy. As a student of Rushmore, Max is a part of this elite space, yet he feels an intense inadequacy compared to the wealthy students who attend the school with him. Much like Nick Carraway inF. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American novel,The Great Gatsby, Max is both within and without this world he now finds himself a part of.
Thisquintessential coming-of-age filmalso allowed Anderson to fully come into his own as a director. The film also established the first time Anderson would direct both Murray and Schwartzman, which would springboard their many collaborations throughout the filmmaker’s career. Max’s complicated year at school involves a crush on his teacher, Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams), and a burgeoning relationship with a wealthy industrialist, Herman Blume (Murray).These adult relationships shape Max’s transitional year, as he discovers Rosemary and Herman are themselves having an affair. Rushmore demonstrated Anderson’s unique ability to show the way that young people view the world with authenticity, and, occasionally, with remarkable insight.
A teenager at Rushmore Academy falls for a much older teacher and befriends a middle-aged industrialist. Later, he finds out that his love interest and his friend are having an affair, which prompts him to begin a vendetta.
7The Host (Bryan Cranston)
‘Asteroid City’ (2023)
Asteroid City, Anderson’s eleventh feature film, features a play within the film, set in the retro-futuristic 1950s. To introduce the narrative,a TV host (Bryan Cranston) of a documentary program provides details about the creation and production of the eponymous play. He sets up the framework of the play and explains about its author, Conrad Earp (Edward Norton). As the play unfolds in the film, it is intercut with scenes of its own creation.
Narrators in Anderson films are often integral to the story coming together. Cranston appears not only at the beginning of the film, providing the film’s framework, but he also narrates throughout the film. Although his role has relatively little screen time,the TV host is essential to the narrative of the film. It just goes to show the kind of draw an Anderson project has, where a massive talent like Cranston would be inclined to take on an ancillary character just to work with the director.
Asteroid City
Following a writer on his world famous fictional play about a grieving father who travels with his tech-obsessed family to small rural Asteroid City to compete in a junior stargazing event, only to have his world view disrupted forever.
6Sam Shakusky and Suzy Bishop (Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward)
‘Moonrise Kingdom’ (2012)
Moonrise Kingdomis another film that demonstrates how well Anderson handles a coming-of-age story. The seventh film in the director’s ouvre,Moonrise Kingdomfollows the exploits of young adventurer Sam Shakusky (Jared Gilman), as he plans to escape the adult-controlled world of camp in the summer of 1965, in order to run away with his crush, Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward). Where the character Max inRushmorecouldn’t wait to grow up and join the adult world, Suzy and Sam are in full revolt against it.
Sam and Suzy appear misunderstood in each of their circumstances, andtheir youthful adventure is a love letter to the freedom of youth. Tension builds as a narrator (Bob Balaban) informs the viewers of a massive approaching storm, threatening the safety of the residents of the fictional East coast island of New Penzance, especially the two runaway pre-teen protagonists. The film is a stunning addition to Anderson’s collection, showing off his attention to detail and his narrative prowess, and it is quite possibly a perfect coming-of-age story, withthe budding romance between Suzy and Sam being built on their solid understanding of each other.
Moonrise Kingdom
In a quaint coastal town, a pair of young lovers flee their oppressive family lives, sparking a local search that draws the community into a bizarre adventure. As the townsfolk confront their own issues, the children’s innocent escape brings about unexpected consequences and revelations.
5Zero Moustafa (Tony Revolori)
‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ (2014)
The Grand Budapest Hotelis not only considered to be an excellent heist film, but actor Bryan Cranstonhas gone on recordsaying that it really is “just a perfect film.” The movie is possibly even Anderson at his best, with everything from color palette, symmetrical framing, and a stellar all-star cast performing at the height of their powers coming together under the director’s infamous eye.Anderson’s whimsical storytelling style lends itself to the isolated world of the Grand Budapest Hotel, run by Monsieur Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes) – more on him later.
Monsieur Gustave acts as concierge at the Grand Budapest during the interwar period between the two World Wars, and his fabulous lifestyle is interrupted by the sudden death of his patroness, Madame D (Tilda Swinton). Madame D leaves Gustave a famous painting, which prompts her wealthy family to accuse him of murdering their mother in order to take possession of it. Mayhem and mystery ensue, andalong the way Gustave is accompanied in his adventures by his loyal bellhop, Zero Moustafa, who is played by two different actors at different stages in his life. Young Zero was portrayed byTony Revolori, whose story follows his tutelage under Monsieur Gustave and his love affair with Agatha (Ronan), while the aged narrator of the tale of the Grand Budapest is later revealed to be Zero as well (F. Murray Abraham). As both the narrator and the apprentice, Zero is a central figure in this perfect heist film.
The Grand Budapest Hotel
4Margot Tenenbaum (Gwyneth Paltrow)
‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ (2001)
It’s possible there is no other Anderson leading lady as bewitching as Margot Tenenbaum (Gwyneth Paltrow) inThe Royal Tenenbaums. Part of Margot’s appeal is her complete and utter distain towards everyone around her, creating an aloof aura that surrounds her throughout the film. Margot is the only adopted child of Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) and Etheline Tenenbaum (Huston), who also share two sons, Chas (Ben Stiller) and Richie (Luke Wilson). In a film all about the crackup of a wounded family, filled with characters who feel isolated by their circumstances, Margot is the most singular among them. As the only adopted child, and the only daughter,she is twice isolated from her genius siblings, who also struggle under the weight of their father’s neglect and over-the-top personality.
Margot develops a habit of secrecy that follows her into adulthood. She is estranged from her neurologist husband, Raleigh St. Clair (Murray), hiding from him by locking herself in their bathroom with a small portable TV and her cigarettes. Her family members only know parts of her personal history, and she is reticent to share details in all cases. Although Margot had early success as a pre-teen playwright,her issues with her father and her unhappiness with her marriage have led to even further isolation as an adult, as does the love she feels for her brother Richie. As adoptive siblings, Margot and Richie were obviously raised together, so the growing love they felt for one another had the taboo of incest to add to the many layers of Margot’s isolation. By the end of the film, Margot has written a new play about her family, as each of the Tenenbaums are finally able to resolve their issues with the family patriarch.
The Royal Tenenbaums
3The Whitman Brothers (Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody)
‘The Darjeeling Limited’ (2007)
The Darjeeling Limitedreturns to the theme of family dysfunction with the three Whitman brothers, Jack (Schwartzman), Francis (Wilson), and Peter (Adrien Brody).A badly beaten Francis assembles his estranged brothers together in a secret quest to find their mother (Huston) by embarking on a train journey in India. The film opens with a short-film based on a story written by Jack, featuringan outstanding performance by Natalie Portmanas Rhett, his frustratingly coy paramour, in a romantic interlude that predates the brothers' trip together.
The brothers' train journey allows them the time and space to address their issues with one anotherand reconnect as a family. Jack and Peter are initially in the dark about Francis' plan for them to find their mother, who has become a nun in the Himalayan mountains. Once they eventually wind their way to her, she ultimately disappoints their desire for comfort or inclusion, acknowledging instead the inevitability of their shared loss.The brothers' emotional baggage is symbolized in the film by their father’s luggage, which they carry throughout the film, only to finally abandon it at the end. The brothers' emotional journey bonds them together as a family again, even in the absence of their parents.
The Darjeeling Limited
2Steve Zissou (Bill Murray)
‘The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou’ (2004)
The central figure ofThe Life Aquaticis the complicated figure of Steve Zissou,the oceanic explorer determined to have one last great adventure. Murray brings an elusive sadness to the character of Steve, who is often irredeemable in his other moods as he is reckless in every relationship he has. Steve is mourning the loss of his friend and business partner, Esteban (Seymour Cassel),who was tragically killed by a rare jaguar shark while filming their last documentary. Steve vows to seek revenge on the shark,in an obvious effort to avoid the inevitable reality that he is past his prime.
Murray brings an elusive sadness to the character of Steve…
Steve assembles his crew for one more adventure, while learning about the possibility that he could be Ned’s father. His confession at the end of the film that he never wanted to be a father is emblematic of his character, an individual who seeks at all costs to retain his solitary sadness by cutting off any possibility for real intimacy. He is dark and complex, andthe character is one of Murray’s best performances to date.
1Monsieur Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes)
Monsieur Gustave H. is the charming concierge at the Grand Budapest, set on maintaining the noble standards he has established in his years running the hotel. At the opening of the movie, he is training a new bellhop, Zero, who becomes the heart of the hotel, and the film. Zero assists Monsieur Gustave not only in his duties as a bellhop,but he also proves himself a loyal friend and compatriot throughout the concierge’s troubles retaining the famous painting gifted to him by his patroness.
Fienne’s performance as the flamboyant and womanizing Monsieur Gustave was so memorable…
The friendship formed between Gustave and Zero becomes the through-line in the story within a story the film creates. An elderly Zero has kept the Grand Budapest operating many years after the age of Monsieur Gustave, narrating the tale to an interested author about how he came to run the hotel. Zero keeps the hotel as an ode to the world his old friend fought so hard to keep alive, and to commemorate his lost love, Agatha (Ronan). His air of quiet nobility was learned and preserved in his years with Monsieur Gustave, andthe Grand Budapest Hotel and Zero remain symbols of this forgotten age. Fienne’s performance as the flamboyant and womanizing Monsieur Gustave was so memorable,it’s surprising he hasn’t received more praisefor his role in the film.
