Movie review
October 21, 2021 · 108 min · R
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
The French Dispatch is a 2021 Wes Anderson-directed anthology comedy-drama structured as three feature stories from the final issue of a fictional American magazine's French bureau. The vignettes follow an imprisoned artist's obsessive romance and sudden fame, a journalist embedded in a student protest movement, and a food critic swept into a police commissioner's son's kidnapping. A gay Black journalist character appears in the third story with explicit references to his homosexuality and outsider status.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun.
Woke representation / casting
Openly gay character featured with direct references to homosexuality in one vignette.
Woke political dialogue
Satirical student-protest dialogue mocks youthful idealism without modern activist lines.
Identity-driven story themes
Outsider identity of gay Black journalist touched on incidentally in one story.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Light satire of historical protests and authority; no modern activist framing of systemic oppression or identity politics.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
No significant woke complaints or backlash reported.
Creator track record context
No relevant prior work cited.
Production
