The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More (2024) is the final movie in Wes Anderson's filmography that I watched for the first time ever and it was awesome.

Positives for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More (2024): The short stories are very engaging and fun to watch with a fun cast. The cast does a great job with their performances and you have Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, Richard Ayoade and Rupert Friend are playing different roles into these short stories. The set designs look great and are having fun with their characters. The dialogue is amazing and very witty. While these stories are separate from each other, they have their own stories with themes that come fill circle by the end of each segment. And finally, this movie has excellent pacing that kept me invested during each short story.

Overall, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More (2024) is a wonderful anthology movie from Wes Anderson and I can't wait for his newest movie coming out later this month.

Wes Anderson's work is very polarizing. If you don't believe me, read through the reviews for this and most of his movies. Anderson fans think he's brilliant and love the movies while the average person often feels confused and let down by the films. As for me, I find his movies a real hit or miss proposition. Some are wonderful, some terrible and some are somewhere in the middle.

Of the four films in this strange movie, the title film is by far the best and it won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short. I didn't love it that much and think the Andersonians (his supporters) are why it won the Oscar. Had an average Joe or Josephine seen the movie, they would have only been mildly impressed to it due to it's inventive staging. In fact, the inventiveness of the staging of all four are great...but also VERY familiar if you've seen Anderson's films. As far as the stories themselves go, they are mostly very disappointing and, in some cases, rather senseless and dull. Overall, a very mixed bag.

While Ive not yet read any one of Roald Dahl's works, I was convinced of the fact that the film was approached according to an avid reader. I found that aspect of it, well executed. At the beginning had a hard time focusing on the visuals and keeping up with what was being said. Quite marvelous work from the cast at the recitation aspect.

Not having read Dahl's work didnot give me THAT perspective on the film and "Poison" was quite difficult for me to conclude. Apart from that it was a good watch and for me, an introduction to Roald Dahls writing.

4 unique shorts wonderfully adapted from Rohd Dahl's literature with Wes Anderson's direction as a match made in heaven. The dialogue is wonderfully narrated straight from the book while visually shown off like a vividly pretty yet loosely managed stage play. All 4 stories are quite interesting, with Poison being the most tense, The ratcatcher being the most peculiar, The Swam being the saddest, and Henry Sugar being the most whimsical. Each story stands on their own, but together, they all make something wonderful. I'm so glad that Wes Anderson finally won an Oscar thanks to this special. It's about time!

I read these stories in the early eighties as a child, and they have never left my consciousness. They're gripping, sinister, disturbing and yet also greatly uplifting. You never forget having read Dahl's work, especially the more adult work. It's uniquely compelling, beautifully written stuff and should rightfully take its place amongst the established greats of twentieth century literature.

They transferred passably well to television in the 1980's as Tales of the Unexpected in a very straight up and slightly cliched manner. However, Wes Anderson's adaptations are superb. They take all the language, style, wit and intelligence of Dahl's writing and combine it with his own wit, style, intelligence and visual language. The amalgamation is deeply entertaining, intellectually fulfilling and wholly satisfying. As befits Dahl's stories, the film is unusual in the telling and quite unsettling. I can understand why some might find it difficult, it's better for it. I absolutely love this.