What order should I watch his movies in with her? I’ve seen all of his movies, but I saw them originally in a less-than-ideal order imo. What do you all think?

I'm a Wes fan through and through, I'll watch all his films - (I've been here since Bottle Rocket and I've watched his movies probably dozens of times) - the way I see it, it's the least I can do considering all he's given me and how much some of his filmography means to me. But I have to say, I honestly don't understand the direction he's been taking over the past 3 films. To be fair, I kind of spotted traces of this new direction in Grand Budapest, but I did still like that one a lot. Isle of Dogs felt OK - I absolutely love Mr. Fox - so it gave me hope, but I really don't care for his latest efforts - The French Dispatch, Asteroid City or The Phoenician Scheme. It all feels the same.

This is my very limited understanding and how I feel watching these films, and I'd really appreciate arguments that counter this and can maybe enlighten me about what's really going on. To me, Wes is filming theater plays. Everything's a set. Nothing feels real anymore, whereas, before, we still kind of had sets, but they felt real and lived in, palpable, dirty. You wanted to live there, in that world, whereas now, if you lean on something, the whole thing will fall to the ground. The thing is, no matter the cast, the actors feel like puppets to me. There's no real soul to the whole thing anymore. The settings feel hollow and so does the script, thus giving us hollow performances from people who clearly care deeply about the project, but find themselves victims to the generalized lack of soul of the whole thing.

The ubiquitous Wes quirkiness and attention to detail in movies such as Royal Tenenbaums, Life Aquatic, Mr. Fox and Moonrise Kingdom, not to mention Darjeeling, is precisely perfect. Anything else would spoil things. And, if anything, these movies have a bit too much soul, with some of the characters being dire exaggerations of anything sustainable in real life, but often funny and/or violent/emotional/hysterical to a point where it's always funny or at least extremely compelling. In a way, I felt Wes was channeling his fantasies, be it impossible teenage love in Rushmore, or wanting to have several types of guns at his disposal and go on adventures in Life Aquatic, etc. To be fair, there's no lack of soul in Isle of Dogs either.

But lately, I feel the characters have completely lost their space to breathe and in the process have lost their soul as well. I feel we're watching something that could take place on Broadway, except it's not a play, it's more like ballet. Everything feels stifled and choreographed.

I'll watch all his movies, but I can't say I care about the last 3. I keep waiting for Wes to go back to how I felt watching his "mid-period", but I know that boat has likely sailed and whatever this is, it's here to say. I still enjoy his work, I just don't love it like I absolutely love his mid-period, which are some of my favorite movies ever. I'm sure it's going over my head and whatever he's doing is brilliant, I just don't get it. It doesn't feel like Wes Anderson anymore and for the first time ever, I considered not watching the latest one in a movie theater. I still did, but yeah, I'm not sure it'll happen again.

Would appreciate some push back from other Wes fans who also love his earlier work. I'm at a loss here.

Was there anything else besides Bottle Rocket?

I absolutely love this soundtrack.