Very surprised by this. I was never big into Roald Dahl as a kid. I only ever read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. I did enjoy the James and the Giant Peach film as well as The Witches film. Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox is rightfully well beloved as well. But do these few stories provide all there is to know of Dahl’s oeuvre? I didn’t know what to think, so Anderson’s four short films made for Netflix this year were an unknowing quantity to me. But my total adoration of Asteroid City had me ready to follow Anderson again wherever he might go. Just took me a bit to sit down with them. 

This first short film (the longest of the four by far) started off being about an awful greedy man wanting to accumulate more. Then it morphs into a racially questionable tale of a man who learned a great ability from an Indian yogi. What spurs afterward turned out to be a very sweet tale of redemption and good heartedness. The ending just sits nicely on the soul. 

The film sees a continued presence of Anderson’s visual aesthetic stemmed from Asteroid City. It’s no longer a storybook aesthetic utilized in film (as his early work was) but rather a literal storybook aesthetic where we see the behind the scenes working used to create the illusions captured on film. In Asteroid City it was the use on layered meta stories that we moved between with the film itself shown cinematically. Here we see people moving stages and props around creating an unglamorous presentation that dispels the magic and wonder of film yet is just as magical and wondrous and creates a surreal texture that elevates the fun of the film. 

It either clicks or it doesn’t but if you like his moves with Asteroid City then you will appreciate the look of this short. The acting is not as affecting as I prefer because it’s so short and the directorial choice made removes personability. Asteroid City also had that barrier but you lived with them long enough to get the changes in character and the story supported these choices. Here the structure is too distant for me to fall head over heels for but as an experiment it’s incredibly successful and is still a great film.