There's something about Wes Anderson's style that I respond to with joy. It's the symmetry, the mid-century modern fashion style and coloring, and the strong characters he creates from using all these tools at his disposal. This time, his unique style is used for H&M's latest Christmas ad, and it's got the magic you will expect from him.
The advert, which in a South African context, is quite long for an advertisement. At almost four minutes, it falls more into a short film category. The Christmas styling is also not forced from H&M's side, and the train conductor and staff are all dressed in uniform and not in H&M (or maybe South Africa gets the latest fashion a season later and the formal train driver suit trend might appear on our rails soon).
What I liked is that the message is a positive one. It's light and joyful. Like most of his films, it starts off with an event that's unpleasant and people making the most out of it. It's perfect for Christmas time and as strangely beautiful as you would expect from Wes Anderson. To top it all off, it features one of his go-to actors, Adrien Brody, and he is as good as ever. Let's come together for Christmas.
Adrien Brody. Hello?! Editor?! What's happening to FS?
That was just beautiful in every sense of the word.
And God bless H&M and their production budget!
This is great and I love Wes Anderson but I feel like he's becoming a one trick pony. I mean he's amazing at what he does but I wish he would challenge himself more. This short and his last few films have felt all the same. I just watched bottle rocket last night after not having seen it for like 10 years. While it doesn't have the visual aesthetic of his newer films it's a lot stronger than his last few movies IMHO. I hope he does something different with his career because I'm finding him being a one note kinda director these days.
My thoughts exactly
This is the best christmas commercial I've ever seen.
I am looking forward to the Doctor Who Christmas Special!