Fans of the eccentric cult director Wes Anderson will get their money’s worth in 2023. In June, not only his latest feature film Asteroid City was released in cinemas. Netflix now has it too four short films published by him, which are based on short stories by the British writer Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).
In addition to the longest short film, I See What You Don’t See, with a running time of almost 40 minutes, the streaming service hardly or not at all advertised the other three films, each 17 minutes long. The small suspense masterpiece Gift with Sherlock and Doctor Strange star Benedict Cumberbatch is definitely worth discovering.
New Wes Anderson short film makes Netflix sweat in less than 20 minutes
The story of Gift takes place in British-occupied India, where the English main character Harry Pope (Cumberbatch) brings his colleague Woods (Dev Patel) into his tent to help. Pope lies in bed in his pajamas and doesn’t move because he has found out that there is a poisonous snake on his body. To save his life, the Indian doctor Dr. Ganderbai (Ben Kingsley) brought into the tent.
Poison only lasts 17 minutes and yet there is high tension right from the start due to the poisonous snake situation. Benedict Cumberbatch in particular shines with his performance, for which he uses (almost only painfully tense) facial expressions sweaty drama of his situation to express.
In addition to the usual superbly composed Wes Anderson images, the director creates a completely new, unusual level of tension through the music. The constant ticking of a clock in the background sounds almost as if Anderson had borrowed parts of the Hans Zimmer score from Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk.
With all of these brilliant components, Gift becomes a little streaming gem in just 17 minutes that, in addition to the high voltage even with a surprising resolution that invites you to think and discuss. You can’t expect much more from a short film.
What new Wes Anderson short films are on Netflix?
You can now stream these four Wes Anderson short films with a Netflix subscription:
His current feature film Asteroid City will be released for home cinema on October 19, 2023. You can pre-order it on Amazon. *
Also listen to the Streamgestrum podcast about the ugliness of Netflix series:
In the (spoiler-free) episode we define the “Netflix look” that series like One Piece, Sandman and The Witcher have in common.
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In the second part of the episode we explain three reasons why Netflix series and films look like this – and why you sometimes don’t even notice their big budget.
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