Big, Beautiful Books

The Wes Anderson Collection

We love a good Wes Anderson film as much as the next guy – possibly even a little more, what with that University of Texas alum/hometown hero thing he's got going. So we understand how you might be concerned about how to translate all that color, those larger-than-life characters, and his astonishingly complicated set pieces, into the necessarily flat medium of books, and we're here to reassure you: Fear not. Matt Zoller Seitz has successfully packed this collection of interviews, essays, behind-the-scenes photos, and ephemera with just as much bright, complex oomph as any of the seven films it catalogs. There's everything from early-stage storyboard scans of Rushmore's yearbook montage to tiny photos of all of Fantastic Mr. Fox's home furnishings, from revelations of Bill Murray's generous bankrolling to the philosophy behind cuts in The Royal Tenenbaums' cinematography. Pulitzer-winning author Michael Chabon praises "Anderson's total command of detail" in the book's introduction, and one could just as easily high-five the curator of the collection for his eagle eye on this impressive homage. Now, to just convince him to re-release the thing after we check in to next year's The Grand Budapest Hotel.