Altenate Best Supporting Actor 2021: Jeffrey Wright in The French Dispatch

Jeffrey Wright did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite winning and being nominated for a few critics' awards, for portraying Roebuck Wright in The French Dispatch. 

The French Dispatch tells three stories, and some change, around an American newspaper that operates in France. The film you might call a purity of the Anderson style, though that does NOT mean the same thing as his best film, rather it feels as though it is Anderson purging anything one might not immediately apply to Anderson as though to construct a genre among himself. Although I enjoyed this film largely just to enjoy that purity as someone who enjoys Anderson's style without much reservation, even within that context the first and third of the main stories better realize this than the middle story that drags a bit. Although I think in what drags about this film is what many have argued entirely against the film, though I don't quite agree with the full accusation, that it is bereft of emotional character. I think that is true for the manifesto story, but it can be found in the other two, though they are not the focus. Either way I would rather see Anderson perhaps go back a little to his more overtly character driven work, or perhaps go onto something completely new, even if I largely enjoyed this specific experiment of sorts. 

That long description of my thoughts on the film finally bring me to one Jeffrey Wright who "leads" the third story, that of a food critic who gets caught up into the kidnapping of the commissioner of police's son. Every story is told both within the context of the original news article and some additional method. In the case of this story we get Roebuck Wright recalling his tale on a later television interview. Roebuck Wright is essentially Wes Anderson's version of James Baldwin, as both are a homosexual African American expatriate with a distinct mellifluous voice. Jeffrey Wright then is impeccably cast thanks to his naturally mellifluous voice, which in turn also provides this story with one of its greatest assets. The asset being Wright's narration, the greatest narration in a film filled with narrations, where Wright amplifies his already striking voice by making it ever so slightly deeper and richer, therefore closer to the voice of Baldwin. It isn't an impression as Baldwin, but it is a supreme evocation of the man's voice. A voice that instantly captures one's intention and instantly makes one want to follow Roebuck as he recounts his strange tale of crime and food. Wright leads you into the strange tale, as he goes to dine within a police station with the commissioner and his personal chef, with this most intriguing energy. His voice inviting as it is striking as he pulls you into his strange labyrinthine trek just to find the initial dining table. Wright's physical performance amplifying this just a touch more as there's a specific sense of discovery in his movement as he seems to guide us through his story with the right sense of intrigue. 

There is a great deal of fun just to hear Wright recounting, and perhaps most purely succeeds in the idea of the journalistic tale because of Wright's voice. There's a kind of musical rhythm to every step of his of his tale thanks to the perfection of Wright's delivery. The strength of Wright's vocal work even makes me intrigued to see if he's had a career in audio-book narration at all, and if not, I would hope he would grace texts with that wonderful timbre of his. Although just the way he tells the tale would be enough for me to describe this performance as a success and to be one of the most valuable players in the film, because he makes the idea of recounting a news article compelling in the delivery alone, there is that emotional element that I mentioned before. Wright's performance punctuates the piece with deeply emotional moments throughout the tale both past and "present". When Roebuck notes his suffering at the hands of others for not his hate but rather his love, is where Wright most evokes Baldwin I think through this brilliant sort of calm intensity as he speaks philosophically. The potency of the emotion in a way is just how calm he speaks towards what is in reality such a deep wound. It is this idiosyncratic manner that should be tricky to realize, however Wright does it with tremendous ease. We reveal more so the present emotion in two scenes one of Roebuck seeing the "chicken coop" lock up in the prison on his way to dinner, and his own time spent in there for homosexual acts. Wright is incredibly moving in these two moments. The first just through his brief delivery of concern as he asks how long the current prisoner has been locked away with this potent sadness related to his remembrance. Wright in the further past moment shows such a sense of the horrible treatment of the man as his expression denotes such pained isolation and depression as he sits alone in the coop. The titular paper's editor (Bill Murray) offers his only solace through a job, which is rather surprisingly inspirational, in large part due to the hope and appreciation Wright conveys so powerfully in expression even within the brevity of the sceen. There are two more moments still which Wright punctuates so affectingly. The first being his giving the "why" for his interest in writing about food. Wright speaks with passion and pathos in equal measure as he speaks towards the loneliness Roebuck feels yet the comfort he can always find within a fine meal. Finally we get a truly special moment between he and the police chef discuss the strange experience the chef had where he discovered a new flavor, which was discovered through having to poison himself in order to poison the kidnapping gang. The empathy Wright expresses and even the camaraderie, where he notes that like the chef he is a foreigner, is with the strictest of sincerity and crafts such a poignant moment of the two men having this beautiful moment of understanding and specific appreciation of life and one another. This is such a pitch perfect performance, and the highlight of the film for me, to the point I ponder if perhaps Anderson should've built the whole around Roebuck. Nonetheless Wright's performance so successfully succeeds in both delivering the unique style of the film at its most delectable and doing so with an honest and essential undercurrent of genuine humanity.