
kinda hard to talk about what makes him work for me, but i really love how much love for his craft he has upfront. wall-to-wall auteurism. his more stylistic films have this knack for storybook surrealism, akin to something like karel zeman or godard, and so many of his characters feel so personal to me. it helps that he was one of the first directors i fell in love with, so a lot of his work simply lives in my heart.
i’d recommend tenenbaums if you haven’t seen it yet; his style is minimized for the better, and it kinda just masters all of his usual hallmarks. you can also see all kinds of newer filmmakers’ footing being pioneered there, like baumbach, who would ironically go on to collaborate with wes for a couple movies.