The Rotten Tomatoes score for Wes Anderson’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is in, and it marks a career-best for the director. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar had its premiere on August 31 at the Venice Film Festival. It’s a short adaptation of author Roald Dahl’s story of the same name, which follows a man who attempts to learn an unusual skill so that he can cheat at gambling. Anderson previously also successfully adapted Dahl’s children’s book Fantastic Mr. Fox to film, but this second adaptation has surpassed the performance of the first.
Following its festival premiere, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar boasts a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score of 100% at the time of writing. This is the highest score a movie can attain, as well as the highest score of any of Anderson’s movies. Anderson has been active in Hollywood for nearly three decades and has written and directed 11 films and four short films throughout his career, with his second-best Rotten Tomatoes score actually a tie between his other Dahl adaptation, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and his 2012 movie, Moonrise Kingdom.
How Does The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar Compare To Anderson’s Other Movies?
While The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar boasts Anderson’s highest Rotten Tomatoes score, it’s debatable whether it truly is the best movie of his career. After all, a number of his projects have attained Rotten Tomatoes scores in the high 90s, including Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, and Grand Budapest Hotel. Meanwhile, Rotten Tomatoes isn’t the most refined rating system, as it largely depends on broadly defining reviews as either positive or negative. Hence, it’s questionable how much difference there really is between a 90% and 100% score, as both indicate high quality but not perfection.
There’s also the fact that Anderson’s films can divide critics and audiences quite a bit, due to the fact they are very unique. Oftentimes, they are off-kilter with quirky characters, pastel colors, and experimental camera angles and aspect ratios. While some view these works as masterpieces and appreciate Anderson’s style and aesthetic, not everyone gets it. Some find the movies to be difficult to understand, pretentious, or too similar to one another. This is evidenced by the more mixed reviews of The French Dispatch and Asteroid City. Essentially, Anderson has a very specific style that appears in most of his movies and not everyone responds to it the same way.
One of the reasons why The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar might have an edge over other Anderson movies is that Dahl is a good match for the director. Dahl’s whimsical, allegorical, story-within-a-story tale has the perfect ingredients for Anderson’s style, allowing for a wonderful interpretation of the classic story. Plus, since it’s a short film, it gives viewers Anderson’s signature style in a more manageable dose. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar still boasts Anderson’s typical style but frames it in a way that makes it even more enjoyable.
