Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Sir Ben Kingsley, Richard Ayoade, Rupert Friend. Ralph Fiennes, Eliel Ford, Truman Hanks, Benoid Herlin, Octavio Tapa, Till Sennhenn

Four tales adapting stories by Roald Dahl, written and directed by Wes Anderson.

Wes Anderson has just won his first Oscar for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. As the algorithm obfuscates all at the moment, it’s entirely possible that the win is the first some people will have heard of it, or its three stablemates so today we’re taking a look at all four of them. The  movies all feature Ralph Fiennes as Roald Dahl, providing commentary on the stories like a cardigan-wearing Rod Serling. It’s a fun format and it works with Anderson’s stagy direction, although Netflix releasing the four films without an umbrella title or frame does seem to rather defeat the object.

‘Henry Sugar’ stars Cumberbatch in the titular lead role. Henry is a bachelor with an inherited fortune and a gambling problem who is entranced when he finds a report about Imdad Khan (Ben Kingsley) a man who claims to be able to see without using his eyes. Henry tracks him down and persuades him to teach Henry how to meditate. He does, and Henry gains the ability to see through things due to his dedication to his study. The gambler has found an unstoppable means of cheating. Now what?

Anderson’s theatrical, direct to camera style is a good fit for Dahl’s elaborate fiction machines and this story is an especially successful example of it. Cumberbatch and Kingsley are both good in the leads and Dev Patel is typically excellent as Doctor Chatterjee, the doctor whose work tips off Henry to the possibilities of what Imdad does. There’s an interesting liminal sense to the story, oddly timeless and at the same time very much of a period that gives it a dreamy quality. That’s enhanced by the deliberately unnatural performances and styling. Fiennes delivers the closing monologue as the set is dismantled around him. Cumberbatch delivers an earlier speech changing costume every time he comes into shot. It’s Dahl, and Anderson, in concentrated form and that isn’t for everyone but if you like this style of cinema, you’ll love this.

‘The Swan’ is one of the two darkest, and best stories. Rupert Friend and Asa Jennings star in a story of childhood cruelty expanding to fill an endless Summer day. Two boys, Ernie and Raymond, are intent on using their new pellet gun. Peter Watson, played by Jennings as a boy and Friend as an adult, tries to stop them and instead they torment him with escalating amounts of horrific cruelty. Unable to escape and reliving the trauma as an adult as well as a child, Peter is first tied to train tracks and then, in a moment made more horrifying by how stoically it’s presented, is forced to wear parts of a murdered swan. The theatrical tone works best here, and the way Jennings and Friend hand off the trauma between them is deeply unsettling. Friend is phenomenal, embodying both Peter and the bullies and the stage-like setting only makes the brutality the boys perpetrate starker. The ending image is haunting, the tone is jet black wit, like a shot of espresso and blood and the result is arguably the strongest movie of the four.

‘The Ratcatcher’ adds Richard Ayoade as the Editor, a local journalist who along with mechanic friend Claude (Friend again) talks to the Rat Man (Fiennes) who has been sent to deal with their local rat infestation. It’s the slowest burn of the three and the combination of Anderson’s style, Ayoade’s intensely deadpan delivery and Dahl’s story is going to present as self-indulgent to a lot of people. I was one of them on first viewing. On second, it’s another strong piece and feels like the one where Dahl’s voice is strongest. The Rat Man arrives, clashes a little with Claude and the Editor along class lines, shows off and reveals himself to be crueller than the animals he hunts. Fiennes is excellent and along with Anderson’s script finds a very unsettling space for the character to live in. He’s aware enough to know he’s looked down upon and resent that, but not aware enough to know how repulsive some of his choices are. It’s a complex, nuanced role that shines all the brighter for the neutral space that Friend and Ayoade occupy. They’re witnesses. The Rat Man is both criminal and crime. The ending, where Friend also plays a rat and Anderson turns the theatrical stylings all the way up, is one of the strongest in the run and the ambiguity that closes the story rings in your ears. Doubly so when you discover, as I did, that the question at the core of that ending is answered in Dahl’s story ‘Rummins’

‘Poison’ closes the four and is my other favourite. Dev Patel stars as Timber Woods, the narrator who returns home to the house he shares in India with Harry Pope, played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Harry is lying in bed, entirely still, terrified. A Krait snake is on his chest and hasn’t bitten him. Yet.

This is the one where everything clicks. Anderson’s theatrical style and Patel’s clenched, just this side of panicked delivery fit the situation like a glove. Cumberbatch, acting with nothing but a quarter of his voice and his eyes is fantastic. Kingsley, as the doctor fetched to help, is driven, compassionate and heroic. All of them impress, but what truly knocks you down is the ending. The Krait is not the poison in the story and the ending is a moment of timeless, resonant fury which sees Harry Pope reveal what he really thinks and the story shatter along lines of nationality, class and bigotry. It’s a hard watch, like The Swan and, like The Swan, the best of the series.

Verdict: Anderson’s style meshes with Dahl’s very well, and they cancel some of each other’s excesses out. Anderson’s rigid style focuses us in on the humanity in Dahl’s best work. Dahl’s humanity in turn focuses the wry, bone dry humour in Anderson’s style. These movies aren’t for everyone by any stretch of the imagination and there’s a conversation to be had about Anderson winning a category that’s often been a breakthrough conduit for new talent. My one hope is that the success of Henry Sugar will shine a long overdue light on short movies as an artform. These four movies are a great place to start your journey into that world, and they’re on Netflix now. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart