Not to detract from The French Dispatch's absolutely gorgeous styling (as is expected of Wes Anderson), I found the bullet pace along with the absolutely-packed visual elements and rattling dialogue just far too overwhelming at times. There were so many shots that I wanted everything just to slow down for a minute and breathe so I could take in the absolutely incredible visual splendour of it all. The whole feature is an absolute feast for the eyes, really doubling down on Wes's signature style with every passing frame, but it's also the most impenetrable due to the subject matter it riffs on. I couldn't shake my lack of contextual knowledge of French cinema; so many jokes and scenes are homage and parody of famous French cinematic moments, the feeling of seeing in-jokes play out without the prerequisite knowledge to understand them made me feel a little hollow and cold when I should have been grinning with warmth. I'm also very remedial when it comes to my understanding of the French language, so many of the visual and language goofs in the backgrounds were way over my head.
But did I hate The French Dispatch? Not in the slightest, but my viewing experience was definitely hampered by simply not understanding the broader context of how this production came to be. I think someone on Reddit said it best. The French Dispatch is like being bustled through a foreign museum: everything is beautiful to look at, but each exhibit is gone before you can begin to appreciate it, let alone understand it.