Very interesting to think about. At times almost feels closer to being some sort of picture book than a film. Like the visuals only really correspond with certain key elements of the story and feel like the illustrations you might find every few pages in a novel. There's always been something that has fascinated me so much with films that manage to draw me into a verbal story and this gave even more to think about than most other. I didn't enjoy this all that much but the form gave me so much to think about, even if I didn't love it aesthetically. So much of this was dedicated to pulling back the curtain on the mechanics of filmmaking and storytelling but in such a way that it shows that Anderson is just as in awe of the true mechanics of a story as the seeming magic of it. And it often translates for myself too; I love to see the backs of all these sets before I see a scene set inside them, I was thoroughly captivated when Henry Sugar walked through a potential ending to his story before reminding the audience that it wasn't going to happen. It's interesting that in chasing this novelistic feeling, Anderson so heavily sets every event in the past tense. I don't quite know what that means. In some ways it definitely meant that I felt quite some distance from the story, in ways some of his other framing devices haven't. The constant replacement of sets and breaking of the suspension of disbelief didn't warrant much interest or enjoyment for me, though some of his past efforts have done so. I did love when it switches into more present tense in the hospital. That kinda odd interplay of real-time action with past tense narration was super interesting. I'll have to think a lot more about how this deals with text, the idea of story, and tense but it certainly left quite a strong impression.