Wes Anderson TikTok Trend Is Most Wholesome Thing You'll See Today

Symmetrical framing, title cards, wide lens shots and curated color palettes—these are all trademark signs that you're in a Wes Anderson movie.

Thanks to a new TikTok trend, people around the world are embracing the Wes Anderson-ness of everyday life, creating videos with their own take on the auteur's classic style.

Anderson is a film director with an instantly recognizable approach to the art from. From his first feature-length film Bottle Rocket to the more recent Isle of Dogs, fans can recognize Anderson's visual flare a mile away.

Eccentricity and unique visual style combine with themes of loss, grief and family relationships in his movies, that while classed as art house have a mainstream following and feature all-star casts frequently featuring Owen Wilson, Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman.

Ava Williams shared her Anderson-inspired video on April 8. It has since been viewed more than 11 million times and sparked a fresh trend on social media as other content creators offer their own take on the style.

In the video, the text overlay reads: "You better not be acting like you're in a Wes Anderson film when I get there," before cutting to a classic title card and curated shots filmed on a train journey.

Romanticizing the everyday

The 26 year old made the video on a train ride back to New York after visiting family.

Williams told Newsweek: "I was inspired to make the video after watching The French Dispatch [a Wes Anderson movie from 2021] with my parents the night before. I was going back to New York after a very short visit with my family and I was sad that I was leaving so soon. I didn't want to really end my trip on such a sad note so I was hoping to make the most out of a situation that wasn't totally ideal."

Inspired by Anderson's romantic cinematography and distinct style, Williams set to work on her journey.

"I thought about how I could enjoy the trip if I basically romanticized the moment, made it more exciting and tried to enjoy the train ride in style," she said. "The video was really a way for me to document a moment I didn't particularly want to enjoy and try and enjoy it."

Innovative videos have followed, like Keith Afadi's lunch date at a central London burger restaurant filmed through an Anderson-like lens, which has had 6 million views.

"I've recently discovered Wes Anderson and his films, so here's a quick and fun little video for this trend," he wrote in the caption of his video that features, as you would expect, a title card, bold colors and symmetrical shots.

Creative director Josh Rimmey, who has directed video campaigns featuring celebrities including Joe Jonas and Ed Sheeran, wowed with his take on the trend when he shared a day in his wood shop. Cutting close-up symmetrical shots with deadpan facial expressions, his video has been viewed 1.2 million times.

Animals have got in on the action too. TikToker memi_thecat shared a feline Wes Anderson-style video that has been viewed more than 180,000 times. Memi watches pigeons, walks around the house and generally poses for the camera in some carefully curated shots.

Facing trauma with art

Some important messages have also come from the wholesome trend. Ukranian-born Valeria Shashenok gained more than 300,000 views of her video, which features Anderson-style clips from her war-torn home country.

"Inspired by a girl on TikTok who made a video about her train trip, I decided to make something like she, but about war consequences that happen everyday," wrote Shashenok.

The video features a classic title card detailing the facts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, cut together with shots of her walking around her war-torn home city.

"Facing trauma with art, as great artists do," wrote one commenter on her video. "Wishing you all good things."

In fact, facing something difficult with artistic flair connects effortlessly to Anderson's own narratives as his movies frequently deal with themes of death, mental illness, family dysfunction and heartbreak.

For these creators, there is a sense that documenting the everyday in a very specific style has helped them to slow down and appreciate their surroundings, even in tough times.

"I love documenting the mundane and I was just thinking about how Wes Anderson has a great way of making deadpan very interesting and fun," said Williams. "I wanted to try and do the same. The video was really a chance to pace myself in a world I often enjoy with my family, and even though I can only pretend to be there it helped me feel better about what I was doing, and not thinking about what I wished I was doing."

Newsweek has reached out for comment to Keith Afadi, Josh Rimmey, memi_thecat and Valeria Shashenok via email, TikTok and Instagram.