FEW WRITER-DIRECTORS range as widely in tone and composition as Wes Anderson. His debut, the 1996 film Bottle Rocket, was a jittery, loose, and very independent comedy. Two years later, he made Rushmore, a film with movie stars and a tightly-scripted plot. Rushmore was still a comedy, but its humor was more sophisticated and wry than Bottle Rocket. Even though both films were written by Anderson and Owen Wilson, and directed by Anderson, they could have come from entirely different minds.

In 2001, Anderson made another evolutionary leap. Still writing with Wilson, he directed The Royal Tenenbaums, which may well be the most underappreciated movie of the last 20 years (the only other candidate would be Michael Mann’s brilliant, overlooked 1999 film, The Insider). Like a Patek Philippe, Tenenbaums works with complete precision, the many interlocking characters spinning and grinding without a tick of wasted motion. Incredibly funny, smart, and sweet, Tenenbaums is a stealthily significant achievement.