The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

While his first two features were far from mumblecore minimalism, The Royal Tenenbaums was the first time we really got to see the true scope of Wes Anderson's ambition. This is also the film where the sadness lurking underneath his previous features truly came to the fore. Not just any filmmaker can properly weather a scaling up of this magnitude. Even Christopher Nolan had to go through the awkward growing pains of Batman Begins to get to The Dark Knight. But here, Wes effortlessly embraces the giant canvas of this mythological New York that only exists in his dreams. He saved his stumble for after this with the still rather charming The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. But as The Grand Budapest Hotel can attest, this wasn't a fluke. Wes Anderson is the real deal and more than a decade later, The Academy is finally catching on to what we've known all along.