2014
Directed by Wes Anderson
Happy October everyone! Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, as it combines the best things in the world: horror movies and candy. In honor of that sacred day, I am going to do several scary movie posts throughout the month.
Anyway, first we have to take care of this film. I invited my sister to watch this with me, but she bailed halfway through. Knowing that this was on the List, I bravely soldiered on alone. The film is a story within a story within a story...I am not sure why this method was chosen. Maybe it allowed for more celebrity cameos. I am not sure if Wes Anderson just wanted to give his film more star power or if a lot of actors just wanted to be in a Wes Anderson movie, but this film is packed with cameos. It was actually kind of distracting. But I digress.
Monsieur Gustave is the Grand Budapest Hotel's concierge. He attends to the sexual needs of many of the older guests of the hotel, but only if they are blonde (some things never change). Gustave befriends a young lobby boy and takes him on as his protege. One of Gustave's lovers die under mysterious circumstances, leaving him in possession of a priceless painting. Naturally, Gustave is suspected of the murder.
I have enjoyed the previous Wes Anderson films on the List and was looking forward to this one. I always loved how literary his movies were. However, I think Anderson has become a bit too infatuated with his own style (I thought the same thing about The Hateful Eight if you recall). This movie was just too much. Too many moments were odd merely for the sake of being odd. I felt like he was sacrificing a cohesive story for his own strange style.
At least the film looked beautiful and everyone in the (slightly overcrowded) cast was extremely talented. Still, I should have kept track of how many times I rolled my eyes. I might have set a record.
RATING: ***--
Interesting Facts:
First Wes Anderson film to win an Oscar.
Tilda Swinton spent ten hours in the make up chair everyday
