Saturday, February 21, 2015

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL movie review

Suite movie.


The Grand Budapest Hotel is a film mostly from the point of the view of a man named Zero Moustafa as he chronicles the adventures of his youth with the manager of the Grand Budapest Hotel, Monsieur Gustave. They go on quite a quirky and fun adventure.

To get things out of the way, I've never seen a Wes Anderson film. Some have critiqued that his style is getting quite repetitive (though, not necessarily bad), while others praised it as Anderson's best film. I have no opinion on any of these, just in case you're wondering why I didn't mention it.


Apparently, Wes Anderson is a filmmaker I should pay more attention to, because his work is just marvelous. It's so quirky, fun, and (judging by what I've seen of Wes Anderson in real life) so Wes Anderson. I'm also very glad I chose to watch this at the very end of this award season, because in terms of things like narrative structure, performances, cinematography, and even aspect ratios, it's such an offbeat and unconventional film. 

The plot isn't much, it's a pretty basic plot, but it's elevated by how Anderson translated it to the screen. It's surprisingly really fun, engaging, and also emotional. Not the tear-jerker kind of emotional, but the "wow, that's just so beautiful" sense. It's a wonderful film, and I was really amazed by it.


On a technical level, the film is impressive as well. If you asked me what my favorite shot of the movie was, I wouldn't be able to tell you, because there were so many beautiful, well composed shots. Every single shot is a beautiful painting. That's incredible cinematography done by Robert Yeoman. Alexander Desplat's score was very good as well. I sat through the entire credits because of the score that played in the background.

Ralph Fiennes was excellent in the movie. He probably could've squeezed in that Best Actor category, knocking someone off of there, but he'll be great even without that award. He really disappears into that role. He plays a very precise and commanding man. He would've been almost like J.K. Simmons' character in Whiplash, except Fiennes' character is kind, silly, and friendly.  Fiennes nailed every nuance of the character. 


The Grand Budapest Hotel is a fun, quirky, sweet little film. The film is beautifully directed by Wes Anderson, a creative mind whose other films I'll most certainly check out now.

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