Review of The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) by Ducknation — 28 Jun 2014

"There are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity...".

The Grand Budapest Hotel is pure brilliancy and with out a doubt the best Wes Anderson film to date. I think it's rather amazing that Wes can make one exceptional film after another as there are only a few directors nowadays that can be held on the same level as him. Of course If you have not seen any Wes Anderson Film before this than you might not be able to appreciate all the fine details he is able to incorporate into this. I was thinking only a few movies had the chance of being my favorite movie of the year and this was nowhere near it yet surprisingly now after watching this I have it as my top movie of the year beating out Captain America: The Winter Soldier by quite a few points.

The films narration is beautiful done and tells the wonderful story of Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) the lead concierge at The Grand Budapest Hotel in the fictional country of Zubrowka and the hotels new lobby boy Zero (Tony Revolori). After Madame D. (Tilda Swinton) one of Gustave's lovers pasts away he and Zero immediately head to her wake upon arriving they stumble upon the reading of her will in which Gustave finds out that she has left him "Boy with Apple" which happens to be a very valuable painting. This makes Madame's son Dmitri (Adrien Brody) very angry and he tries to get Gustave thrown out of his house despite him not being the actual owner of it yet. After showing Zero the painting Gustave and Zero steal the painting and hastaly leave the area set to sell it off and lay low for awhile although before they can do this Gustave is accused of murdering Madame D. and is thrown in prison.

What ensues from here is one hell of a marvelous thrill ride set to entertain all who watch it. The film has a great balance of humor just like all Wes Anderson films yet I found myself laughing a lot more this time around and I absolutely lost it when Willem Dafoe's character Jopling threw Jeff Goldblum's characters cat out of the window especially when Goldblum looks out the window to see what has happened to it. Wes is the kind of director that like to work with the same actors over and over again if you have seen any of his other films it would be hard not to see a familiar face in this. Seeing so many movies nowadays with a all-star cast that end up being rather underwhelming its nice to see that a director can still put together such a masterful cast and make everyone brilliant it in.

Overall I give it a 9.5 It's going to be hard to beat out this movie as my favorite yet I thought the same thing with "12 Years A Slave" and now I have that as my fourth or fifth favorite film of the year so far. Still though I thoroughly enjoyed this movie more so than any other film this year and im seeing only two movies left with a chance to overtake it.