Review of The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) by Thomas M — 12 Mar 2016

I understand what people see in it but I find his twee, single minded approach to filming, to be the opposite from what I expect from Cinema. Self aware and stuck repeating a simple code, the camera loses its power as a tool to expand the subconscious or overall tone of a scene.

The camera speaks first by dictating tracking in or parallel; all centrally framed no matter the content, standing in the way of story being king. If you like style above all fair enough. The performances were excellent as was the production design, but really we just have a film with a silly adventure.