Review of The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) by Arman M — 01 Feb 2015

Charming and inventive, The Grand Budapest Hotel is probably Wes Anderson's most entertaining movie in addition to being his most successful. True, The Royal Tenenbaums may be his best, and The Darjeeling Limited and Moonrise Kingdom may be deeper, but this thing is so damn fun and visually resplendent you can't pass it up.

The star of the show is Ralph Fiennes who shines as a sophisticated but incredibly crass hotel concierge. One moment he may be giving our young protagonist insight into business and high culture. The next he's dropping F-bombs, getting into fights, and having sex with rich, old women.

Said protagonist (Tony Revolori) plays this film's equivalent of a straight man and acts as a clever foil to Fiennes, grounding the hilarity a bit. Honorable mentions to Jude Law for some interesting narration and Willem Dafoe's creepy, murderous, Terminator-esque hitman.

Throw in a great soundtrack, superb art direction, and amazing set design and you have the funnest Best Picture nominee for 2014. If you haven't seen it, you need to fix that. NOW.