The Grand Budapest Hotel

Wes Anderson is perhaps the most idiosyncratic major film director working today.  His work is not like anyone else's, though as Kyle and I agreed in discussing him, each movie of his is a great deal like his work as a whole.  Most frequent moviegoers I know either quite like his films or very much dislike them; few are in the middle.  I am in the former camp, with his last movie, Moonrise Kingdom, being my all-time favorite of his oeuvre. 

The Grand Budapest Hotel, which a group of us saw earlier tonight, did not, to my taste, have the wonderful heart of Moonrise Kingdom, but I still very much liked it.  The look was amazing:  heavily stylized, as you would expect, and otherworldly, as you would also expect, but completely charming.  The cast was the usual amazing assemblage of talented actors, and all of them played their roles with scene-chewing gusto. 

I could go on, but I don't want to spoil anything for you.  If you at all like Wes Anderson's work, don't miss this one.  If you generally don't like his films but happen to be in the mood for something absurd and witty and extremely odd, give this one a try anyway. 

Oh, yeah:  If you do go, stay to the very end of the credits.  You'll be glad you did.

Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited

Normally, I'd title a post about a movie with the name of the movie or, in rare cases, with its star. I put the director first on this entry for a simple reason: Anderson dominates his films. His approach to his work is so striking, so idosyncratic, that you know it's a Wes Anderson movie the moment you see it.

His filmography as director is fairly short:

The Darjeeling Limited (2007) (it includes as an opening short film, Hotel Chevalier)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Rushmore (1998)
Bottle Rocket (1996)

I've seen all of them, and I recommend them all--but with qualifications in every case.

The Darjeeling Limited is classic Anderson: dull to the point of inducing sleep and gripping, stupid and wise, hilarious and missing a comedic beat, heartachingly touching and off-putting--like all of his films, it is, at least for me, a study in contradictions. He tends to work with many of the same actors, and the actors all too often seem to be delivering only mildly different versions of their performances from their earlier work for him. His obsession with dysfunctional families runs through his work and may be part of the cause for some of the similarities in performances. He frequently indulges in artsy shots that seem, to me, to be more for the sake of art than for the story.

And yet I walked out glad I had seen the movie, as I have at the end of all of his films.

If Slanted Jack weren't calling me, I'd muse further about just why this is so, but I know I don't have the answers, so if you have any opinions on this front, feel free to comment. Slanted Jack is calling.