No, read MY review of "The Grand Budapest Hotel"

For RogerEbert.com, here. 

Also reviewed:

The hilarious 300: Rise of an Empire; the effective In Fear, and the unfortunate War of the Worlds: Goliath. 

Comments

[Kurzleg]

"As much as "The Grand Budapest Hotel" takes on the aspect of a cinematic confection, it does so to grapple with the very raw and, yes, real stuff of humanity from an unusual but highly illuminating angle."

I never thought about "The Royal Tennenbaums" in these terms. Why does Anderson employ this approach seemingly over and over again? I think it's to deny the "real" and "raw" that occurs of the power to define or debilitate. In every Anderson film he acknowledges the reality of the these things and their impact without surrendering to them ultimately.

[bgn]

"But in terms of sheer bloody spectacle, "300: Rise of an Empire" gets a lot of mileage out of sheer venal spectacle."

Yes, but more important, were there kitties?

[James Keepnews]

"...(300) looked as if it had been shot through lenses that had been smeared with dog feces prior to each take."

I'd always said 300 looked like it was being staged in Andres Serrano's Piss Christ, but you're clearly far more on the money here. More matter, less art.

[Oliver_C]

A golden shower does feature prominently in one of the Greek myths, but not *that* kind...

[Kurzleg]

"As much as "The Grand Budapest Hotel" takes on the aspect of a cinematic confection, it does so to grapple with the very raw and, yes, real stuff of humanity from an unusual but highly illuminating angle."

SPOILER ALERT
Finally had an opportunity to see TGBH and understand what you might have meant by this, Glenn. The whole "caper" aspect of the film ends up amounting to elaborate and entertaining misdirection. With all the threats to M. Gustave's life throughout the film, it ends up being the attempt to maintain "the illusion with remarkable grace" in the face of the gathering menace of that period in history that brings about his demise. I was surprised at how effecting that development was on me. It's not at all what I expected, and yet after the fact, it almost seemed inevitable.

[jbryant]

Glenn: Wasn't sure where else to ask this, so -- Have you heard about the film version of "The End of the Tour" that's currently in production with Jason Segel as David Foster Wallace? Here's a little article about it (though they get the title wrong): http://www.vulture.com/2014/03/here-is-jason-segel-as-david-foster-wallace.html

[Don Lewis]

Great review, Glenn. Great movie too! I was holding off on reading the Matt Zoller Seitz book on Anderson until I saw THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL but when I cracked it open the other night, the Michael Chabon intro echoes your Nabakov comments. Or, yours echoes his. Anyway, Chabon said the same thing but in a different way and that's interesting as one wouldn't *necessarily" equate Wes Anderson and Vladmimir Nabokov, but it definitely works.