The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
A girl goes to the grave of her favorite author and reads a chapter from his memoir. In this excerpt, the author (Tom Wilkinson) recounts a trip he took to the dilapidated Grand Budapest Hotel in 1968 where he (Jude Law) met the owner, Zero Moustafa (F. Murray Abraham) who tells him the story of Monsieur H (Ralph Fiennes), the hotel’s former concierge accused of murdering a wealthy patron in 1932.
This Russian nesting doll is a movie about cultural memory. We rely on the experiences of others to provide context for our lives, and, in turn, we’re expected to keep their story alive for future generations.
Ralph Fiennes starred as two of the most iconic villains of the past thirty years, Lord Voldemort and Amon Goeth. Channeling Groucho Marx in a high energy, fast-talking whirlwind, this is his most endearing role.
Tony Revolori is young Zero Moustafa, a naive young man overwhelmed by the breadth of knowledge of his mentor Monsier’s H’s protégée. Revolori’s job is to look confused and provide a launching pad Fiennes’s breathtaking performance.
Saorise Ronan is enchanting as Agatha, Zero’s love interest. She’s not quite a household name, but with stellar performances in Atonement (2007) and The Lovely Bones (2009) under her belt, she’s given every indication she’ll be a force to be reckoned with for a long time.
Wilhelm Dafoe is perfectly cast as a J.G. Jopling, a creepy assassin hired to take out H, and Adrien Brody gives one of his better performances as the chief antagonist, Dmitri Desgoffe und Taxis.
The obligatory cameos of frequent Anderson players Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, and Bob Balaban provide a sometimes disorienting continuity with his other films.
The sophisticated whimsy Anderson unleashed in The Royal Tenebaums (2001) has become ubiquitous, co-opted by numerous filmmakers looking for an edgy or independent aesthetic. It seems audiences have finally caught up with his sensibilities, and this film may prove a turning point in his career propelling him to mainstream success, but it’s not his best film.
The Invisible Woman (2013)
Charles Dickens (Ralph Fiennes) was forty-five when he met eighteen year-old Ellen Terman (Felicity Jones) and cast her in a Wilkie Collins play he was producing. Bored with his wife of twenty-two years, the younger Terman challenged Dickens intellectually and they began an affair which lasted until his death in 1870.
This is a frustrating look at one of literature’s most recognizable names. Fiennes does a good job, but the story is too pedestrian. A famous married man fell in love with a younger woman. When the film does come close to showing insight into the mind of the great author it quickly reorients towards his sordid private life. The better story is what motivated him to write, but, sadly, we get the story of his libido.
Hallelujah, I’m a Bum (1933)
This musical film by famed duo Rodgers and Hart is a bizarre paean to left-leaning politics as espoused by the happy bums in Central Park, who’re too busy singing, dancing, and laughing to worry about money or the source of their next meal.
Bumper (Al Jolson) is the leader of this cadre of New York City’s unemployed, including his friends Egghead (silent star Harry Langdon) and Acorn (African-American actor Edgar Connor). For some unexplained reason, Bumper and pals are on friendly terms with mayor John Hastings (Frank Morgan).
After Bumper rescues the mayor’s girlfriend June following a botched suicide attempt, she develops amnesia and falls in love with her rescuer, and the film becomes a tangled web of misdirected love like Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night or As You Like It.
In a career spanning forty years, Lewis Milestone won two Oscars and directed such legendary films as The Front Page (1931), Of Mice and Men (1939), Ocean’s 11 (1960) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). He was one of the first silent film directors to effectively transition to talkies because he understood how synchronized sound allowed more fluid and artistic camera movement.
Al Jolson was to our great-grandparents what Elvis was to our grandparents and The Beatles were to our parents, yet today, he’s known almost exclusively as the first person to talk in movies.
It’s fun to see Frank Morgan as something other than the titular Wizard of Oz, although there’s little doubt the latter film is his greatest accomplishment.
Released at the height of Great Depression, this celebratory, whimsical film suggests the evils of the world would fade away if we abandoned consumerism. It’s such a bizarre piece of left-leaning propaganda as to render it almost complete ineffective, but it’s a curiously entertaining film.
The Immigrant (2013)
Bruno (Joaquin Phoenix) manipulates vulnerable Polish immigrant Ewa (Marion Cotillard) to join his stable of prostitutes in exchange for her freedom, but things get complicated when she begins a romantic relationship with illusionist Emil (Jeremy Renner). There’s an inadvertent murder, a coverup, a betrayal, a mea culpa, and an escape.
Since her Oscar-winning role as Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose (2007), Cotilliard has had high-profile roles in Inception (2010), Midnight in Paris (2011) and Dark Knight Rises (2012), but her best work is her least seen, Rust and Bone (2012), a bleak film in which she plays a paraplegic whale trainer.
Joaquin Phoenix is a versatile actor, but his public persona as a troubled man struggling with personal demons was fixed when he played a fictionalized version of himself in the mockumentary I’m Still Here (2010), directed by his brother-in-law Casey Affleck. His appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman as part of the project became a public relations disaster.
Jeremy Renner is a fine actor when challenged in films like The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), The Hurt Locker (2008), and The Town (2010), but since he was cast as Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, his career has focused on action oriented blockbusters. This has provided him with a comfortable income, but he doesn’t stand out in them.
Ewa’s difficulties mirror those of millions of other immigrants to America in the first part of the twentieth century, but the film’s melodramatic love triangle diminishes its impact.