The Rewatchables - ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ With Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, and Andy Greenwald

Episode Date: August 13, 2024

The Ringer’s Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, and Andy Greenwald apply a few squirts of L’air de Panache before rewatching Wes Anderson’s 2014 hit comedy adventure ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel,’ starring Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, F. Murray Abraham, and Adrien Brody. Watch this episode on video on our YouTube channel, Ringer Movies! Producer: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join me, Danny Kelly and Danny Highfits on the Ringer Fantasy Football Show for all things, fantasy, NFL, and more. But that time you said, join me, Danny Kelly. It sounds like you're Danny Kelly. It's join me, Craig Horlebeck. Right, right, right, right, right, right, okay. Join me, Craig Horlebeck, as well as Danny Hyfitz and Danny Kelly. Nice. Thank you. For all things, Fantasy Football, NFL, and more on the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. Boom. This episode is brought to you by Adobe Firefly, the all-in-one creative studio with AI-powered image and video generation.

Built for today's creative process, Firefly helps you generate, edit, and experiment fast. Because the asks aren't getting smaller, and the timelines? Ooh, yeah, still tight. With all the best creative AI models in one place, Firefly brings your ideas to life. Learn more at Adobe.com slash Firefly. This episode is brought to you by Apple and AT&T. Scroll long enough and you'll hear it all. Miracle diets, fitness trends, you name it.

But with iPhone and Apple Watch, you get meaningful insights from a very trusted source. Your body. You can track sleep quality, cardio fitness, and more than unpack all the information in the health app on iPhone to get a picture of your overall health. These health insights are developed with clinical. experts from start to finish. Find out more at apple.com slash health. Apple Watch is not a medical device and should not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice. I'm Chris Ryan. I'm joined by Sean Fennessey from the Big Picture podcast, Andy Greenwald from

the Stick the Landing podcast. Sean, keep your hands off my lobby boy. The rewatchables. Grand Budapest Hotel is next. This man is a ruthless adventurer and a con artist. How's that supposed to make me feel? From Wes Anderson comes a story of war and peace. Well, hello there, chaps. Love and death. She's been murdered, and you think I did it.

Shocks. Scrapes. Great escapes. I can barely steer. And room service. She was dynamite in the sack. She was 84. I've had older. The Grand Budapest Hotel, rated R.

Now playing. Guys, 2014's Grand Burmese, Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson's love letter to a fading Europe as world war encroaches. Here we are talking about this movie. It's the second Wes on the rewatchables. Andy and I did Tenenbaum's last year, I believe. How'd that go? Very well.

It was very gentle. I want to say it's an honor to be back here. I love listening to you guys. You always have a good time. You're talking about big tent movies. You laugh a lot, twister, cruising. And then when it's time to put on the Pinsnes. You call me up with my cardigan.

Our little dainty boys here. The Bell and Sebastian fan here. It's like the time Doris Cairns Goodwin was on The Man Show. That's right. So happy. I know that we were kicking around ideas of what we're going to do in Bill's absence, vacation bill. So we're filling in.

We had Dodge Ball last week. I was awesome. And then I was asking Andy like, Bill's like you and Andy, you know, you guys should knock one out. And I was like, we were kicking some ideas around. And this one just kept coming up, even though we had done a West before. But, Sean, I wanted to start with you. Why is a movie about the rise of,

fascism, young love, and the service industry, so goddamn rewatchable. Well, I think it's an apotheosis of whatever we think Wes Anderson is. So it might be him executing most completely on the cliches of Wes Anderson. So it feels like very legible to a broader audience. But I will say, I remain a little bit confused by this being his biggest and most successful movie. And I was kind of hoping we could talk about that. This movie was a huge hit. $174 million worldwide.

Which is fascinating to think about it. It feels like it could not, something like that would not happen for a movie like this today. But it is on its face very funny adventure movie. Yeah. And it has great set pieces. It has a cavalcade of actors that you enjoy spending time with. And it's got a lead performance that is like for the ages, that it is like, I think this legendary English performer, perhaps at his very best. So if there's a lot to recommend it

Yeah, there is definitely You don't think a movie about the creeping rise of fascism Hits in 2024? I guess it is resonant in some ways. I have some notes on his perspective on this time of history as well. It was a much debated topic in 2014 when it came out.

I'm sure that there's like a school of thought that he treats this topic maybe too lightly or too obliquely by like filling the frame with all these confections and kind of taking a step back from it and not looking at it dead in the eye. But I think that there's other parts of it that certainly suggest, like, what you want to maintain in the face of something dark rising.

Andy, what is it about this movie that you find rewatchable? I mean, I definitely agree with Sean that I was very surprised at the time that this was, in many ways, his mainstream breakthrough. Because I think that for me, as someone who, and I feel like you guys are the same, has been a fan of Wes Anderson from the beginning and has a very, very deep, very personal, very rewatchable connection to those first three movies to Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and Tenon. bombs. I felt like I was a little bit in the wilderness with my own relationship to him and his movies during the subsequent years, Life Aquatic, Darjeeling. And the thing about this movie that really struck me at the time and then strikes me harder every time I watch it is that for me, this is the pivot point from a certain kind of sentimentality about his movies where he felt, with good reason, that he was sort of exploring the Doll's House nostalgia of his youth and

things like lost love. This was the time when it switched from sentimental to elegiac, and it became less about, you know, being nostalgic for, like, childhood things, and more about loving beauty and loving art. And old women. And loving deeply an elder sex, which we're going to talk about. But this idea that destruction, so like getting older is inevitable, which is something that I feel like his characters grapple with to varying degrees in all of his movies. But the destruction fascism, like the crippling boot of autocracy, is not necessarily inevitable. It just keeps happening. And there's something that it was just still, it sort of hits me crossways, how sad suddenly

the movie is, in spite of all of its lightness and charm. Yeah, I mean, you mentioned, like, that this is the apotheosis of what we think of him. And I think that there's something to that. If you were going to be the most unkind, I think you could describe a certain phase of his career, I would probably start it with Moonrise Kingdom and do this and Asteroid City and French Dispatch, all of those movies I adore. But you could say it's like hipster merchant ivory. So it's period pieces that are essentially low impact when it comes to like the chaos on screen. They can be chaotic, but they're not flashbang action movies or anything like that. There is a degree of distance

that the audience can have from the subject matter because of the sort of costumey, like we're putting on a play elements to it. Everything's a box inside of a box. Yeah, it's a box inside of a book inside of a play. But each one of those films has like a very sad, traumatized

emotional core and most of them are incredibly funny. Like really, really funny. This one I think is the funniest. I think because of fines, it becomes like this actually quite profane, violent movie throughout. Very much. And even Anderson's talked about how, like, he'd never made a movie before where there's basically a dead body every 10 minutes and people are getting torn up and maimed and stabbed.

So, a full-blown shootout. Yeah. So I think that... Whoa, wait. No one gets shot. I mean, in the shootout. Yeah, but like the guy gets stabbed. Yeah, but there is a lot of guns.

There are a couple of guns in life aquatic, but it is not something that you see frequently in his movies. Someone loses their fingers. That's the most violent. No, they do get stabbed when they're escaping. The guys who were stabbing each other, he's like, let's call it a draw. That's true, but then there's a joke. But yeah, I think that there's something to this movie that transcends, like, Wes Anderson, where it starts to become, like, deeply funny or deeply sad or whatever.

And I actually am fine just staying completely at surface level, Wes Anderson. Right. No, but I think it goes back to that what I was trying to say is that, like, this is fundamentally, there are broken boys in this movie, but this is not a movie about broken boys. This is a movie about a lost era, about a broken promise of a century in a way. Don't knock broken boys. They built this country. There are three of us sitting around this table right now.

If you want to pivot to dad talk, we can do it. I am in too, for sure. No, but I feel like the more time passes with this movie, it does bizarrely seem that this is his broadest brush, even though he only ever paints with the finest, finest, you know, what is it, Indian paint precious that production companies. That is essentially the benefactor of the West Anderson mission. Yeah, which is, I think it has been a truly amazing project in American movies in the last 25 years.

Like I'm just with Andy. Those first three movies were very impactful for me. And I have really appreciated with some distance the last five movies, with the exception of Moonrise Kingdom, which I think is like kind of his tweet. His tweet masterpiece. His tweed stairway to heaven. Yes, it is truly him like finally accessing the emotional core

that he had been building towards. And he is now on this journey of taking apart, deconstructing things he loves. and rebuilding them and surprising you with the choices he makes in the rebuild. So things are very architectural now, U.S. Anderson movies, and they're very story within a song, within a book, within an author's mind. So it's fun to unpack those things. It's harder for them to hit me in an emotional level. I agree with you that because this movie is so funny, it doesn't trip you up as much.

Asteroid City was a movie that came out last year. A lot of people loved it. I definitely needed to watch it a second time. I feel like I could wrap my head around what it was he was trying to accomplish with that movie. Chris, what's your count on Asteroid City currently? Three, I think. Yeah, I think I saw it once in theaters,

once when it was on Peacock and once on a plane. And the plane one was one where I was like, holy shit, this movie's like really, really deep. And also, I think a lot of his films are either prescient or very reflective of the time they're made in. They just don't actually state it outright. So Asteroid was about these people quarantining

and reflecting on their lives, and I thought that that wound up being quite poignant. Well, I think that to that point it'll come up as we talk about it, that some works of art are just sort of prescient. And Grand Budapest Hotel coming out in 2014 before a sort of right-word surge on the global stage is interesting and noteworthy. It might have added to its residents. But I would also say maybe as the resident, well, at least Emeritus head of Datington Island, Sean, you're a recent.

You moved recently. Yes, I have a dingy. Three broken boys in their dingy. It was one of the rolled doll shorts he did. I feel like one of the most important West Anderson movies to think of. about in relation to this one is Fantastic Mr. Fox, which is, I think, unquestionably one of his best movies, definitely the one I've rewatched the most due to the children in my household. But I feel like that...

They're not Darjeeling heads yet? No, they feel... Daddy, what is it in that dropper? Getting stone to Claire to Loon. I think they're pretty into the my dad's dead part or my son's day part of Life Aquatic. Fantastic Mr. Fox is a movie in which he absolutely was given free reign to play with toys. I mean, just clay figurines from a childhood book, but some of the filmmaking tricks that he used in that movie

are almost like one-to-one mapped onto this one, including, like, Willem Defoe as an exaggerated villainous rat. And so there was something about the, like, Sean, as the Big Picture host, you could probably talk more intelligently about some of the filmmaking tricks and techniques that he used in this, whether it was the scale models throughout, or the stop motion that gets used in a surprising way.

But this movie feels like he's, taking those toys and putting them into the service of a larger, more interesting, more emotional story. And I feel like that's an important distinction to make, too, as he pivoted. Because you can definitely find these moments in his career. Yeah, I was going to go through the phases, but, I mean, I don't know if you wanted to respond to that. But, like, I think that he... I'll just say, it's a grand scale period piece. Yeah. And so that's part of the reason why I think it works so well and it feels so momentous relative to something like Moonrise Kingdom or something like French dispatch, which, you know, they're just inherently smaller stories. This

This is a big story, even though it's about a concierge. And technically dazzling. Like, unbelievable when you watch this movie, the level of skill and just precision and also decision-making of how he wants to shoot it and what sort of shots and tricks he's going to deploy in the service of the story, not just a stunt. I kind of think that there is the difference between, so I would put Wes Anderson's career goes, Bottle Rocket and Rushmore. I think you can make the argument that those constitute a first phase of his career,

because this is indie roots. He hooks up with James L. Brooks. they make Bottle Rocket as a feature. Owen Wilson, you know, his relationship with the Wilson Brothers is there, and it's like they're making these kind of... You could talk about Luke right now, and you're not. I'm saving Luke for later.

Okay, all right. And then I think Tenenbaum's Life Aquatic and Dershieling mark a second period, interestingly, like a kind of almost, I would say, descending in order of collective love of those movies. Like, I think Tenenbaum's is acknowledged as, like, one of his two or three best films. Life Aquatic,

I really, really like a lot, but, like, I think was actually the movie that people were like, this guy is annoying now, like, right when that came out? I think it's when some of those cliches I'm talking about started to settle in where it was like, oh, a complicated patriarch and his adopted son as a concept, which is a theme that this movie has too. Like, he has these archetypal structures that he returns to over and over again, and that was the first time that you were like, oh,

he only has so many pitches. There was just also a lot of dudes in Brooklyn who went as Steve Zee Sue for Halloween. and then never changed out of it. I mean, I did eventually change out of it, but yeah. I mean, that literally happened. I was one of those boys. Andy, did Wes Anderson show you the wonders of tropicalia with that movie?

I mean, aesthetically, there is no question. Every choice he made was hugely influential. Yeah. But I think that what you're talking about, there was a, I mean, this is the benefit of a long career, which very few people get to have a career like he's had and continues to have. But you see him struggle in real time with stuff and try to respond in some ways. to some of the criticism, but within the structure of his own muse. Yeah, sometimes he throws up a middle finger as like,

I'm going even further into my diorama. Yes, but all of his movies are unquestionably his movies. He never, you know, tries a different style. But some of the kind of like rough evolution of, okay, now my movies are going to be coming from an adult perspective on adulthood instead of from a childish perspective. And sometimes you'd feel him like, push everything in the middle and being like,

and now there's going to be a naked lady in this one scene. Or a guy's going to say the F word. Yeah. Like, that'll show him. And it does feel like someone in a prepschool uniform giving the finger. And then for me, the moment when it pivoted into more adulthood is when he made a kid's movie, honestly. Yeah. It freed something.

And I do think the movies after that are a lot more in his bag. Like, it makes sense now this is an adult making these movies with slightly larger concerns. I will say, the one thing that I do miss about him that this movie has a little bit of in M. Gustav, but not as much as I would like, is, the angst of Rushmore and Darjeeling, where there are characters who are deeply unsatisfied with their lives and the way the things are going, and they are fighting against a kind of system to break that. And Gustav has a little bit of that,

but he's so mannered, and manners matter to him so much, that he can only go so far. And in fact, he meets an end because he's only willing to go so far. But that is the one thing as he is in this, like, heavily diorama-sized era that I'm like,

is there any, like, grit left for you? You know, is there any, like, rage left? And that's something like, when you have a lot of success and you get into your 40s and 50s, some of those things start to fall away. And it feels like that has fallen away from him. He's ever been... Use eye statements when you say that.

Sorry. He's never been, like, a high-tee filmmaker. Like, I don't think his characters rage with a lot of, like, super masculine energy. We're not actually atypical for this pod. Like, we talk a lot about dudes screaming. And Gustav is actually probably the closest to... that he has as a protagonist who does that.

Like, I think it was interesting to read about his casting decision of Ray Fines. He was clearly, like, basically wrote the part for him, but was like, you know, choose what part you want to play, but Gustav is for you. And he, you know, he gets this incredible actor who's obviously really well trained and has talked a lot about his, and a lot of people have talked about his improvisatory skills. But was he interested in somebody who's like, you have to hit this mark. You have to be within these three lines that you can't even see that are behind you. And I need you to read the line more or less the way I exactly imagine.

Entirely. Entirely. You can't even change your partisan. Within that, finds somehow like, fills up the frame. Like, I think he's, this is the best performance in a Wes Anderson movie. This is one of my favorite performances of this decade, probably of the 2010s. That's an interesting conversation. That's a bold statement.

I mean, I think that there are lots of amazing Wes Anderson movies. I think this is the one that successfully pushes the speed limit on what you can do within a film that he has written and directed. I also think it is worth, Sean, and you were picking up on this, too, the evolution of the male archetype in the West Anderson movies, which is basically, and I think this is influenced by his own childhood with a complicated relationship with his own father, obviously. What? A filmmaker? I know. Thank God. Thank God podcasters are immune. The ideal, the idea he had of a man in the world, or at least a successful man in the world, is a bullshitting peacock with a broken heart. Yeah. And you see that from Herman Bloom and Rushmore. You see that. and certainly in Royal Tenenbaum. But the Ray Fines version of that, there is a different note to it.

And I think maybe this is a conversation to be had. Is it the evolution of Wes Anderson, the filmmaker? Is it the setting and the context of this movie? Is it the casting? Or is it just where, or is it a combination of all of that? Because to me, the scene that sticks out amidst all of the hilarity and all of the air de Pinas, even at the lowest, dirtiest, prison-smellingest moments,

is that first almost passing reference to how Monsieur Gustav took every meal alone in his room? Yeah. That tells you 70% of the character, you know, or in a way that everything else he does is informed by that moment. When he's sitting alone in his little, what's he wearing? Little, what do you call those things? Oh, the little socks. The little socks.

Oh, yeah. I feel like, Sean, you worked at GQ. You knew. I'm wearing them right now, actually. and I'd like to show you them. They're more of an opus day thing. They're not actually for fashion. Did you bring your whip with you for this pot?

I think it's not unfair to say or unreasonable to say that in, you know, he's Ben Stiller or Luke Wilson in the Royal Tenenbaum's. He's M. Gustav in this movie. I mean, M. Gustav is Wes. Yeah. He has gotten older. That idea of a world becoming increasingly uncivilized is something that he is reflecting on and remarking upon.

I personally think it's a little bit of a load of shit. I think he exists in a very rarefied experience of the world. You mean the character is a load? Wes Anderson. Okay. Which is not a criticism of Wes Anderson because he has constructed this amazing life for himself and he has earned it. But he has a kind of longing that you are identifying for something that is gone

that, like, I tend to feel is not always ever really there. So does it matter that the F. Marie Abraham's version of Zero at the end of the movie? is like, they're like, you know, did you keep the hotel because of Gustav? And he's like, eh, like, yeah. But, like, I think he, I think he longed for a world that never existed. Like, he's aware of that.

He's a little bit of a self-reflex of criticism. And that's why he's not zero to me. He's Gustav. Right. Like, zero is the modern, practical person who's like, life has always been shit. Yeah. Like, totally.

But he allows room for both. Yeah, he does. And we can talk about it when we get to the scene where he's talking about, you know, the pile of filthy carpets and all that. But I think, Sean, your point is an important one, because one can, one will. And in fact, I already did try to make sort of pretentious political allegories out of this movie. But I think the most important one, as it so often is, is who is the filmmaker in this and what is he saying?

And this movie more explicitly maybe than any other movie he made, asked the question, what is the value of the estheed in a broken world? Like, what am I actually contributing when I care about pomp, circumstance, beautiful things, frippery, balalaika on the score, and everybody else wants to join the MCU? Right? Sean, you want to speak to that? Yeah, I'm going to go see Deadpool and Wolverine again, I think. Yeah. I think I should see it three times.

Speaking of a diorama. Sean, I saw a tweet that said the fight at the end was pure cinema. Would you like to respond on the record on the Purile Cinema? I agree. Well, what's nicely done. We've talked a little bit about the... films, like the proposition that he, the Wes Anderson presents to you

especially to this last most recent phase of his career where it's like every single thing is designed down to the stationary, right? Like there is not a single detail in these movies that is left unconsidered which honestly I find is the reason why I

enjoy going back and watching these movies. You can watch this movie with the sound off if you want. Like not only is I think some of the gestures of the acting conveys story without even needing to hear the dialogue, which itself is pretty incredible. But I think that you can also just like appreciate it

for the production design and all the set design stuff. And just like these small camera moves, I was talking with Jack before we started. And he was like, this movie made me remember why I went to film school because I watched the behind the scenes of the grip

like shoving these guys down the fake mountain. And it's just like, this is kind of movie magic at its most palpable. I think this is all. also a really important thing to say about this, too, which is for all the criticism, maybe this is a straw man argument, but I kind of don't think it is. And people are like, oh, Wes Anderson is just, you know, he locks himself in his room with his dollhouses and he lives

in his private little universe. A movie is not a private universe. He has to go into the world and find trusted collaborators and designers and artists and locations and make it a reality through the incredible blood, sweat, and tears and collaboration of dozens, if not hundreds of people. The accomplishment of that alone is just astounding when you think about how precise every single thing is, where there's not a frame in this movie where you watch it and you're like, that could have gone a different way. That could have been a different choice there. It feels, it's a closed circuit in a way that feels very rare. He raises a lot of interesting questions about how much you care and want to think about virtuosity while watching a movie. Yeah. Like a lot of the greatest

filmmakers of all time, John Ford, Akira Kira Wasawa, Steven Spielberg. Howard Hawks. Whoever. However, but especially like visual masters are well known for creating this like epic feeling inside you when you see something beautiful that they've imagined but it is not meant to feel like you're watching a movie you have been enveloped by the images that they're creating

Wes Anderson is the opposite West Anderson, his style draws attention to artifice very purposefully so like in this movie in particular if you look at the way that he moves the camera he's always moving the camera to where he wants the action to go. So it's moving from left to right down a hallway and the character will

appear in the hallway as the camera turns. That's very unusual, especially in a constructed environment like the ones that he works in and it makes you feel like you're watching someone make a movie. Yeah. Which is a weird feeling to have and this movie more than any of his other movies, I feel that. I feel this idea

of like it's like when you're opening a pop-up book and it is so different because you can't even read the words on the page. You can only experience that tactile thing that pops up in front of your face. So it's disorienting in a way to watch a movie like this. It's doubly disorienting because I'm personally, when I watch this movie, so invested in Gustav because he's so funny and so interesting and so present but unknowable that it creates this distorted effect. Like Moonrise Kingdom, when I watch that, I don't feel this thing I'm describing.

Do you feel distanced from the emotional inner life of the character? I think I just know that I'm inside of a story. And if it has more of a fairy tale feel. That's fair. You know? The only, it's not a counter, like, be like, you should feel differently. It's more of like,

I agree with you. And that is almost why when the true human moments hit in this movie, they hit so hard to me. Because they're like, he pulls the bottom out of this magic trick that he's had going. And you realize whatever these people are experiencing or what people have been experiencing for hundreds and hundreds of years. Right.

Which is like, I thought I sort of had created this reality for myself. And then forces beyond my control came in, like literally ran over them. You know, and that's a pretty, I think, universal human experience from the dawn of time. And yet he creates like this fantasy world,

you know, so that you're almost not even thinking about it. And even as like the frontier closes and at first it's Ed Norton and he's like kind of nice. And it's like, oh yeah. And then as it gets more and more real, until there's almost this like distancing technique by shooting the final Gustav, Agatha, Zero moment in Black and War.

white. You're the first of the official death squads to whom we've been formally introduced. Yeah. Yeah. But like the actual narration of what did it, what did they, what, how did it end? And it's like, they shot him in the end, you know? Yeah. But it's such a tricky thing because I think he is pulling punches in an effort to remain unsaccharine. Yeah. Because like in particular, I think of this, we're like at the end of the movie here with what we're talking about. But. zero yada yadaing Agatha and his infant child's death, but then spending all this time on Gustav being hauled off and beaten up by the SS is a really interesting choice about a person who's like trying to show you everything and nothing at the same time.

Absolutely. All these guys are. All the people in this movie are, I mean, why is the Jude Law Tom Wilkinson character there in the first place? But it's also saying something about storytelling, which is that everything is subjective. And most lives, if you live long enough, have a relatively, you know, equivalent amount of, joy and sadness. And when you're telling someone's story, you're telling someone a story with intent and which parts you tell and which parts you hide. And sometimes the parts you hide are even more revealing. And the sadness that we can call Mr. Mustafa as the F. Marie Abraham version of zero is what you're meant to be left with, you know, that he was trapped ever since that moment, that his life in many ways ended, even though his wealth began. Yeah. And I feel like it's worth

noting. So to go through it, the story of Grand Budapest Hotel is being read by a girl in a graveyard. Yes. She's reading a copy of a book called The Grand Budapest Hotel that was written by an author who is played first by Tom Wilkinson. Quote unquote contemporary times, yeah. But was actually a young Jude Law who wrote a book from his own perspective about a visit to a now-de-caging Soviet-era hotel in which he met Mr. Mustafa who then, over dinner, told him this story more or less verbatim.

Yes. Sure. No, it's easy. That was well recited. Yeah. Do you want to mention Stefan Zweig? So at this point, this film

in some ways is an adaptation. Not explicitly, but there's an Austrian writer named Stefan Zhweig who had a very prolific writing career and a very tragic end to his life in Brazil where he took his own life as World War II was really exploding

in 1942. The film is dedicated to him. It's inspired by his writings. Specifically, I'm going to say this with lack of emotion because I haven't read these books, but The Great Portrayal, and especially post office girl,

which is set in a hotel and is about, I believe it's like about an Austrian girl who's living with an American, an aunt in a Swiss hotel. He does a lot of things with these framing devices, these kind of descending steps of introducing you to a story, a young boy meets an old man who tells him a story about when he was a young boy, et cetera, et cetera. Have you read any of his stuff? Just a little bit, but I think that from the world of yesterday, which is a book that I think

in many ways, it's more of a memoir, but in many ways influenced Wes Anderson as much as it influenced the movie. This is a book that he wrote near the end of his life where he talks about his own life in segments, like chapters, literally like there were chapters in my life. And he lived a life that is totally impossible, even possible to imagine, you know, born to an intellectual Jewish family, and then went to school and was published when he was 19, and then traveled so widely and cross paths with almost every major figure of the early 20th century from poets in England to, I think he wrote a personal letter to Mussolini at one point to help save someone's life, travel to India, travel to Russia,

travel to the United States, and the type of life that I think, I think that we thought was possible when the internet was started in the blogosphere. That's right, yeah. But literally in the sense that he was like, but like writing plays and essays

and hobnobbing with intellectuals and artists in every country and noticing that he was born at a time what he thought was of great, great promise and freedom. Yeah. They were coming out of an era of repression and into an era into a stable Austria where arts could be celebrated

and there were more sexual freedoms and cultural freedoms and cultural. culture and that his Jewish family could be integrated into the mainstream of this and feel a part of it, and then to be absolutely sideswiped by World War I, because I think in one of his essays, he talks about how no one really liked Archduke Ferdinand, so it literally wasn't a big story. I know. Kind of a Joel Embed situation. Yeah.

What's the timestamp on that first? How late is that correct when he mentions Embed the first time? 30 minutes? Not bad. Somewhere Wes Anderson's listening to this, and he wrote down in his moleskin, Joel M. B. Who is this? My next film will be in Cameroon.

Speaking of global citizens who have disappointed us on the world stage. And then sort of rebuilding it, going back to Austria, to be like, I can be part of the peace because we've learned our lesson and we won't let this happen again.

Certainly not these brutish Nazis. And then ending up in Brazil, again, kind of like utopian, like this is the world, this is the country of the future, the city of the future, only to commit suicide with his wife in 1942,

basically being like, all I see is darkness. Yeah. His quote was, I think it, like the letter before his suicide was, I think it better to conclude in good time and an erect bearing a life in which intellectual labor meant the purest joy and personal freedom,

the highest good on earth. And on that note, I am no longer... That's Bill's take on the rewatchables, I think. I think what the other thing that is... Stefan Zweig-Piz. Yeah. I think the thing that's interesting about that author, whose work I have not read,

but what I've read about him is that he wrote these sort of like emotionally heavy romantic novellas. But he's part of a generation of creative people from Austria, many of whom also fled before or during World War II and went to Hollywood.

And that's Ernst Lubitsch, that's Billy Wilder, that's all of these masters of what we come to understand as American cinema with a European perspective who are huge influence is on the movie Grand Budapest Hotel.

I mean, there is no Grand Buda... Because he's inspired by Zvig, but this is not a very Zvigian movie. It's a very Ernst Lubich movie. It's a very 1930s Alfred Hitchcock film. So it's fascinating that he is thinking so much about it and this kind of work, but it is a zany, fast-talking, fast-moving.

But so were those first movies. I mean, so was classic Hollywood. I think that's a really important point, that the vision of, not just the vision of Hollywood and of what movies are, but the vision of what America is and means was almost entirely built on the backs and on the labor and on the ideas of people who suffered a catastrophic break in what their sense of what peace or war meant. And that's basically modernism anyway. Yeah. And I think there's an element of this where, you know, as why I quote, but every shadow is ultimately also the

daughter of light and light, and darkness, war and peace, rise and fall, only this one has truly lived. And I wonder if on some level West Anderson is grappling with the fact that He doesn't, I mean, he doesn't really know those things. Many people who have grown up in, like, relative stability of the West in the last however many years don't know those things. And what does that say about the art or what does it say about the zaniness? Like, how do you leaven it with something deeper? I'll just do some stats here for old Grand Budapest Hotel. As I said, budget of 25 mil made 174 worldwide.

Did very well in Germany. Can you put that in Kleubex? These are the kind of movies. that we wish we had half a dozen of, eight of. It's a great model. Not all of them make 174, but seeing what he can get out of $25 million is pretty mind-blowing. I think in the grand scheme of things,

he's coming out net positive with all of his movies, financially, creatively. Like, obviously, he's adored by cinefiles, but his movies do well enough. He is a brand. Yeah, it's kind of... And everybody wants to work with him for relative peanuts. It's very much like...

He reminds me of, like, when I was growing up what Woody Allen was. where you would get these bonkers casts, probably working for scale, just because they wanted to be a part of it. He had a sense of a rep theater. There were a lot of people who appeared in a lot of Woody Allen movies. And he had producers who knew exactly how to make a Woody Allen movie work financially. And there's a guy who works...

And increasingly around the world, too. And there's a guy who works for Wes, I think his name's Jeremy Dawson, who is just like, apparently the magician here. Where it's like, he rents out the German hotel that everybody stays at. And it's like old school producing deal making of like this is how we're going to make this work. So that's always kind of like the behind the scenes stuff of his movies is really interesting. All the stuff about like asteroid city people living in Spain

and just being like, I never want this to end. This is so much fun. Yeah, it's also an interesting movie in that it came out fairly early in the year and had a kind of momentum in terms of like its box office was longer. Its international box office was very long. It's also a sign that they didn't, I mean, he's worked with, I mean, I guess he's made films with searchlight and focus and bopped around in that sense. But, like, they released it in March because this was not an Oscar movie.

Yeah. Right. There was no, in all of their internal thinking about this. I mean, they brought it to festivals. I think they premiered it Berlin. They had a plan to recoup. They did not have a plan to stretch it for an entire year through awards season and make this kind of money, which was interesting. It's really cool.

It was a total surprise to the degree that I feel like, John, you pay attention to this stuff all the time. There aren't that many surprises like that. Are there in terms of like... This was overperforming beyond anyone's expectation. No, I wasn't. I... I mean, it's one of the first things I said when we started talking. It's hard to explain

just how this movie got this big. I think there are also some other contributing factors. I think for a generation of young moviegoers, this is like an introduction to Wes Anderson. I think there is a kind of millennial pink aesthetic that this movie has that honestly is influential. Yeah, the color palette is very inviting. It's very beautiful.

It feels very of a time. It's also very much, you know, we're in term two of Obama, like, emotionally. Like, these kinds of movies tended to have a little bit more success. I think there's something about him doing something that feels so much like him, but so outside of the expectations of what it is that he does. Yeah. For whatever reason, resonated very, very hard. And maybe even some of those kids, like your kids, saw Fantastic Mr. Fogg.

as nine-year-olds, and all of a sudden, they're, you know, 16, and they're like, I want to go to the movies. Yeah. Do you get the sense, though, and this is, this might be the last Woody Allen comparison we make? I'm not sure. We have a lot of open road ahead of us. Strike two. But I do get the sense that one thing that they have in common as filmmakers is, like,

well, I'm making the next one. Yes. He's already on to his next one. I don't think that he was, you know, in the edit bay or, you know, doing the final scoring with Alexandra being like, I've done it. No. I mean, I've made my masterpiece. And said that

I think either at the end of moonlight or right as they were doing press for Moonlight Kingdom, Wes was like, here's the script for Grand Budapest Hotel. Yeah, I saw the French dispatch at Telleride in 22, 21. And he didn't even come. Because he was like, I'm doing an Astrid City. Yeah.

Like, he just, he's on to the next one. I don't want to belabor this personally, but it was nominated for nine Oscars, including pictures, screenplay, cinematography, and director. It won for best costume design, best makeup, best production design, and best original score for your guy, Alex. I just want to say this was the best actor this year. It's the 2000.

Yeah, it's pretty shocking. It's the 87th Oscars. Eddie Redmayne won for Theory of Everything. One of the single worst wins in Oscar history. A movie that people still don't talk about to this day. Steve Corell was nominated for Foxcatcher. Bradley Cooper, as Chris Kyle in American Sniper.

I think that's a good performance. Me too. Benedict Cumberbatch and imitation game. I didn't care for this film. Michael Keaton and Birdman. I dare say that I think Ray Fines could have found some daylight in that category.

It's extremely disappointing. It's an interesting time to be doing this too because he's about to star in this movie Conclave about the selection of the next pope. That trailer is sick. And he's the star, and there's some speculation that it is, it's time. It's Rafe times.

Well, didn't you win for Schindler's list? I don't believe he did. No. I think he maybe got nominated. He did get nominated. No Roger Ebert for this one. So I will go with our guy Rick, Richard Brody from the New Yorker.

Well, he's in the tech, but let's go. He loved this movie. I will say there's plenty of really interesting writing about why this movie sucks. David Thompson from the New Republic wrote an absolutely scathing. Is that fact? Yeah. By the way, Rafe did not win an Oscar.

You guys are both right, and I'm wrong. Yeah. Richard Brody said, the story of the lost grandeur of a hotel that is restored and perpetuated by way of a book is also the story of a traditional of personal nobility, a severe and self-imposed code of conduct that proves in the face of historically terrifying and catastrophic trouble to be a rock of steadfast decency. That tradition in turn is preserved and perpetuated in art. The Grand Budapest Hotel is the closest thing to a credo, a discourse of principle that Anderson has yet

offered. Interesting. So it won best credo. One best credo. I had one other read on it before we get into maybe categories and less high-minded stuff. But I didn't, in reading reviews of it

and looking at what people have to say about the movie, there's not as much of a reading about it being a story about class, and it feels very much like a story about class to me in part because it's obviously Tony Rovalho's character is a refugee, and also Ray Fines is in the service

industry. He's not, he's a person of extraordinary taste and manners, but he's not a rich man. He's trying to get money. He's spending all this time with these elder women with great power. Well, I think it's, I think further down that path is actually the conversation about what West Anderson includes and what he kind of elides. And I think Zero as very much an immigrant, a refugee from what is essentially an other to the Europe that he is now living in. You can definitely read Gustav as queer in some ways. I think there's been a lot of writing about that. As he says, I sleep with all of my friends. Maybe he's just friendly. And then also something else that is, you know, relatively missing from the text, but is very much there in the subtext, is Judaism,

because Stefan Zweig was Jewish. World War II, not great for Jews generally. And Kovacs, the Jeff Goldblum character, suffers also a bad end. So I think that all of those things, to my reading of it and watching it a few times, I actually think that the way he handles those things is not just in keeping with his personal sort of style, but I think kind of beautiful because he's painting it all with the same dreamy brush, but then some of those dreams are actually nightmares.

If you watch the movie again and again, but I think there's a conversation to be had. It feels very intentional. Everything you just described. I think his representation also in the world where the people who are working like hard working class jobs, Agatha,

Gustav Zero The prison guards They're dressed In these pastels And they have color And they have Vivaciousness to them

And then Everybody who's like Sort of rich And fascist Is wearing black And they're shot from a distance And they're evil And like

There is definitely like He definitely like Brings you so close To those people Who are working Real jobs This is an interesting thing though About West

Anderson to me because I am I wasn't being critical but just noting that like he now is just like in a herringbone tweed jacket somewhere smoking a pipe and reading a ancient novel but and God bless him I love him what if he's just like he's watching beekeeper yeah what if he could be we can't multitude but he's just like he is just like a dorky guy from Texas yeah he is just like a regular guy who is also a mega genius at filmmaking yeah and so there's this constant tension in all of his movies about class. And this one feels so elevated because it is about the people who literally are in service of the higher class.

But also, there's an important point that the movie makes it. There's a difference between class and wealth and taste. When Gustav takes Boy with Apple, he says, everything else here is bullshit. Yeah. And there's like an Egon shield, like right behind it. Yeah. We can get into that, but that's actually a fake Egon shield that is called, that they had designed.

You see that? Look at the big brain on front. Do you want to do you guys do this research? You know what that fake thing? Was he was called? I know what the fake painting on the wall is called. We're going to get to that. Okay, we'll save it.

But it's pretty good. The recuratables. But, yeah, that the people who are the heroes of this movie are competent and creative and aesthetic and curious and interesting and the other people are not. Now, the counter to that is how much time on set did West spend graphic designing and doodling the perfect SS logo? Sounds like a lot. But ZZ for the record. also make the point that all cults have a certain look and style to make people want to sign up. It's true.

So. All right. Let's get into the categories. Today's most rewatchable scene is brought to you by Nissan. Find your path in the Nissan Pathfinder, Rock Creek. All right, guys. A movie of chapters and also of lots of scenes that kind of bleed into one another and, you know, move from location to location. From aspect ratio to aspect ratio.

I have the following scenes. Okay. Gustav and the Dowager Countess greeting her. I have this because if you're watching this movie first time or if you are following some criticism of the film as being uptight, stuffy, Wes Anderson, herringbone bullshit. The moment...

I didn't say bullshit, you know. The moment that Gustav says, to fucking lutz is like when you're like, oh, this is going to be actually like a profane movie where this guy has human reactions at the ends of these soliloquies. I fear this may be the last time we have seen each other. Why on earth would that be the case? Well, I can't put it into words, but I feel it.

Well, for goodness sake, there's no reason for you to leave us if you'd rather... Come with me. To fucking Lutz. Please. Give me your hand. I had the same reaction but just two lines later when he says, this diabolical far as she, when he's looking at her nail polish, which is really funny. You've nothing to fear.

You're always anxious before you travel. I admit you appear to be. suffering a more acute attack on this occasion, but truly and honestly, but dear God, what have you done to your fingernails? I beg your pardon? This diabolical varnish, the color is completely wrong. Oh, really? Don't you like it?

It's not that I don't like it. I am physically repulsed. Perhaps this will soon. Well, he breaks, too, because she's being very, very earnest. I may not live again, and he's just disgusted. Sorry, did you? That moment, that sequence is among my favorites in the whole movie, and you're right.

It shows you that Gustav is, not just this effete concierge. He's actually like an East London dude. Yeah. There's a little bit of in Bruges in Bruges in Bruges in this one. Gustav shows Zero the Ropes Junior Lobby Boy in trading. It's a great, great scene. You get so many

little details of the hotel. I especially love the walk. Gustav does as he's coming in and people are bringing him things to approve. And he's like, no, yes, no, yes. This is so good. I also like the description of her exit as shaking like a shitting

dogs. You just like the swears. Yeah. You're a simple guy. I can't only be me. This is obviously after the passing of Madam D. Played amazingly by Tilda Swinton in Old Age makeup. Gustav and Lutz, the train ride you meet,

Edward Norton's, Henkel's characters. Little Albert. And this is where you get your hand off my lobby boy. And I mentioned the beginning of the pie. The Reading of the Will by Kovatch. I put all of this Lutz stuff in one scene, even though it's three or four scenes. The Reading of the Will by Kovach and Meeting Dmitri, Marguerite, Letizia, and Carolina.

This is where the Van Hoidal gets given to Gustav tax-free. Van Hoidal the younger, I believe. Yeah, the Young, yeah, Boy with Apple. And we first meet, we first meet Adrian Brody's character, Dmitri, with one of the all-time first lines, really cinches the eyebrows. Yeah, yeah. You want to take it? I think I'll skip

renouncing it and I recommend Craig not cut it, put it in. Who's Gustavage? I'm afraid that's me, darling. That fucking faggot is a concierge. What are you doing?

I've come to pay my respects to a great woman whom I loved. This man is an intruder in my home. It's not yours yet, Dimitri. Only when probate is granted and the deed of entitlement is given.

You're not getting boy with apple, you goddamn little fruit. How's that supposed to make me feel? Call the police. We're pressing charges. It's pretty funny in the context. Reminds me of a Woody Allen film. Surrey, three.

You're out, get off the butt. Next scene I had is Gustav in jail, serving mush and meeting Pinky and Ludwig's gang. He's become a dear friend. Yeah. I think the meeting between Zero and Gustav in particular, when he is explaining his circumstance, is another wonderful twist on the Gustav character

where it's like, he's pretty wily, he can make friends anywhere. Yeah, and he's at zero ass and a swear on the by-blase. I'll do that later. Also, that entire prison scene invented Paddington, too, for which I'm very grateful. Great call. Haven't seen that one.

The not agreed. It's about a bear. The not-agreed scene. Not agreed? Not agreed. The Kovac scene, yeah, yeah. With Dmitri, and then that leads to the great

chase sequence of Joplin following Kovak through the trams into the Kunst Museum. We also get Joplin killing Kovak's cat. I'm an attorney, Dmitri. I'm obligated to proceed

according to the rule of law. Not agreed. This stinks. You just throw my cat out the window? I don't think Steadie. It's just launching him. Launching him. And what may be the best line in the movie,

which is, did he just throw my cat out the window? And all the sisters are like, no, I don't know. No, no, no. Did he? This, for what it's worth, is basically lifted in the chase seam between Jopling and Kovash is pretty much entirely lifted from Torin Curtain, the Albert Hitchcock movie. There's a great YouTube video on the Mooby YouTube channel where they break down like this side by side. Yeah, I guess would you consider this an homage or a jack move?

it depends on who you ask he's asking you look at that dodge cinema sheriff Sean Fetasy there are a tremendous number of homage paid to various movies like really high-minded stuff

like Frank Borsage movies and then also just like a shot in the dark with Peter Sellers you know what I mean like there's this very he has a fluid relationship with movie history much like all of the filmmakers that I'm obsessed with and so I love that and I love that he constantly is just like over here watch this movie

Shortly after Pulp Fiction Just because those two movies both Have sometimes like it full shots or full sequences that are taken from other films I also think Sean you referenced it But I do think Hitchcock is very intentional and important Because of a person who had two careers One before the war and one after the war Yes and his movies in the 30s

Are so Feel very very important to this film In terms of like the creeping dread on the horizon kind of stuff And also just it's a serious There are many of those movies that are set in hotels, and they're set at wintertime. And, you know, there's a lot of curiosity about, like, will the right man win

or will the wrong man escape? And question of scale, right? Can we tell the story of contemporary humanity on a train? Right. Can we tell it in a locked room, essentially? Yeah, I feel like the Lady Vanishes is probably the number one big influence on this movie. The prison break?

Quite a sequence. What an amazing piece of design to, like, oh, there's a bunch of really cool stories about building camera rigs that go in reverse and then run the film backwards so that they can show them descending things or going up things. I just love that little image.

Maybe this is cutting into great shot Gordo of just the ladder coming down into the frame. You know, when they're getting ready to prepare. This is very fantastic, Mr. Fox. Yes. The sequence. Yeah. And as is the Society of Cross Keys sequence,

which is very fun just for the cameos from Bill Murray and Fisher Stevens. It's... The Bob Balaband Arasure is not going to fly with me. I'm not trying to erase anybody. Morris? Yeah, Juarez is in it. Then we get into the Alpine chase.

Thank you. Which I think might be the clubhouse favorite. Is it? We didn't pregame. I thought you were saying thank you. The cable cars exchange and then down the... Monks and then the skiing bobsledding. Well, it's not just that.

As a winter sports enthusiast. It's a... Uh-huh. That's why it's the greatest thing. Yeah, yeah. Uh-huh. That leads into the Grand Budapest shootout. And then I'm going to call this...

a scene, which is the narrative re-nesting, which is like the multiple pullbacks. You learn about the fate of Gustav and Agatha. You learn that Gustav traded his fortune to this new sort of post-Soviet or Soviet

block state to keep the Grand Budapest. Right. And he did it because this is where him and Agatha, he and Agatha were happy for a time. Then we see Jude Law writing. That's what you guys did at Sunset Gower, right? very similar

speaking of decrepit we see Jude law writing we see Tom Golkinson writing we see the teenager finishing the book I haven't been on as many rewatchables as you guys but that is essentially

the entire movie you've listed like the eight set pieces which I love yeah it was a hard for me to be like this is the we usually try to be like here's the champions here the final four

five six but like I think this is hard because so many of this was like you know like there are a little sequences where now all of a sudden you've moved. Yeah, I mean, I think of the movie in a series of like little sequences for this category. So like that first conversation between Zero and Gustav after Madame de takes off in the car is a conversation I love where he's like, he's like, who hired a lobby boy?

And then Mr. Moshe comes down and the window opening and the cripple a shoe shine boy. Yeah, yeah. Like that whole sequence, the explanation of the prison break by Harvey Keitel's character, which is like, like the return of Winston Wolf. It's like four minutes in the middle of the movie that I just love where he like unfurls the map. You have a lovely line.

It's just, it's very funny, it's very beautiful. It's a great little Keitel performance. It's like shirtless tattooed. Yeah, and he's basically doing Mr. Pink's like or Mr. White's like dialogue. Yeah, yeah. It's great.

So it's a little hard because like I think that they're the Alpine Chase is like a great example of what makes Wes Anderson very unique and special and his filmmaking virtuosity. But I like the little smaller stuff where they laugh the most personally. I think that the I think if I have to pick one, it's lobby boy training and that whole sequence of like introducing zero to the world.

What about you? I mean, I think that truly this movie is kind of a closed loop. Like everything leads to everything else. It's very hard to take anything out because nothing, there's no outliers, it all fits. I still pick the Alpine Chase just because I think if you were to sort of surgically remove one portion of the movie, everything that we've been talking about for 40 minutes

is in that section, from the filmmaking bravora and the very specific aesthetic choices of the miniatures to the increasing satirical lunacy of asking the same question five times and him saying, uh-huh, until him getting mad, leading to the... Arnizant! Confess, leading to the scene in the confessional with Matthew Almorick, which is hilarious. and incensed. And then I was reading about how they shot those separately.

And then Ray Fines had to do it again after he saw the intensity that our guy, our number one French boy from the bureau brought in that scene. Yeah, I would just carve it out. It just makes me laugh every time. All right. So we have a couple of different ones.

I'll go with the Alpine chase just to make the decision. So the Alpine chase is the most rewatchable scene, but we have some other contenders in there. Today's most rewatchable scene is brought to you by Nissan. Flex Your Ruggedness in the 24 for Nissan Pathfinder Rock Creek,

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or provide enhanced traction in all conditions. Always monitor traffic and weather conditions. Nothing says flex your ruggedness like three men discussing Grand Budapest Hotel. Seriously. Two guys with glasses. This isn't one guy you should have his glasses on. What's age of the best?

Fantasy, you got anything for me? Confirmation of Wes Anderson as like a historical filmmaker, I think, is the number one thing. I think this is like you had a big fat hit. It was an Oscar darling that features the best performance of one of the best actors the last 50 years. And this is like, I wonder if this is the first movie mentioned in his obituary. It's very possible. Oh, yeah. That's interesting.

I wonder, that's a really good category. Is this his O-Bit movie? What's your guy's O-Bit podcast? Cop-W-W-W-T. You just knew. It's probably garbage crime. What about the time you got incredibly mad that I took Avengers Endgame in a draft

and you started crying? Every draft where I acted like an asshole that's probably, that's my legacy is a great person in the world. Sean Fantasy husband, father, thought leader, and whiny little cry baby. On my pastoral. Because you couldn't pick Thanos.

I think we're going to keep talking about this in probably most of the categories, but Ray Fein's performance. To your point, Sean, about how you kind of don't always know what a director's Apex Mountain is or not just a career-changing film, but a reputation reorienting film would be.

Ray Fines has been consistently brilliant in movies since his first movie, which was Schindler's list, and brilliant in a way that almost feels effortless, and also brilliant in a way that is rarely, he's rarely the star of the movie. He's almost always the best or one of the best things in it, and he can do almost anything, but you rarely see the conversation shift to considering him with each new Ray Fines movie, right? And so then to see this in retrospect, not just in terms of this performance, but in terms of all the other wildly incredible things that he's done in the year since. I think Hale Caesar was after this, wasn't it?

Yeah, I was going to say that. It's so interesting that he would take a tiny part like that immediately after being at the center of a massive hit. There's a degree to which I think when he first starts out and he's like in the English patient, you know, he's always been a little bit of a character actor. I mean, he's plays in the remake of Manhunter that Ridley Scott. Like he's in Red Dragon, right? I mean, he's...

He's Voldemort. Yeah, he's Voldemort. Like, he's willing to be the bad guy. He's willing to be the seventh person on the call sheet, maybe. But he's also M in the James Bond movies where he's, like, decent and honorable. He just has so many things in his toolbox that to see him just... He just runs laps around this movie to such a degree. And it only works because of how funny it is, but it also only works because of how melancholy he is underneath the funny.

And I just think it's only gotten better. It's interesting. This is right smack in the middle of a 10-year window for him that is amazing, though. If you look at from roughly, if you want to say like in Bruges, and it's also right around when he starts doing Voldemort, and in that period of time,

he's in the Hurt Locker. He's in three more Harry Potter movies. He's Coriolanus in a Cori-Latness adaptation that's very good. He's in Skyfall, of course. Grand Budapest Hotel. The next year he's in a bigger splash, one of my favorite movies. Yeah.

And then in Hail Caesar. and, you know, since then, it's a little more wandering in the dark. He's also, like, also throughout that entire time does, like, a player year. Yes, yes. And one of the great Shakespearean actors of his time. But he's, this is an extended heater for a 50-year-old British guy. You know what I mean? It's a very unusual kind of stardom that you don't see as much these days.

I saw him do this thing that's on YouTube. It's a David Hare play. That's just about, like, basically a stand-in for David. of Hair, it's a monologue about him getting, I think, long COVID and he's just, like, talking about it for 40 minutes, and then the BBC wouldn't run it for a variety of reasons,

but, like, it's just on YouTube, it's insane how good Ray finds. And it's just, like, by himself in a room full of books talking about having COVID, and it's nuts. It's so good. I had forgotten he's also going to be in 28 years later, the 28 days later follow up, yeah.

He's amazing. Morewood's the best. I can't quite find the German phrase for this or like the fun way of describing how much every single person in this movie squeezes the most out of whatever screen time they have. I actually have multiple Dion Waiters Awards later like I added a new one.

But there's something about like, how good is Tom Wilkinson? Is he on the screen for more than two and a half minutes? I might push back on that later. Really? Wow. Interesting take. Yeah. Interesting.

I'm not saying he's not good. But when you're looking at a movie that is essentially flawless, like where could you tweak? Oh. I start with the author. Okay. But to get back to what stage is the best, I also find the fact that Gustav is actually pretty unscrupulous and flip flops a lot. And we'll be like, I shall never, I shall never cross this hotel again, the door of this hotel again. And he's like, actually, we need to go in right now.

Or like, I'll never part with boy with Apple. and then he's like, actually, let's sell it and spend it on horse and whiskey. He says, the reason being, I think this could be a tricky war. Yeah. Not too much in the kitty. Genius.

When they meet Henkels on the train and Gustav is like, and how's your mother? That's really good, man. That aged well. Yeah. Plus he's the best. Yeah.

Did banging heirs age well? Wait, as a professional strategy or just as a calling? Just throwing it out to the room. Yeah. I think, I mean, what's the downside, John? Pitch us the counter to sleeping with rich old ladies. Yeah. What's the problem?

It's not all fillets anymore. I, well, that is- The cheaper cuts, man. Yeah, no, go ahead. I have no comment. Okay, all right. What else is age of the best? Adrian Brody cursing.

Sure. One of the best to do it. Really. Holy fuck! What's the meaning of this shit? Every other actor in this movie is affecting some sort of transcontinental accent of some kind, and he's just like Adrian Brody in New York. No, I actually think the best part about this movie is how many people are just like,

I'm just going to do Owen Wilson, if that's cool, or I'm just going to do Jason Schwartzman in 2014, being like, shit. No, I think that, again, these are the aesthetic choice. that might get overlooked, but, like, that was a decision, right? Because they looked at what was happening, and Ray Fines was using this voice, and Tony Revelyleori was using his own voice from, like, Orange County. And then Searserona's talked about it. She let me do the Irish accent.

She would have done any accent, and they were like, well, why don't you just do your own? And she said that was the, this is the first movie she had ever done her native accent in when she was playing a baker and Zubroca. I guess that is the thing that setting your film in a fictional country allows for. Yeah. Yeah. Which is funny. If everybody does it, I think it works.

If five people were trying to do like Eastern European. Well, as you guys have talked about many times on the watch, you know, it didn't work out so well in Socovia. You know, like that's not just because you have an imagined land with a lot of mythology. It doesn't mean it's going to work out well. You kind of the Stefan Schwig of Sokovia, aren't you? I am stateless, sadly, because of what happened with my home country getting lifted up into the sky, a sentient robot. No, it didn't work well with the regime, the H-Eachian. show recently where a European nation, Eastern European nation just spoke the Queen's English.

But I do think that works, again, everything is heightened, everything is fictional, and the idea of borders being porous and constantly being redefined by forces that are outside of your own control makes sense. I mean, again, not to go back to Zwe, but that's why you guys brought me here, right? He talks multiple times in his writing about what it was like to go from war-torn or pre-war Austria and then be in Paris. I'd be like everyone was in Paris for one reason and that was because they liked art and drinking and sex. And so everyone had that in

common even if they didn't speak the same language. I see you, brother. That's how we feel about Glendale. Exactly. Do you think that this movie would have been better if Ultron had played Gustav? Wow. Well, Spader as Gustav is an intriguing

switchup. Or just like a speculative. But Spader as a robot? No. Bater. No, I don't think Ultron would quite fit in this milieu. Maybe you should dream a little bigger. You dream bigger. Craig Ultron? What else is age the best?

Would have made $500 million more of a dollar. Seriously, if Grand Budapest made a billion because it was welcome to the Grand Ultron Hotel? Or what if Zubraika is taken over by Sukovia? What if it is in the same fictional Europe? It's not too late. Yeah. Then we could get Quicksilver back, you know, and that's all I want.

That's all I need. Which one now? That's Scarlet Witch. Evan Peters? or Aaron Taylor Johnson? Well, Canon is Aaron Taylor Johnson in the MCU, right? Oh, Mr. Deadpool, you're talking about Canon in the MCU, okay.

Senior Citizen Tilda Swinton, age the best? I thought she did a great job with that. Because she was aged? Yeah. Okay. Well, they've talked about, West Anderson talked about how they always try to do everything incredibly cheaply except for her old age makeup.

They got her the best. Very best. Yeah, they got her like the dinosaur guy from Jurassic. No, they got her the guy who did Steve Rogers at the end of end game. Sean, just wanted to put it in your terms. Thank you. Now I understand it. Appreciate that. The fact that this is Tony Revely's first feature film at bat pretty much.

Pretty funny. Not bad. I think his not being good at acting really helps this movie. I don't mean that to be sound rude. It is rude sounding. But like the kind of like amateur quality that he brings to it is appropriate for a person who is effectively an amateur throughout. Sure. Like Wes has talked about that.

He was basically like he's untrained. His ability to work with younger people though, I think is, I saw. I can't remember which person from the cast was like, I think it was Ed Norton, but he was like, younger people are basically like acting computers. Like they don't know the emotions that they're portraying yet, maybe. And Wes is able to be like, just say it exactly like this and stand exactly there and say it like when he walks in.

I think sincerely there's a bell curve of who can work with Wes Anderson. And on one end is completely untrained young amateurs. And on the other end are the best actors in the world. And in the middle are people who are probably very good. but in order to get there, need to use their own method, their own process, need to improvise,

need to find it, need to alt every other line. It takes a certain level of professionalism, as you guys were saying at the beginning, for Ray Fines or Jeff Goldblum to be like, I find myself in this structure and I can bring it.

It's such a good point that I'd never really thought about before. Because if you think about the best performances in his movies, which you were indicating with Fines, yeah. The big stars of his movies

are almost always not just very good actors, but actress who have iron-clad screen personas. Like Luke Wilson. Except for Luke Wilson. He's the one exception. Like Andrew Wilson. No?

But like, you know, Bill Murray and Tilda Swinton and Gene Hackman and Willem DeFoe and Willem and Willem DeFoe and Jeff Goldblum and Adrian Brody and actors who, you know, Francis McDormand and Moonrise Kingdom, Bruce Willis, like, these are people who are, their iconography is as important as their acting skill. and with kids, it's the total opposite. It's a great observation. Thanks, Sean. Nice job.

I'll ease up on the MCU stuff. A couple other quick ones for what's age the best. I like everybody doing their own accent, personally. I like the idea of small, frequent meals for stamina. Oh. That is a really important. That's a great get by you. I'm starting to get more into like maybe food should just be fuel.

Like I'm getting a little. Okay, Ben Solac. I think it's a little late in the summer. so I'm like dying a little bit but like I haven't really been like loving let's have a meal you know I have one potato chip at 9 a.m. every morning and then I wait

and then I have a steak dinner at 7.45 You sound like every football my bester I've ever listened to you. But you actually have like four bites of macaroni and cheese on a waffle and then you cry and then you watch five movies. It's pretty much true. Are you saying this isn't Craig one of your wellness coaches?

He is. I don't love you saying you're not loving having meals. No. What I mean is like I'm not thinking about meals as decadent like culinary experiences. I'm like, let's power up. Macros. Let's get back into it. Yeah, but decade. It's summer.

Make a beautiful BLT sandwich. Make some space for the Mendel's pastries. I'll tell you, you want to know what I do? You do know this. Yeah. Protein plate from sweet green. Get the salmon. Yep.

And then I make a taco. Craig, like the hype man over here. Look at my fucking guy. Obie one. Young Obi-1. Where's your soul? Where's your poetry? You're in the ZZ.

Uh. that's it. Oh, I mean, yeah, that's it pretty much. I think the palette, too, is the other thing, that the colors of this movie were very influential on a certain kind of, like, a graphic design, a certain kind of men's wear and women's wear design, too. And, like, there's an aesthetic that emerged into the culture that aged very well. The long-lasting influence. All guys love dressing like concierge is now. That's a really good segue, though, into Great Shot Cordo. Shout to Robert Yeoman, who's shot all of Wes Anderson's live action films. I think so.

I believe so. And they continue to shoot on a film. I believe. My Great Shot Gordo, kind of like the letterbox king for this one, is the close-up of Sersha Ronan with the carousel lights in the background. I'm just a basic guy, I guess. But like, did you have a different one? It's a little hard to top that one.

I think you got it. I got a couple. Damn. By the way, I also want to say, Robert Yom, an incredible cinematographer, incredible cinematographer, incredible career, toggling between Wes Anderson's like pointillist

obsessive masterpieces and the comedies of Paul Feig? Yeah, yeah. He shot spy, right? Is that like one for them? One for, like, I'm not saying those aren't cool hangs and he doesn't do good work on them,

but I feel like the experience might be slightly different. I think he's a guy who is hired to bring a veneer of sophistication to films that are lacking that in the script. It's true. So you are the yeoman of,

This professional podcast. I do think it's tough to pick one great shot when you have a movie that has so, this movie has so many great shots that there are, as I Googled, multiple blog posts devoted to the many great shots of this movie. I think that Carnival Ice is definitely one of them. I think Zero and Agatha in the truck with the pink box Mendel's boxes everywhere is one of them. But in terms of impact of like punch in the gut gasp, the one where after you've learned that Gustav has been shot and it cuts to the very stagey,

very theatrical, framed, ghostly shot of the entire staff of the hotel in their finery and in their best. And that is the hammer drop on the emotional impact of the movie. I also really like when they get back to F. Murray Abraham and Jute Law sitting at the table. Yeah. And then it pulls back and it's like, you can become aware

that you're like almost watching a play because they get the spotlight just as the only light on them. And the hotel is dead. The hotel is a cemetery. I think there's just, there's probably north of a hundred shots of portraiture in the movie too, which is interesting because it's about a movie about the pursuit of a portrait.

And that's obviously the into-camera shot, something that he does very well. But there's a couple in this one that are in the elevator that are amazing. Oh, yeah. Where each character is kind of like positioned at different heights. I honestly can't even imagine how they do this. Like, we do these pods on video now.

Wait, we do. Each time, like, Gow and Jacker, amazing what they're doing. Like, can you do this to the left footage? And can you move your computer and, by the way, your computer? And I'm like, I can't work like this. And you imagine being Ray Fines and being like, you don't have a centimeter to move, but you're Ray Fines.

Sean, you were referring earlier to it. You were talking about one of the whip pans, like where the camera reaches the destination before the actor does. And I think you were talking about when Adrian Brody is running specifically. And to be able to do that and to be as funny and charming

and in character and make it seem delightful when he, you know, when he's yelling, stop or whatever, but the camera's doing half the work. It's wild. This episode is brought to by Pure Michigan. In Grand Rapids, every moment feels like a scene worth replaying, every riverside stroll, every slow afternoon sipping small batch brews, every guitar riff drifting out of the city's brand new amphitheater. This is a place where everything feels cinematic.

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Bada, ba, blah, blah. only. Prices and participation may vary. Prices may be higher for delivery. Dan of Thieves, Benny Hahn Award for the scene-stealing location. I'm going to go a little bit of Zag. The brutalism of the 1960s version of the Grand Budapest. Because I kind of also have like a hankering. It would be kind of rad to stay in a hotel where there's only like six other people. In Soviet Russia?

Yeah. In 1960s history. This sounds like the start of one of the movies that you guys see that I won't see. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Startup 2, starring Chris Ryan. There's like an old ghost in the bathtub. It's like Andrew Tate called you and invited you to his favorite hotel.

That's not what those movies are. Is that strike one? Would you be the shot caller of the Grand Budapest Hotel? Oh, if it was like a prison? Well, would you make it that kind of environment? No, I think I would be like a little bit somewhere between Nikolai Koster Waldo and shot caller and fines in great. in booty piss. I'm like right in the middle.

That's my Venn diagram. I see. I would be more of the guy who's getting hosed down in the Arabian baths. I hear it's good for me. Did you guys have a different location? Well, I think

that they completely constructed alpine cable cars are really cool, as is the finicular that runs up into the hotel. I think is very cool. I love a finicular. You guys do much finicular riding? I like a finicular.

I took a finicular in Bergen, Norway. We took the... That was dope. Well, you... Oh, Chris. Took the finicular first and was kind of met on the finicular. Okay. I enjoyed the finicular, but maybe he had lowered my expectations.

Also, you know who? That's because you took it one day, and then the second day I was in line to get on the finicular, and our beloved Tony Gilroy got off the finicular and was like, it's good, it's great. Tony Gilroy likes this finicular. Have you used the Angels flight? I've never done it. Constantly. It's a big, big, big hit with the kids.

Really? Yeah, you go to Grand Central Market. You hop on the Angels flight, a local finicular, if you will. Well, that's why I'm asking. Yeah. But Angels Flight was inoperable for many years and they restored it. But to like Echo Park? Nope.

It goes up to kind of where like mocha is in the museums. Just the other side of downtown. Like Walt Disney Hall? Yeah. And then you go back down. Are they going to build a Dodgers? I'm going to do that this weekend. Well, if you look at the billboards in my neighborhood, they are against it.

I have a couple. I have two other here. I mean, you mentioned the hotel. I just feel like it's worth noting that the hotel was a department store called the Gerlitzer Varan House that they, took over and built two different facades for, right, for the different eras. But also the, I know Chris loves this place, the Zvinger Museum in Dresden, which is the double of the Kuntz Museum for the big chase scene.

Sierra spent a lot of time in Dresden. Beautiful. Yeah. I actually have spent a night in Dresden. One wonderful night with Madame D. The Kennedy Pursuit of Happiness Award for Best Needle Drop. I got to, I hope, shout out to these guys. I hope I don't butcher the name.

Ose Shupils. S. Roth Zauril, which is the yodeling in the beginning. I don't think you got that right. And they're like a Swiss folk group. I thought he got it right. Okay. Okay. I think, could we do the reverse of this award, which would be like how... Reverse music?

No, no, no. Like, the... Wes Anderson deserves praise for, like, not putting a kink song in this movie or a Ramon song. You know, like, I feel like the urge to break, to go super anachronistic. Yes. To go ten and bonds. Probably would have been strong. And he didn't. and it's aesthetically perfect.

Can you call out something from the score as needle drop or no, that's technically not accurate. This is like a score. I think this was written for the film. The score is incredible. But there is also a lot of classical. There is some chams in this as well. I think to plot Canto at Gable Meister's Peak, which we all agreed was the most rewatchable scene.

I was the holdout. We'll fix that in post. Yeah, Ultron over here. Did you guys see the... Socobia Stinger at the end of this movie this time around? Did you watch the Criterion Blu-Rae edition? It's pretty sick. Red Hulk appeared?

The Big Coonner Burger Award for Best Use of Food and Drink. There's so much great food and drink. I want Pink Hulk to get its moment. West Anderson's Pink Hulk. Concierge Hulk. It's a sign of your cross-Tees. It's a Monsieur Baner. Yeah. Hulk picks up last.

He's like, I'm in Thailand. I can't be safe. Boy. Big Coonaburger. I'll give you two. two options. Or you can pick a third. Oh, it's easy. Mendel's cake. The

pastry that is being inspected by the prison guards. That he's like, it's too beautiful to destroy. Chop? That's my pick. That's the ones that's when they make the cookies in the shape of hammers. Yeah. I also love the one that that. Incredibly. They got away with that. Brilliant. That Ludwig and Pinky's gang

split and they're like still licking up the icing, although it does eventually lead chopping to them. Mendels is the best. Otherwise, I have the two ducks Two ducks roasted with olives, rabbit and salad, even though later on, off order, they're eating lamb. And I don't know that I could have done that. Lamb, duck, and rabbit, same meal. That's your sweet green protein plates.

Yeah. Thank you, Craig. That reminds us of our... That's perfect for a hot day. Our evening at Saddle Peak Lodge. Oh, yeah, that was my bachelor dinner. Yeah. Saddle...

Have you been to Saddle Peak Lodge? I haven't. I haven't. We had, what did we dine on that evening? We had emu. Ostrich. Yeah, do we have kangaroo? We may have, yeah.

Wow. Gamy means. Bison? Yeah, a lot of chew. Did any like little bits of buckshot in the? No, no. They were, uh, they were naturally decomposing and they were discovered in Malibu. And did, did Zach hunt them himself?

No. I think I would like to have a redo on my bachelor party. Me too. Was that really your bachelor party? I didn't have one. Because it was such a low-key nuptuels. But you had that one night with Madame Duh and Dresden, so. No, you want it.

Speaking of Chris's bachelor party, we should mention the name of the Mendel's pastry. It's called the Cortizan-A-Chicolat. The chocolate cortis. Is that also her name? Yeah. I think it may have been. Wait, so those are your two picks? Those are my two nominees, yeah.

I think you're missing two important ones. The prison mush. Yeah. Well, I wouldn't really want to eat that. It's quite nutritious with some salt. Sure. And it saves their lives because the guy with a scar enjoyed it so much that he murders his cellmate. Good point.

Who's going to, that's not dry stuff. If he's actually, that's like wet snitching. He's like, full snitching, yeah. I think the other one that I found compelling was the champagne that's better than the cat piss that they serve on the train. I love that. Good call. You have to bring your own wine to take the train. Mallory Rubin Award for Did This Movie Need a Better Sex Scene.

Better than Raph getting head from an old lady? That's actually like a really great point. I don't know how you get better than that. Butch's Girlfriend Award. now typically here Bill will highlight the contributions of an actress that he doesn't feel like

lives up to the rest of the film an actress you say you could talk me into the love story of this film being somewhat thinly developed somewhat lightly developed you know it's just sort of like taken as a given that they fall in love deeply as teens

and then survive until the point where Agatha obviously tragically passes. I will say that my nominee for this is probably going to be the Kovax's sister subplot, which is like, fine. Oh, no, the Serge X's sister. Surge X's sister. Sorry, you're right. No disrespect. I just, I can skim through that as like a weak link of the movie. Yeah, but that it gets you the big misdirective whose head is in the, in the laundry basket. Because you were worried it's Agatha. Were you shocked? No, I wasn't. You didn't think it was I didn't think that West Anderson was going to be head, Agatha. I think that's a great point about

the, you could see the romance as, as flimsy. I think that one of the more beautiful lines in the movie, though, is when he basically says, like, we could do whatever we wanted because there was no one looking for us, no one modeling, no one checking for us. We were both completely alone in the world. And that really reminds you that this relationship is essentially Moonrise Kingdom again. Like it is an impossible young people idealized moment. And it is just a moment in time, but one that consumes the rest of Zero's life. I don't know that there's a person who's a weak link. I think in general, Surge X plot line and the usage of Matthew Almerich is...

It's also we get robbed of maybe one or two more sedu scenes. That crossed my mind as I was looking over the cast. Sadu's kind of like... Oh, he took it. Oh, yeah, she snitches too. What's up with that? A lot of snitch jackets being caught in the Budapest hotel. Well, Clotilda, you know, she's trying to survive in this harried world of Dimitri.

But she seemed very happy to see Gustav. I feel like... Yeah. She... Leia Seidu is cinema's chief proponent of inflicting pain. which we also learned in Dune Part 2 And I am I'm seated for all representations

You're season tickets for getting punished Fond of her work What's age the worst? Working six and a half days from 5 a.m. to midnight Probably No, no, that's legal in Arkansas now. That was actually how we made Grantland, honestly. It felt that way many times.

How was the blogosphere? Yeah, it did feel that way. I don't mean any disrespect. I'm just going to say it. I don't think hotel service is as good as it is depicted in this film. Well, I think the question is, was it that good 100 years ago? Who can say? I mean, it's also, they're not air-conditioned, you know?

So, oh, that's in the mountains, so you're probably cool up there. But, you know, there's lots of really great advances, and I love a hotel. What's your opinion on extemporaneous romantic poetry? Like, do you feel like that is an appealing characteristic? because when Agatha suddenly busts out a couple. I think one of the funniest parts of this movie is the poetry is terrible. It's just terrible poetry every time. Very good.

Very good. I would say what's aged the worst is the still lingering take that Wes Anderson is just a spectrumy fancy boy playing dress-up all around the world. I feel like that. You feel like that takes still out there? Oh, I feel like it was out there when this movie came out. Is that on Tim Wall's Twitter? Like you're like... It's been scrubbed already.

It's been scrubbed already. Tim Wall said that. No. Wow. Finally, the Republicans have something they can use against him. It's true. The ammo.

They need. The left and disarray. Do you guys think that something that's aged the worst is just the profession of concierges? I'm glad you asked. I was recently at a hotel

in Raleigh, North Carolina, a wonderful establishment. And I walked in to the lobby. And of course, typically in a nice hotel lobby, you've got to the left, you've got your concierge to the right,

you've got your check-in, sometimes vice versa. And it occurred to me when I walked into this hotel not three days ago that I have never once asked a concierge for anything in my life. I have never, and I think I walk me through this. Is this a class thing or not? Because I think I'm like too ashamed to need the help of someone who feels like they're sort of like.

I just don't know. I legitimately don't know what they would do now that the internet doesn't do. I would say, and this is, I was going to accuse Sean of humble bragging for saying he was in a hotel recently. I'm going to come off the top rope and say concierge is in countries where you don't speak the language. Very helpful. Tremendously. Very helpful. Particularly a place like...

That was not an issue in Raleigh, North Carolina. Yeah. You're in Houston. That's because you preach a whole platform of just like jobs. That's right. Normal things. No, like in places like Tokyo where you can't like go on open table, the person of the concierge. desk, we'll pick up the phone and call the place for you.

And that's very, very helpful. Conciergeers and hotels will do that right now. I personally just have no relationship to that experience for whatever. Maybe my parents didn't use them or, I don't know. Like, if you're in New York and you try to get the concierge to get you into, like, Don Angie or something like that. And then they're like, I can't. If I was fucking Paul Meskell, could you, you know what I mean? Are you saying you don't have the same cloud as Paul Mescal?

I don't think so. I'm going to suggest both have been on the watch. So maybe that's. Very good point. I feel like maybe we. democratized. But so have you. It really lowers the average. Here's my take. We have democratized concierge thing. Have you ever used a concierge? No. Because wait, here's the thing. If you were at a fine hotel like the Grand Budapest or somewhere in, you know, somewhere in Paris, and you knew that this

place was the best of everything, like the best service, the best restaurant, the best champagne in the rooms, you would trust the concierge to actually know the city and give you access to the theater that you couldn't get into otherwise. Every best Western in Shoborgan has a concierge desk where they're going to hand you the pamphlet about the hot springs that are closed. You know what I mean? Like, we have to find a new language here. That's the issue.

Concierge is for the elites. Well, do you want a guy to Google for you? That's what I'm saying. It should go back. It shouldn't be Googling. You want somebody to basically be like, tell me what the 15 hottest restaurants in this area are. And know how to do things? You know what I do like?

As the Society of Crossbees. I'm glad we're talking to a motel and I'm talking to the guy at reception and he breaks out map and starts drawing in a hotel all the time. How dare you make me seem as though I'm not a common man. He's describing the penultimate episode of Mad Men. He has not stayed in a hotel when Don gets robbed. I very vividly remember being on the one, the drive along the one in the late 2000s, early 2010s with my wife. And we stayed at a series of hotels all along California. And you'd wake up in the morning. You had never been to the, you'd never been to whatever, Carmel by the sea. And you go.

to the front desk and they just break out the map and then they draw you here, go to this place. Here's Clint East House. Yeah. Here's that new parasail. Yeah. The Sunny Bono Memorial Mayors. That feels over. I mean, you could do that on Yelp, obviously, quite easily.

You could do that. You could look at the eater list for Carmel. You guys, you're not romantic. I feel like this movie shows us that concierges can do other things like CPR. That's right. You know, like break out of prison. I also think this movie is sort of colored by take. I just like all conciergers.

Are you guys all grandmelf guys? Like, what's going on? Good question. Is that really what the sort of? sorority of crossed keys is about. It's by guys who love to have sex with old women. What's age the worst? Fascism.

You know, there's a framing where you could say it's doing fine. And... Are we dropping this pot on election day? When is this coming out? Sheld this because he was just like too much swig talk. I heard Greenwald keeps talking about Woody Allen. Scribes fever. I hate it. It's still around. It's still out there even for podcasters.

Oh. that's aged well then, right? I think that Scribes fever is like, but it's aged the worst, like, I wish we could have gotten rid of it, like we got rid of concierges, you know? That's what the author references. Yeah, he's like, it's basically I have a depressive writer's block. Do you know what's aged badly?

Is the suggestion in the movie that modern medicine will cure all pandemic-type viruses quickly? Oh, yeah. You know? Good call. Because, what is it that they're afflicted by? The Prussian grip. Yeah, and he's like, today's medicine would have knocked that out

in a week. and I guess yeah. But what if it's just athletes' foot? Yeah, that would be fine. I don't think that would have I think that would have taken her out.

No, I think she's a strong, strong woman. Ruffalo, Hannah, Rubenac Partridge overacting award. They knew and they let it happen. Don't you call me, lady. I come in here, I give these things to you. Give it all you got! Give it all you got!

I treated you like a son. You fucking stand me in the heart. Fuck you. I think this is a tough one. People aren't allowed to overact in a West Anderson movie. Well, Willem Defoe overacts in every West Anderson movie. I love William Defoe. But he doesn't even speak that much.

It's so much mugging. I mean, I think he and Brody are really dining out. I fucking love Brody in this movie, but, you know. Defoe is the closest, but he's being asked to do that. He is, he is. Was there a better tell for this movie? No. No, fuck no.

The Can You Dig It Award for the most memorable quote, I think take your hands off my lobby boy, or... You see, there are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity. Indeed, that's what we provide in our own modest, humble, insignificant. Oh, fuck it. I think that's cool. That would be my choice. I've got a couple more. Hit me.

Well, we already said I go to bed with all my friends. We already said the one about the cat. Would you like say it again? Did you just throw my cat out the window? The dialogue of there's really no point in doing anything in life because it's all over in the blink of an eye and the next thing you know, Rigger Mortis sets in, and then a moment later says she was dynamite in the sack, right away.

When you're young, it's all fillet steak, but as the years go by, you have to move on to the cheaper cuts, which is fine with me because I like those, more flavorful, or so they say. Can I give one? Yeah. I love when he goes, me thinks, me breathes, me last, me fears me. Holy shit, you got him! Whilst the muskets, crack from the only...

and roared hurrah and the ramparts fell. Methinks me breathes me last, me fierce, said he. Holy shit you got him! Well done, Zero! And also the... With Zero, when he asks if Zero knows what to do and be... Have you ever been interrogated? And he says, I was arrested and tortured by the rebel militia

after the desert uprising. Well, you know the drill then. Zip it. I do like when he approaches the madam's corpse, and he's like, you're looking so... well, darling, you really are. They've done a marvelous job. I don't know what sort of cream they've put on you down at the morgue, but I want some. I want some.

Yeah. And then he's like, Cloteen'll get me a glass of chilled water with no ice. Isn't there a line where he says he's like a real straight guy and he says no one's ever said that about me before? Yeah. Great. The CR thinks Luke Wilson could have been Harrison Ford

Hottest Take Award. Could Luke Wilson have been M. Gustav? Or M. Chuck, even. Or M. Chuck. I have one for you Do you want to go first? Do you have a had a stake? I think that you can put Owen Wilson in the lead role of every Wes Anderson movie

and it's actually better except for this movie. This is the only movie where if you, and I have felt this since Tenenbaum's where I'm like, I... So who would Owen Wilson have been in Moonrise? I guess he's kind of sort of Edward Norton in that part. But this is,

one where you can't have you can't have a repertory player from the Wilson company. Okay. That's a great, great take. What about you? For a hot take? Are we doing the one about people, or are they actually good at their jobs? Oh, that is the Vincent Chase Award. You can, I'm sorry for skipping

that. I just assumed there was so much professionalism going on here. I don't know about the writer. Are we sure the author is good? Oh, let's go back to the... So this is actually a great hot take, because I had, first of all, I had no idea you would be... Well... That is supposed to be Stefan Dwight. essentially. Yes. I think, okay, this is also my, I'll carve this out of my potential recasting

conversation. I think Tom Wilkinson may rest in peace, phenomenal actor, good in so many good movies of the last, of the first two decades of the century. He likes to buy bread. I kind of think, A, that part could have been better with a different kind of crusty Englishman. John Hurt in that role, you know, a Michael Gambon, a Terrence stamp, like just kind of a different authorial. Gambon, No Stranger to a Wes Anderson's film? Correct.

But the second thing is, are we sure that he's a really good writer? Because his whole thing is, I just stumble into stories, then go off on rescuers to South America. I think that that's an interesting question, because that gets into whether or not... Was he WGA or...

He's using... He wasn't, which is the source of my iron. Oh, yeah, because he's equity or not. He was a scab. He, like, is using that as basically a distancing mechanism. Yeah. And I wonder whether or not, of course, like, in the same way that we talked about with, like, why does Zero kind of allied the Agatha stuff, even, you know, and it makes him cry just to the very mention of her name, but goes into so much detail about Mr. Gustav.

I think that his being like, you can just sit there and people will come up and tell you stories. It's like, well, he pursued that story, you know, like, and I think that that story probably is supposed to color in a lot of who that person. person is. Because of his interest in it, you mean? Yeah, I think so. I also might be reacting to the fact that what we see... Why is he going around to, like, decrep-decaging hotels of the world if he doesn't share some of that same romanticism?

You know what I think kind of affected my viewing of him and my understanding of the character? And I feel like Sean will be with me on this. In the opening, when it's Tom Wilkinson and he's addressing the camera, there's real J.D. Vance energy to the way he treats his grandson, you know? In the sense that, you know, when J.D. Vance got the call, he was like, stop fucking looking at Pokemon cards or whatever to his eight-year-old. And this kid comes in with a pop gun,

and he just erupts on him. And I was like, you can dictate your memoirs in a second. You kids here now. It's very royal ten and bar. Oh, that's, you're just like, you feel like he could have been a better dad. And then the kid comes by and says, sorry. Grandson, I think. And the kid says sorry and you said, sorry.

But I don't know if it's true. That's how we were raised. We turned out fine. We're okay. Look who we do for a living. Very well adjusted. My hobbies is that. Dimitri got a lot of things wrong,

and I don't necessarily associate with this political ideology. I certainly don't. I certainly don't. What about his sexual politics? I think he was right about Gustav being a con artist. Huh. And so there's the line he has where he's like, this criminal has plagued my family for 20 years.

He's a ruthless adventurer and a con artist who prays on mentally feeble, sick old ladies, and he probably fucks them too. It's quite a thing winning the loyalty of a woman like that for 19 consecutive seasons, Chris. I'm just saying, I'm just saying if a guy like Gustav showed up in my mom's life I'd be suspicious

I'd be suspicious I'd be suspicious If my mom was like I love this weird hotel Yeah The concierge is the best And he was like I would just be like

What's up with Gustav Like what's like Why wouldn't you be happy for her You know You live on the other side of the country You know what I mean Like there's like a certain Inheritance I expected

But I think But, Chris, you are not, first of all, I mean this sincerely, you're my best friend, you are not Dmitri. You know what I mean? Dimitri only wants Boy with Apple because he doesn't want someone else to happen. He's not the S-theat that you are. Sure. You know, at least in the first draft of history in this movie before things go out of control, there's a world where they give him boy with Apple and then they move on. Sure.

Right? Like, there's a version of the story where everyone gets what they want. And it's sad, obviously. You know what? That's my take. The movie should have ended at the 17 minute mark. Get Boy with Apple.

It's a phenomenal hot take. You don't relate in any way to Dimitri. I don't. I'm just saying I think he might be right. And I also think that if like a dude showed up in your mom's life like that, you'd be like, I'm a little suss.

When I said that this movie is about class, part of what I mean is that I think one of the ideas of the movie is that it's a good thing for the have-nots to aggressively pursue the haves to get more to balance. And fussy. And fiscally.

It's a saltburn situation. Yeah. And that there is a kind of justice in that pursuit. So by you identifying that Dmitri's point of view is the correct point of view. I think he might have a point

that Goush might have had a little bit of con artist. Sean, I just feel like he loved her. Sean, Chris's ideology is simple. Let me explain it to you. There are makers and there are takers. and Chris just invariably just feels like he's one of the former

casting what ifs Angela Lansberry from Adam D is one of the all-time what-ifs totally oh that was supposed to happen yes she was she had to go do driving Miss Daisy on stage there was a scheduling difficulty apparently

my wife's favorite Anderson like blocks out your wife loves driving Miss Daisy can you imagine her favorite movie is his favorite movie is Hillbilly Ellen sorry yeah there's also a

You said hillbilly Elgy at the same time you said I fucked Antal-Lansberry Can we separate the audio tracks for that moment? It's the remix. There was also a rumor going around that Johnny Depp had been up for Gustav

but Wes Anderson has shot that down. That feels like a Johnny Depp perpetuated rumor. The only other casting, what if I will say, is that Norton was like shown the script and then Wes Anderson was like, by the way, like, basically choose your part or tell me what part you're interested in, except for Gustav because that's for Ray Fines. And Edward Norton was like, if he had picked anybody else but Ray Fines, I would have been banging down his door to get to play Gustav. I had a semi-hot take relevant to this question. Norton, we love.

We love him. Big Ed, they call him. Did it have to be him as Henkels? Like, I went through the... That could have been Owen Wilson. I went through the repertoire. of West movies. Yes, and that could have been

an Owen Wilson part. I don't know if it gets better or worse. Interestingly, the three actors that he works with frequently that I like a lot that could have played that part I think are all disqualified because of their ethnic background and presentation because Leav Schreiber has worked with him before

could have played that part. Jeffrey Wright could have played that part. Nita del Toro could have played that part. But none of them have the appropriately milky complexion of Edward Norton. So maybe that's why it had to be him. Well, I think Edward Norton has just appeared in every single West Anderson movie

since Moonrise Kingdom. And so he is just committed to the Edward Norton project. Was there a better part for Edward Norton, I guess, is the question. Yeah, I mean, like, he's basically playing a variation on the camp the camp director from Moonrise here, like where it's like this kind of middle management.

Aficious. Aficious guy. Not necessarily the worst, but not the best. Yeah. So that was it for casting what ifs. For the Rick Dalton Award for the best fucking acting I've ever seen in my life. I got to admit, I think it's Goldblum's reaction to the cat. I will say just in general, Goldblum being like, we have a tantin here, and then there are

637 amendments, footnotes and last wishes, all of which, the legality of which we're going to have to ascertain. I was reading an interview with Wes Anderson, and he was saying how, you know, some actors struggle to memorize dialogue, and that it's very, especially when it's written just so and meant to be delivered just so. And he was like, every time I were with Jeff Goldblum, he's like, he has it like that and knows exactly what to do with it and is a perfect reader about. We're talking about Sam Jackson with Tarantino last week on the show. And it's like, sometimes there is a man. I feel very similarly about everything he does in life aquatic. Jeff Goldblum is magnificent in Life Aquatic. He's so funny and just gets the character perfectly.

He's great in this. If we're going to talk about a perfect moment in an also otherwise perfect performance, I feel like we would be remiss if we didn't mention the moment when Monsieur Gustav is talking to Henkels, and then realizes he's about to be arrested, and just instantly turns and runs, which is both a classic Wes Anderson visual gag, but the timing is... I know. She's been murdered, and you think I did it.

And he's just fucking books. It's just exquisite. Super funny. The playoffs are here, and you can predict the action all the way to the finals with Fandul predicts. Follow all the playoff dishes, swishes, wishes,

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Learn more at Wells Fargo.com forward slash active cash terms of play. All right. So these next three categories, I added one. All right. Okay. I have Best That Guy Award.

I have the Kyle Lowry Award for Best Seventh Man. Hmm. He might not be the seventh man this season. Seventh man on the Sixers? Yeah, I think he might be the seventh. You guys are in trouble if that's your seventh man. And the Dion Waiters He Check Award for doing the most with the least.

Now, the reason why I broke this up is because I feel like for me, Larry Pine is the best that guy. Yeah, me too. Sanders, look at us. Sand him from succession. Here's who I'm putting up for Sean. I also had it is the Sean Livingston Award, but then I changed my mind is the best seventh man. Okay. Ed Norton, Harvey Keitel, Jeff Kemp.

Goldblum. A little bit more than a Dion, too big to be a that guy. I say Kytel. I love that, that performance. I love that part. I'm going Goldblum. I think it's Goldblum, because I think the part is shockingly small, but casts a important shadow over the movie. And you were just talking about how specific and enlivening that everything that he chooses to do is. I don't think, I think it's crucial. The best Kytel moment is when Gustav praises his artistic skills. and he looks around at everybody for a second, like, aren't you impressed with me? It's the best.

And then the Dionne Weiders Award for Hecheck. I have Schwartzman. Yeah. Owen Wilson, Bill Murray. I have Lucas Hedges. That's the answer. That's what I had to. The gas pump attendant, yeah.

That's really good. And I didn't realize, like, I'd forgotten that this wasn't Lucas Hedges' introduction to the West Cinematic Universe. Moonrise Kingdom. which suggests that Wes knew something great was in this boy and flew him to Germany for that scene. That is a flex. And the budget is still relatively reasonable.

Tony Romo, Chris Collinsworth, or Doris Burke for the director's commentary. I got two here. These are weird because they're like self-layups, self-valubs. She's a cheaper cut, dude. Or I see you, Agatha. you've put in time with the icing tube and the confection sugar all under the watchful eye of your coach, Mr. Mendel. And now you're here at the carousel.

Young love, you and zero. Look what you've achieved, sir. You just called Agatha Sir. I also don't know why I'm kind of making Doris like way more agro than she is. Yeah, she sounded angry. Apologize to Doris Burke. Doris is easily my favorite bit on the show in like years.

I think it is amazing. and honestly, I don't mind putting this on Front Street. You wondered aloud yesterday whether Doris is aware of this. I'm speaking to you, Doris Burke, right now. I hope you know that Chris is doing this out of love, but also sometimes when you're broadcasting a game, it gets a little weird. I need you to understand with love and respect that this makes me laugh very hard. I see you, producer Craig.

Half-S internet research. The painting that replaces Boy with Apple in Madam D's house is called Two lesbians masturbating. Wow. Really the only alternate title for the movie I could come up with. Ray Fimes casually performed Gustav's life story for Wes Anderson as an active improvisation from being a Dickensian Street Urchin through his young life in East London and like basically plotted out his biography. But they didn't really have like a place to put it.

He told Wes Anderson told Matt Zollersites this in Matt Zollercite's excellent book about this film. And knowing that makes the performance all the more delightful, knowing that there's all these layers to the cake, as it were. Jeff Goldblum hung out for a majority of the shoot, even though he was done after like a week. That tracks, I think. Nice. Everyone in the crew lives in this Berlin Hotel together,

took dinner together at night with his chef that the production had hired. So those are the main ones. Did you pick up the one about how Kytel slapped Tony Revelore when he says, Good Luck, Kid? Like 40 times. Forty two times. That was the one time that West Anderson went full fincher. Wow.

Apex Mountain. Ensemble of mustaches. Has there ever been a greater collection of mustaches? I feel like there has to be. My cruising is in the conversation. Not as many mustaches as you think, though. Well, in the club. Yeah.

In the background. Yeah. Glory. A lot of mustachees and glory. That's a good one. The film glory? Didn't Matthew Broder The first two movies that came to mine Cruising in Glory

Do you greatest movies about men that I can remember Why? Should we also throw in Annie Hall? Yeah, why not? Why not? Is this Apex Mountain for exquisite portrayals Of Beautiful Boys on the Cusp of Manhood? No. That's stand by me.

Yeah, that's cruising. Any other Apex Mountains? You just look at me. I mean, on the serious note, it seems like we're suggesting this might be West Anderson, of course. I don't know if I agree with that, but it's on the cable car approaching the apex. I think it's, well, in the real technical terms, I suppose, English patient or... No, no, this is better. Voldemort.

It's better. It's not about what's better. Yeah, we're in definitional zone and we can't go down that rabbit hole right now. Have you ever said that on this podcast before? Yeah, you can't. But it's not about... Long time, first time. It isn't the best work, right?

But it is the most juice. Right. So if it's the most juice, I don't know that this created the most opportunity for refines. Yeah. I think that is probably

the English patient. For Wes Anderson, I think he rubber-stamped another 10 movies with the success of this movie. That's a really good point. Because then at any point going forward, they're like, maybe...

It could be this. I don't want to get to straight away. Raise the scene. This could make sense. But I do wonder what dispatch Dispatch had like a just pure theatrical release, right? But coming out of... Streaming on 2B at the same time, it came out of theaters, yeah.

Well, to that point, Astrid City had a theatrical, but was on... They all were theatrical. Astrid went to Peacock quickly. Yeah, quickly. But it was theatrical. Yeah. Okay. Any other on Apex Mountains? Revelry, for sure. Or was it Spider-Man?

No, Spider-Man, I think. Spider-Man's bigger. Right, because he's Flash, right? in the Spider-Man movies. Mm-hmm. Not the Flash, Chris. Just so you know the difference. Yeah.

Um, I'm just, gee-jif... I don't think any of the other actors, right? No, and I wouldn't say fictional Eastern European cities. It's... It's... It's Secovia. It's Secovia. Wow.

Obviously, a much more important touchdown for the watch. So... So... And then you have the accords coming out of it. Right, in terms of geopolitical. Yeah, it's kind of important. Cruiser Hanks. I'm going to go, Hanks, because he...

has been in a Wes Anderson movie. Yeah. Who would Cruz play in this film? Cruz as M. Gustav is just delicious. Cruz's Dimitri would have been really fucking funny. He could do that. He could do that. Henkels? Yeah. Would you waste Cruz just being like, popping his other?

100% would. By the way, one interesting exercise for West Anderson movies that we won't do today is retroactively recasting movies as his ensemble has expanded. Oh, yeah. So Tom Hanks is now in the company, theoretically. So would he have played? What would he have brought to me? Could he have played Royal Tenetbone?

Right. Or Herman Bloom or, I mean, he wasn't the right age at that time. But it's interesting to consider that each one of these movies has opened the doors to more people being in these movies. And Margot Ravie is now a part of that as well. And what if she were in the Sir Sharonin part? Or what if she was one of the old ladies? Good point. They had AD.

Now Chris is, we had its attention. Now I'm interested. Now you're interested. Now you want to touch. Racehorse, rock band, wrestler, a fantasy team name. I think Society of Cross Keys. It sounds like a Godspeed you black emperor or something. No.

Dude, I went through this. So tell me what this is. Are these references to the movie or tracks on a Magway album? Concierge freed from shackles. Stack of filthy carpets and a starving goat. A tricky war. Gunter was slain in the catacombs. This has got to be a Maguire EP.

It's 100% of us. Racehorse I like Boy with Apple. Oh, that's good. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I don't have any others. Picking Nits. It's hard to pick Nits with a movie like this, just because, like, it's designed down to, like, a frame of its life.

I would note that the lamb is not in the original order, like we said. And I just wish there was more Agatha and Zero stuff. We haven't really talked about that relationship, and I think it's indicative of maybe, like, it not being, like, the thing you think about when you think about. I think it's intentional. I think it, I think that the Roman. The importance of romantic love between young people is not the romance that this movie is interested in.

It's about people with art or an era or performance or a physical place or an idea. And I think that's intentionally put into the background, right? It's almost overlooked. It's related to my picking it, which is like, are we sure boy with apples that big a deal? Did you prefer two lesbians masturbating? Well, candidly. That is actually a great unanswerable question is what's more valuable today, two lesbians masturbating or boy with apple

You mean in terms of like happening in the world? In the real world? Yeah, like if both of those paintings were on contemporary art market. Which are you clicking on faster? Two attachments arrive. What has better SEO? You're working six days a week and a half day on Sunday.

I know which one is working for you. Boy with Apple, are we sure it's good? That's a good. That's just a good. It's also funny that this movie is so just excellent on almost any level that when you do like a cursory internet search for like problems in the movie,

they are entirely like, it says this happened on August 7th, which was actually a Wednesday in 1938. I don't care. Sequel, prequel, prestige TV, all black cast or untouchable. I have this is untouchable. I think there is, this is the rare case, as I say with the hosts of The Watch in which this would be a very interesting

television series set in different years at the Grand Budapest Hotel. But could you sustain the style? No. I'm going to stop you there. Anderson would have to do it. That would be very exhausting for him. He's shown such an interest in revisiting his work and expanding their IP footprints. Well, he is willing to take chances on different formats in the short films that did for Netflix last year.

I mean, I could see a world where he was like, I'll do six 22-minute episodes called the Grand Budapest Hotel. And their little vignettes. 1918, one set in 1918, 138, 48, 48, 48, 58. But with old people, I want to sell Chris on it. Yeah. That's a very good. Or he could also make elder fucking, which is a series about young, virile men, fucking older ladies to get their money. Hey, hey, hey, hey.

If they get money. To get their love and their money. The money, if it happens, it happens. Okay. Chris, I'm just trying to open your mind. I want your mother to be happy. Okay? It's just.

No way. Is this movie better with Wayne Jenkins, Danny Treo, Sam Jackson. J.T. Walsh, Byron Mayo, Harling Mays, evil laughing, Ramon Raymond, or Philip Baker Hall, or Bill Paxson from aliens. God damn, Gustav! This is what I want. I ain't know I was dealing with Super Butler, and a motherfucking set of front row aisle seats at Opera Descada. You better keep your hands off those grand milks and watch out for fascism, or Dimitri's going to send your ass away a long fucking time, big boy. Get him the fuck out of here.

I was right. Thank you. It's weird to do that from the hosting chair, I got to admit. Yeah, but it was right. I feel like Henkels sounds like Jenkins. Oh, yeah. I think there's a corollary there. That was what I was thinking.

Are you sure, Byron Mayo doesn't want a little menage, you know, with Madam D? It would have been easy, yeah. Just want Oscar who gets it. Right for Wes. It's easier to say now because Wes Anderson has an officer. for the wonderful life of Henry Sugar. Yes. He didn't have one at the time,

so you would think that this would be a crowning achievement. But Ray Fines is so fucking good in this movie that I'm going with Ray Fines. I think that's right, because I think that regardless of what we were saying about whether this is Apex Mountain or where it stands in the West Pantheon, like he continually and consistently makes movies like this.

And Ray Fines is so singular in this movie. I think it would be his. Probably unanswerable questions. Do you think you would have been a lobby boy or a concierge? Well, you got to start somewhere. Yeah, we all have to start somewhere. We learned that Gustav started as a lobby point. Andy, is rudeness merely an expression of fear?

Yes. I thought it was incredibly insightful. Yeah. Let me tell you, my drive here really encapsulated that. There was a Rivian that was behaving in an insane fashion. But I, you know, I was empathetic because I was like, this person is just clearly, clearly just paralyzed with fear. Put the lights on top of the car, pull them over, citizens are out. Yeah, sir, please.

It's like, what the thing is, it was EV versus EV, so it was incredibly macho. I know you care about some things in our society. Not Chris. Any other answerable questions? Saudi Chris. Gaskin, drill baby drill. Yeah, why did the Grand Budapest Hotel get to persist in a Soviet society? Like, isn't that one of the first things that would go and be transformed into like a social

services space. Are we sure it's still called the Grand Budapest Hotel? I think so. Well, I do think it's because... I think he is given up however many millions of Kubex, Klubex, yeah. To get... Gary Kubik. Gary Kubek. Gary Kubek? Kubek? To buy the hotel. So he's like, here's the trade-off. I keep this. I try to keep it up and running, but you guys get the fortune. There's also a tradition, I think, of like in Soviet eras, like they would keep one hotel for tourists or guests or whatever.

It was probably, every room was probably bugged. Is that true? Yeah. I mean, they, I think that was accurate in the sense that, you know, I once traveled behind the Iron Curtain in 1983. No. Yes, I did. As a six-year-old? Yes.

You were taken to where? I was taken to Budapest to Slovakia. You know what this means. Yeah. This is not Andy Green Wall. You're a sleeper agent? This is the no-way out Russian Asian. I don't need to...

I don't think I need to answer it further. Yeah, I was there. Any other unanswerable questions? This is very answerable, but Madam D was the secret owner of Grand Budapest Hotel. Yes. And she bequeathed it to Gustav.

In the event that she's murdered. I see. Right, because it's in the second well. Best double feature choice. I have Ingmar Bergman's The Silence or Hail Caesar, which got brought up earlier. Well, I mentioned the lady vanishes, which I think would be a good one. I would just recommend everybody watch the earrings of Madame Duh, the Max Offles movie.

That's his, that's Wes's number one movie, right? On the site and sound pole. It's a very, very big movie for Paul Thomas Anderson as well. And if you are interested in the way that cameras move in films, this is among the most influential movies ever made. Also, William Eubank when he was making Land of Bad, frequently went back to the work of Olfels. He did. I would also recommend Grand Hotel from 1936. 32 would be a good one.

I think Avengers' age of Ultron in terms of its like unflinching vision of what is possible. It's sort of like the flip side, like a post-Soviet society. Be careful what you wish for

with concierges. You think you're building these guys to be helpful. Yeah. Stick with pepper pots, you know? It's really true. It's really just a story about a butler who stops saying yes. Speaking of stories about butlers

who struggle with saying yes, My double feature was Remains of the Day. Nice. Very good. Anthony Hopkins, but also a sense of, like, an institution trying to persist through global political changes. Not as many jokes. In Remains of the Day. In Remains of the day.

Not a lappar. The blooper reel that they show at the end of the credits is funny. But Apatow is on set that day. Remains of the day, I can't remember if it was that or Howard's End. I can answer this question. This is why I'm here. But my dad liked one of those more than heat, and that was a real. schism for us. Let me tell you that it was, he came out in 96, 95. 95 winner.

He liked, hold on. I know, because I read those reviews, he liked both of them more. I mean, your dad gave four-star reviews to both of those films. He was a merchant ivory Stan. The Wes Anderson just popped out there, you know, like my dad and I had a fight about this thing. But Remainty's Day was 93 and Howard Zend was 92. D motherfucker. We've talked about the story. This is that I first, that I never,

I didn't meet Chris for many years after that, but I would come down to breakfast and my father would be reading the Philadelphia Inquirer and say, four stars from that anglophile Desmond Ryan. Anglophile, yeah. Andy Redsey-Want-A award for what happened the next day,

we pretty much know. They go through it at the end of the film. Do we believe this narrator? Whoa. So what part don't you believe? Agatha's. Is an author even exist? or was that book written by AI?

You know what Sean said? It was Agatha all along. Oh my God. Coach Finstock, oh, what piece of memorabilia would you want from this movie? I mean, boy with Apple, I think, is the... You just said that was a piece of shit painting.

I was just picking some nits, I was sure it was good, but it was valuable. Okay. I'd like a split of the champagne that they enjoyed during their meal. That seems nice. The whole table settings. Mendel's Box?

Mendel's Box. How do I get that finicular transported to my residence? Rick Caruso could have done it You don't live that high up How did that vote work out for you? I think I would go I was going to make a joke about Dimitri's red slippers

But I don't want to draw any more comparisons Between myself and Dimitri You're a interesting hero's narrative Coach Finstock Award for Best Life Lesson The Cheaper Cuts are the most flavorful Love it Who won the movie? I believe Wes Anderson wins the movie

even though Ray Fines deserves the Oscar. The pursuit of art and aesthetic principles above all else? Yeah. I think it's Wes and I think it's the totality of his vision on screen. You know, that's an easy thing to say. But there is like a real like, man, you saw something in your head and it is in its entirety on screen. So I think it's Wes.

But I think, yeah. I do think art persevering in the face of it. No, but I think the West thing too, because just to circle it all the way back to the beginning, Like the gut punch of he was shot, I think, is as perfect encapsulation of why his style of storytelling matters. That there can be beauty, there can be aesthetic choices, there can be all this, like, ridiculous satire, frippery jokes, all very high-minded. But it is in pursuit of something a little bit deeper. Like, he is not just, yeah, he's not just set deck. All right, brother.

I think most people's opinions or movies are largely shaped by the. the circumstances in which they've seen them. And this movie came out in 2014 when I was in the middle of film school, and it just took over my entire class. Did it? Oh my God. Cinematography class was basically just people recreating West Anderson shots. Because I think there's something about West Anderson's filmmaking style that actually

feels achievable because it's so specific. Yeah. It's long dolly, symmetrical framing. It's like an equation you can solve. Yeah. So that was a constant for two years. And I don't remember. It definitely wasn't the first West Anderson movie I had ever seen, but it's what really made me go back and watch all of his prior films.

That's what I was going to ask you. In school, was he an iconic figure? Yes, he was like the guy. He's not indie, but he had that. My friends dressed as Steve Zizu for Halloween in college. He was everybody's like iconic indie darling guy that they wanted to be in film. school. And I think this is his most satisfying movie to watch. I think the pace, the energy, the humor, the overt humor. Yeah, it's so funny. It's so funny. I think Fines, it's like one of my

favorite performances I've ever seen. And yeah, I think a lot of people who get annoyed, who are annoyed with Wes Anderson's like schick are less annoyed by this movie than any of the others. Yeah. Because I think the, his old, his like Wes Anderson-y pedantic style filmmaking is actually a part of the plot of this movie because it's like who Ray Fines is. So I think you can actually write it off much more in this compared to other movies where it feels like it doesn't need to be made that way, but it is. But in this movie, it feels like his style actually is a part of the plot of the movie. It's a bad, I mean, he's a very controlling filmmaker making a movie about people who have to keep themselves under control. Yes.

Right. In Moonrise Kingdom, maybe, you would like to see a little bit more of like a rock and roll heart to that time period or something or a little bit more of a let your hair down element to it. It's something that I'm always a little bit frustrated by. with Life Aquatic when I watch it because it's ostensibly about Jacques Cousteau, but you never get the sense that you're watching something that Jacques Cousteau would have made or shot. You know, you have no feel for this, like, one little moment where you're watching a little bit of his film at the beginning. But it's a very good point that this is definitional to the character and definitional to the movie. But I think it's in some of those other things, you can see the building blocks of what inspired him,

whether it's like the mixed-up files of Mrs. Baselie Frankweiler leads to Royal Tenenbaum's or liking Jacques Cousteau. or, you know, his parents having New Yorkers around the house leads to the French dispatch, for whatever reason, picking up Stefan Zweig in the bookstore in Paris that he did, touched him, and it feels like actively involved in the inspiration. Did we mention Hugo Guinness in this conversation?

We didn't. Not once. We should have, yeah. He's responsible for a lot of this, not, I don't know if a lot of this film, but there was several, he's the co-writer. I think they came up with the story together. Wes wound up. Did he write the screenplay?

He wrote the screenplay, but he was co-nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay. It's also worth noting that when this is happening, Anderson spends most of his time in Paris now and living as an expat, I wonder whether or not that gives him a specific POV on like, I'm an outsider,

but I am like romanticizing this place that I'm in. But yeah, Hugo goodness, we didn't tap up. Sorry, Hugo. I mean, when you have Dimitri right there, you have to keep the spotlight where it belongs. Thanks to producer Craig. Thanks to Jack and Gahau. We will be back next week with a film

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