The Grand Budapest Hotel offers a bustling movie getaway most Wes Anderson fans will find irresistible. A wild romp set in a 1930s Eastern European mountain resort, it features a colourful assortment of players and a story within a story within a story that keeps burrowing deeper into its own silly seriousness. The plot unfolds backwards, as unspooled by the owner of the hotel to one of its guests, relating his beginnings as the establishment’s bellboy, Zero. Zero and his mentor, the hotel’s long time, ladies-man concierge, the ultra-dapper Monsieur Gustave , become friends and co-conspirators in a spiralling, sprawling misadventure that includes a murder, a missing will, a purloined painting, an outlandish prison break, and the outbreak of something that resembles World War II.
Everyone seems to be having a big old time in the big old hotel, and everywhere else, and several scenes are real jems, like the scampering prison escape—which feels like a live-action re-enactment of something from the stop-motion animation antics of The Fantastic Mr. Fox—and an extended sequence in which a secret cadre of other concierges drop everything to help one of their own out of a jam.
Her – Review (Aug 11th Nantwich Civic Hall)
Set in the Los Angeles of the slight future, Her follows Theodore, a complex, soulful man who makes his living writing touching, personal letters for other people. Heartbroken after the end of a long relationship, he becomes intrigued with a new, advanced operating system, which promises to be an intuitive entity in its own right, individual to each user. Upon initiating it, he is delighted to meet “Samantha,” a bright, female voice, who is insightful, sensitive and surprisingly funny. As her needs and desires grow, in tandem with his own, their friendship deepens into an eventual love for each other.
Her is a film you can revisit time and time again and find something new to ponder over, Her takes an unusual premise and uses it to draw some knowing insights about human connections. At times it is funny and sweet, but always smart and thought-provoking,
Autumn Preview
View a preview of our upcoming season of films by following the link below. Our schedule to November is posted over there in the right hand column –>