1. The Grand Budapest Hotel

March 16th in Chicago: I've written it before, I am a big fan of the films of Wes Anderson. The Grand Budapest Hotel is his latest release with another stellar cast. The film is narrated by Jude Law who plays the "young Author" who repeats the story as told to by the hotel's mysterious owner Zero Moustafa (F. Murray Abraham). Moustafa tells the Author about his first day and his subsequent training under the hotel's concierge, Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes). The Grand Budapest is a luxury alpine hotel that caters to the wealthy of pre-WWII Europe. Gustave is the best at what he does and that includes being a bit of a gigolo to some of hotel's older, wealthy women who frequent the establishment.

Without getting into too much detail of the plot, Gustave and Zero embark on an adventure that turns into a murder mystery. During their adventure Gustave steals a valuable painting from a recently deceased duchess, gets imprisoned, escapes prison, exposes the killers and inherits the Grand Budapest. Zero is along for the ride as Gustave's faithful sidekick who helps Gustave escape prison, fall in love and helps expose the murders. Along the way there are a slew of excellent cameos from Bill Murray, Harvey Keitel, Jeff Goldblum, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton and Mathieu Almaric. The sinister villains are played by Adrien Brody and Willem DaFoe. DaFoe is Brody's henchmen and doggedly chases after Gustave and Zero.

Anderson does a great job at telling a very intricate story with a lot of characters. Everything meshes together nicely. The color of the sets and costumes are vibrant in a way the kind of gives away the characters personality (Gustave is a bit flamboyant so he wheres a lot of purple and is always impeccably dressed, even in his prison issues). Anderson gives you what you expect from his films without giving you the same film. Very original, very detail orientated and character driven. My favorite Wes Anderson film is The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Grand Budapest is not at that level in my opinion but it is a really, really good film. To me, Anderson is a must see director if only for the fact that he is making films that no one else makes. He also gets A list actors (Bill Murray was paid $9,000 for his role in Rushmore) to appear in his films. He doesn't make blockbusters, he makes art.