Analysis
Symbols and Tropes
Hero's Journey
Ever notice that every blockbuster movie has the same fundamental pieces? A hero, a journey, some conflicts to muck it all up, a reward, and the hero returning home and everybody applauding his or...
Setting
Zubrowka, post-1985In the beginning of the film, we see a girl hang a hotel key on the gravestone of the Author. We know that the Author is an important man, a national treasure, and the author of...
Point of View
Frame NarrativeA frame narrative is a story within a story—or, if you're Wes Anderson, a story within a story within a story within a story. That's right, before we hit the ten-minute mark in the...
Genre
Comedy, Action, CaperComedyYou laughed, you cried (of laughter), and you laughed some more. Wes Anderson's movies have always been, no matter how depressing (or, in this unusual case, action-filled...
What's Up With the Title?
In case you didn't notice, The Grand Budapest Hotel is that giant, pink colored building that Gustave and Zero are always hanging out in. Oh, and it's also that not-so-pinkish building where Mr. Mu...
What's Up With the Ending?
"In the end they shot him, so it all went to me."By the time Mustafa's speaks this line, we've almost forgotten the reason that Mustafa and the Author had dinner in the first place: because the Aut...
Shock Rating
RMaybe it seems strange that a movie with such levity can have an R rating, but all of the bizarre humor and sharp wit of the film can make us forget about some of its more gruesome underpinnings....