Wes Anderson’s Best Movie Is Still ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’

American filmmaker Wes Anderson is a textbook example of an “auteur.” His films are instantly recognizable by their symmetrical cinematography, dynamic color palettes, quirky characters, and recurring lineup of actors that includes Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, and brothers Luke and Owen Wilson, among many others. He is also impressively prolific, having released four films within the past five years, with his most recent work, The Phoenician Scheme (2025), being released in limited theaters just last week.

But, even as he continues to grow his illustrious oeuvre, most critics and Anderson fans still regard his Oscar-winning 2014 period comedy-drama The Grand Budapest Hotel as his masterpiece. The film’s story revolves around a 1968 conversation between an unnamed author (Jude Law) and the eponymous Eastern European hotel’s current owner, Zero Moustafa (F. Murray Abraham), as the latter shares his story of meeting and befriending the hotel’s eccentric concierge, Gustave (Ralph Fiennes), who was framed for the murder of his elderly former lover (Tilda Swinton) and pursued by her selfish son, Dmitri (Adrien Brody).

Aside from containing many of the most extravagant visuals and hilarious dialogue of Wes Anderson’s career, what distinguishes The Grand Budapest Hotel from the rest of his already distinctive filmography is its intelligent and mature storytelling, as well as its exploration of heavy and complex themes, including grief, nostalgia, and the rise of Nazi fascism. In doing so, Anderson crafts an unusually somber and, at times, deeply disturbing film that gives the lie to the notion that his films are merely self-indulgent works that favor style over substance.

Wes Anderson’s Brilliant Use of Color

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Anderson’s films are sometimes criticized for being overly stylish at the expense of emotional or thematic depth. But The Grand Budapest Hotel demonstrates that Anderson can creatively use his distinctively colorful and ornate costumes and sets to convey complex ideas and engage the audience on an emotional level. For instance, the hotel’s interior and the characters’ outfits are vibrantly colorful in the early flashbacks (particularly red, orange, and purple). The fact that this color scheme seems excessively idyllic and artificial makes sense because we are being shown the hotel through the nostalgic mind’s eye of the narrator, Zero.

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By contrast, the flashbacks near the end of the film, in which Zero is beset by multiple tragic losses, are filmed in black and white. Not only does this bleaker cinematography reflect Zero’s gloomy emotional state as he recounts this somber part of his life, but it also critiques the encroaching Nazi regime that is largely responsible for what ultimately befalls Zero and his friends. It is scenes like this that prove Wes Anderson is a far more mature filmmaker than he is given credit for. He knows that the world is only as beautiful and colorful as the people within it. When people like the Nazis enter the picture, it is no longer appropriate to film the world as colorful and whimsical as Anderson often does.

The Political Subtext of ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’

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On its face, the narrative of The Grand Budapest Hotel is a simple mix of murder mystery and buddy comedy. But this belies the much heavier themes at the heart of the film. In an article for The Atlantic, prominent attorney Norm Eisen (who is given “Special Thanks” in the film’s closing credits) highlighted the diversity of the Grand Budapest Hotel’s staff, including Zero, who is an immigrant; Gustave, who is bisexual; and Vilmos Kovacs (Jeff Goldblum), a Jewish attorney. In other words, Eisen points out, they are all members of the kinds of demographic whom the Nazis despised. It’s worth noting that the film takes place shortly before the rise of Hitler and the start of World War II.

Furthermore, although Dmitri is not explicitly identified as a Nazi, his black and gray style of dress, Hitler-like mustache, SS-like insignia, and greedy and bigoted personality make him an effective stand-in for the fascist party. His desire to steal a valuable piece of artwork that doesn’t belong to him also closely mirrors one of the Nazis’ less bloody but equally reprehensible real-life crimes. Furthermore, his motorcycle-riding henchman, J.C. Jopling (Willem Dafoe), who brutally murders multiple people throughout the film on Dmitri’s behalf, is essentially a one-man Gestapo.

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The Grand Budapest Hotel, then, is a celebration of diversity in the face of impending authoritarianism and violence. The colorfulness of both the hotel and the people within it is not just aesthetically pleasing — it also represents the joyful resistance of Gustave, Zero, and the rest of the staff to fascism. At the same time, though, Anderson doesn’t sugarcoat the damaging consequences of fascism, as evidenced by the black and white flashbacks near the end of the film. In fact, even from the beginning of the film, when the author meets an aged Zero living alone in the hotel (which is now only meagerly occupied), we know that Zero’s story doesn’t exactly have the happiest of endings.

‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ Is About the Importance of Remembering

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But what’s important is that, by sharing his story with the author, he keeps the joyful memories of the hotel — and the memories of the people he loved most — alive. Moreover, the film is bookended by a young woman in the present day, reading a book that the author wrote about Zero’s story (itself titled “The Grand Budapest Hotel”), showing that the author has successfully preserved Zero’s story for future generations. Ultimately, the film’s message is simple: buildings and people don’t last forever, but the memories of both certainly can. The Grand Budapest Hotel is available to rent on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

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