The Grand Budapest Hotel / Russell's Reserve Single Barrel Bourbon ft. Patrick H. Willems

0:00 In 2014 director, Wes, Anderson and Star Ray finds gave the world, a tale of the search, for a faint. Glimmer of civilization in the midst of a barbaric war in 2022. We take a return trip to Kentucky, to spend some time with the master of turkey. The film is The Grand Budapest Hotel. The whiskey is Russell's Reserve, single barrel and more view them both. This is the film and whiskey podcast.

0:48 Welcome to the film and whiskey podcast, where each week, we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey. I'm Bob book, I'm Brad G and this week we are looking at the 2014, Wes Anderson. Buddy, The Grand Budapest Hotel. Now, Bob, we normally includes Bob and Brad, but it doesn't just mean the two of us today, does it? No, we're not even going to tease it. Today, we have a special guest with us and it's probably film and whiskey nation's favorite, special guest. If I had to guess that might just be their favorite host, overall above you. And I most likely we're joined by our friend YouTuber and filmmaker Patrick, H Willems back for the Third. Time on the show.

1:30 I have no idea why. Patrick, how are you today, man? I'm doing great. Especially you, you know, hyping me up like that as you know, the, the favorite guests that seems unlikely. I can't imagine that's true, but I'll take it anyway. Yeah, please do is its 100% factual for real man. Well again, you guys have sent me multiple bottles of whiskey in the mail and so I'm just going to keep coming back as long as we keep up this ruse. Sounds good to us, man. As long as the terms of the relationship are clear. We are we're good to go. Exactly, by the way, this goes for anyone else for the podcast mail, me alcohol. And I'll come on your show so it's been a little while. Since Patrick's been on the show he joined us right at the beginning of season 5 to go over one of his favorite films charade and he's back again for the Grand Budapest Hotel. But in the interim there have been some pretty major developments in Saint Patrick's life and career. Namely, my guy is like an A-list filmmaker. Now, I've seen his name on Marquis all across New York City, he's helped found nebula, which is just incredible. To hear those words.

2:43 I feel like I'm talking to a combination of Spielberg and Zuckerberg right now. So Patrick Williams, catch us up a little bit, man. What have you been up to? Ah, well, I'm trying to remember, when exactly. Did we record the charade episode? I'd say. It's been about nine. Last 10 months now. Yeah. I was last time I was actively working on the movie at the time and since then I finished it and my life is a lot less stressful now. Yes, basically in in the interim I finished making my first feature length movie a very silly. I guess you could call it a Sci-Fi musical comedy. That is also A continuation and conclusion to the long-running narrative from my channel.

3:36 Meaning you've got to watch, like a year and a half's worth of the YouTube videos to understand this movie. So basically the equivalent of like, you know, any new Marvel movie but yeah, II made a movie. We actually finished it and it's out. Now on the streaming platform nebula please, please go watch it and validate the last year of my life. Like that, I put into making this. There's that trademark insecurity. We look for in all of our filmmakers you really arrived now man, thank you, I've gotta ask so I gave you the list of all of the 32 movies or I think 29 as of right now because we're doing listener picks for the last three and you very quickly responded and said, hey I want to do Grand Budapest. So what is it about this movie in particular that that jumped out to you from the list and even like among Wes Anderson's movies, why Is this the one for you? So I should say right now that I feel like this was maybe two months ago that I replied to your email and Pitch this one. So I can't remember what the other options were, so I can tell you why I like Grand Budapest a lot. I can't tell you why I picked it over other movies because I just can't remember what they were.

4:52 And I can't even you're doing multiple was Anderson movies, right? Yeah. So we are we're at the tail end of a little mini Series. And that's kind of how we had this season structured. But for Wes Anderson, we did Rushmore and we did Moonrise Kingdom and a few seasons back. We looked at Royal Tenenbaums. So, this is actually the fourth, Wes Anderson we've done on the show. Okay, so I will say, so my favorite was Anderson movie is actually Rushmore, which is like nice one of my top five films ever. I adore it but I think I had just very recently talked about it. On another podcast. And I was like, I don't want to just repeat the stuff I just said, so, I went to my second favorite Wes Anderson movie, The Grand Budapest Hotel, which I think even though it's my second favorite, I think it might be his Masterpiece.

5:48 Hmm. And you know like it alot of way is the the movie. His entire career had been building to kind of like the, the movie that best encapsulated, like ever like who he is. As a filmmaker everything that he does. Well, that's kind of, you know, this movie. It kind of comments on his whole body of work at once, it's also a lot of fun. And so I think it's a movie, I love. And I think I probably hadn't watched it in a few years. And so these are all the reasons that I picked it. Well, Brad, this was your first time seeing Grand Budapest. Is that correct? It sure was. Yeah, so coming off of the other three Wes, In movies that we did, what are your first impressions, man? I think that his other movies have a much more family-friendly feel to them even you know even with the swearing and the stuff that goes on in them, this one seems to kick it up a notch but I think that what Patrick said was kind of my basic takeaway from this film was that this feels like Wes Anderson just taking his very specific style and his approach to the craft of filmmaking and just new on seeing it enough. Where everything is smooth about this movie. Does that make sense?

7:14 Like it feels like in some of his other movies his very specific style of directing has a few rough edges and this one just doesn't have it like everything fits together perfectly. Without any issues. Yeah. And I walked away just going oh, this is like what Wes Anderson can do with his full Powers. Before, we get any further, we do need to go over to America's favorite segment, which we call, Brad explains. But before we get there, we want to give a quick plug for our patreon account. Whether this is your first or your 100th episode of film and whiskey, we'd love to encourage you to go to patreon.com/scishow and whiskey where you can support us at three different levels.

7:56 Bowls, A3 A5, and A7 dollar-a-month, tear at all three levels, you get tons of bonus perks, including special episodes specifically for the patrons at the upper tiers at all the tears, you get access to a Discord server that Brad and I are on every single day talking with the members of film and whiskey nation that again, is patreon.com film whiskey Brad. It is time for Brad, explains the part of the podcast where you break down the plot of the movie that you have just Seen often for the first time we have put 60 seconds on the clock. Can you break down the plot of The Grand Budapest Hotel? I think I can. Bob The Grand Budapest Hotel, is a story about a writer who is hearing a tale about a aging high-class Hotel. The owner of the hotel is recounting stories from his youth when he was the lobby boy at the Tell and as he was mentored by a very unique and eccentric. Legendary concierge, they go on adventures together. They steal a painting from a very rich family that technically, rightfully belongs to the concierge. Who sleeps with older will older women, kind of like the producers man, I don't even know where to go. They steal the painting, they run away from the naught naught C naught.

9:26 He's they do crazy things. Willem Dafoe is terrifying and they walk away with everything. Yeah that's it. Hijinks ensue. Yeah there you go. There's like a certain point where I'm like here's the story and then after a time it's like and then stuff happens. Yeah, totally agree. Well, I mean, I don't know how much farther we can go talking about this movie without talking about some of Of the influences on the movie right off the bat. I think it's really clear that this movie is super different than the other Wes Anderson's. We've watched Brad, both in structure in Rhythm, you know, the pacing of the film.

10:08 It is like a slapdash. It's almost like a screwball comedy from the 30s and 40s. The dialogue is so rapid fire. And it's never been like that at any of the other Wes Anderson's that we've watched for the show. So, I think right off the bat, before we even dive any deeper into what the movies about. It's pretty clear from the jump that this is unique among those movies. Yeah, it's fascinating. As you were saying screwball comedies, the way that they travel, in this movie A lot, it almost made me think of Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Like, with just the weirdness of the, the couple the, the main two characters that are paired together as they travel about trying to make it to a place.

10:51 I don't know. There is something there that just clicked in my brain when I was like oh yeah John Candy, Steve. Ensure Patrick, I want to ask you, I'm sure you've seen every movie Wes Anderson has done at this point and I've been trying to kick around this cockamamie theory in my mind, but for a long time, my favorite Wes Anderson was Moonrise Kingdom. And, you know, these kind of came out back-to-back in his filmography was Moonrise, and then Grand Budapest. And yet I feel like in a lot of ways they're on opposite ends of a spectrum. Like, if you could plot Wes Anderson from, you know, on one side, you've got Closest to reality or, you know, very similar to do whatever you want to call it. His words are always constructed, but there is a degree to which this the world in this movie is constructed where it's literally a dollhouse at many points.

11:41 And if you put, you know, reality on one end and you know, and formalism and style on the other end, I guess, which end of the spectrum. Do you tend to gravitate to most and do you see this as one of his more, you know, more Stylistic less realistic films. That's a really good question because this is something that I've given a lot of thought to over the years because I think his first three movies so bottlerocket Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums. Those are the ones that feel the most like they kind of exist in the real world. I know, you mentioned Moonrise Kingdom, which is we can talk about that.

12:26 But I, but but, but the first three, like, even though, for instance, like, Royal Tenenbaums, it's like, they don't, it's the weirdest thing where it's set, New York City, but they don't say it's set in New York City. And, and they, like, cover up all the landmarks and makeup locations, like the 375th street. Why there is no 375th Street in New York like stuff like that. And but but they still like they're mostly shot on. Unreal locations and they just feel a bit more like like they are just a sigh lies, take on our world and I think Life Aquatic, which is, you know, the first one where he got a notably larger budget is like a turning point in terms of like that's the one where the dollhouse elements become more pronounced.

13:16 Like that's where you you first get the cross-section view of like one of his locations and then and his movies and from that point. To kind of, I think he became more confident in his abilities but also just gained at got more resources, so that he could more fully construct the world and like build it from the ground up and I think him, I think making fantastic mr. Fox his first of two animated movies was also I guess created a bit of a shift in his approach because you know he's making a stop motion animated movie. He is fully constructing a literal.

13:56 We everything there. And if you look at like Grand Budapest, there are just the way it's composed the like, the the use of models and everything, feels much closer to an animated movie like phonetic mr. Fox, then his previous live action movies. And the thing about this is I don't think any of this is necessarily that. I mean, it's not, none of, this is a problem. In many ways, it's a good thing because he's he's just becoming you do like Word, more fully like who he wants to be. And again, my two favorite was Anderson, movies are on opposite ends of the spectrum. Yep, there's Rushmore which is much more in the real world even though it's still a very heightened. You know what Henderson world and then there's real tender. But I mean sorry.

14:43 Then there's Grand Budapest which has the most dollhouse e of all his movies even more. So than like the French dispatch. Yeah. This end. And the thing is, but this is also a movie about why these like Carefully designed like, like, little dollhouse world's matter. Yeah. And and that's kind of like, like this is from you, like, what makes it such an important movie, like in his body of work, because it is basically a movie about why his very specific approach to these things, which some people find annoying, you know? I'll every time he makes a movie always see like a handful people on Twitter being like he's doing his Wares and or something.

15:24 Again I'm always like but look Really no one else is doing a Wes Anderson thing. Like this is this is his lie isn't it great that he has a thing that he does that that isn't really like anybody else and and you know that you've got Grand Budapest here which is like oh here was like this world. That was kind of beautiful. That was our you know we'll run by people who like really cared about their work and and and and like about the fine details and making things beautiful at end and why that stuff matters. And then the like way, Wave of ugly fascism roles in and like, steamrolls all of their. And so I mean, look, I'm sure you could, I don't know if that's jumping too far ahead, is it okay, if I, if I quote a line from Wake near the end of the movie? Yeah, because I'm trying to pull it up on IMDb to see if I can get the exact line because there's a line that f Abraham fo, yeah, we've got it marked down to. Yep.

16:30 Oh great. But that, that feels like kind of like the the mission statement of the whole movie hundred percent Brad. You have it pulled up. We were just talking about I was going to say, is it? Do you know the one? I'm to be frank. I think his world had vanished long before he ever entered it. But I will say, he certainly sustained the illusion with a marvelous Grace. Yes, that is it. And I mean, Look, I think that applies perfectly to Wes Anderson himself. He is, he is, he basically do everything he can. If you look at like, his personal aesthetic as like a human being the way he dresses.

17:10 If you look at the type of movies, he's trying to make and and the type of Cinema, he's trying to keep alive. That's exactly it. It's like the the time he's meant to exist, was like decades before he was born but with all of his work, he's And to preserve this. And, and again, this is why I think this is kind of his Masterpiece. Yeah. And I think it's fascinating, because in Rushmore, which is, you know, his second film. I would say that the Anderson analog is the main character of the movie, who is viewed as this precocious young, playwright, whose far ahead of his peers.

17:52 And, you know, I just unmatchable and yet he can't master, you know, Know, some of the basic human interactional skills. And then here in this movie, we have him as a concierge who is trying to hold on to the illusion of the past. And I wonder if there's there's just some semblance of him putting himself into these roles and how he views himself at these, you know, different stages of his career. This is stuff that I've thought about. And I've also thought about why is it that I respond. So, so much to these two movies, these movies are Out protagonists who were like kind of control freaks, who try to manipulate the world around them into being a very specific way. And, and yeah, this is a thing that I have noticed and and and really that these two was like companion pieces of like you know, Monsieur Gustave as kind of like the somewhat older more mature Max Fischer.

18:51 That's a it's a take. I like. All right. Well let's jump into talking about the performance. Has then we've kind of been circling around this role of Monsieur, Gustave, who's played by Ray finds in what might be the best performance of his career. I mean, Brad we've only really had him on the show a few times with Schindler's List wildly different performance and then as Voldemort which is again, wildly different than this. So you're missing one Bob, oh, what was the other one Prince of Egypt? Oh, that's right. As Rama see as rameses. Yeah, totally forgot about that one. So yeah, I guess he's probably been on here like six or seven. ABS now that I think about it and yet, this is definitely an outlier among those roles, you know, known for his dramatic roles. And here, he brings such a, I don't want to call it a lightness, because it's a very high-strung performance in a movie, that is a very high-strung movie, but he has such a Deft Touch that.

19:47 I'm surprised he hasn't done more comedy on screen, it's just like, it's a beautiful performance. Yet the thing with Ray finds has he's an After that, literally everyone agrees upon like, I've never heard a single person. Say I just don't like that guy. He's like he like one of his performances was bad. No one's ever said that. He's he's universally agreed upon as really good. You know? I it also helps come out the gate really strong with Schindler's List, right? We're obviously it's like an all-timer like towering performance but Like you know, when he's like announced playing like Voldemort everyone was just like, oh, yeah.

20:29 Yep. Yep. Yeah, that checks out when he joins the bond, the bond series of rooms like, yep, that's that. That's cool. Like, he's got to be in there eventually but um, but he is general and like, you think of, I feel like the stuff he's best known for. Like, whether those ones are like The English Patient are, those types of things. He's, they're usually pretty serious, The Constant Gardener, but I do think in at least in the past like, oh my God, it's like almost 15 years ago in terms of Comedy. I think the, the big one. The that was like, a bit of a revelation for a lot of people was in Bruges.

21:11 Yeah. Because specifically just his delivery of the line, you're an inanimate object is because he's playing a bus scare, he's playing like that. He works so well there because that is A classic scary Ray Fiennes villain role. But then he's also very funny and then, but then I'll tell, you know, you skip ahead, a few years and you've got hail Caesar, right? You've got the wood that it would if it were so simple. Was that the no, that was two years after this, right? I think so. Yeah, so really. So what we're saying is Martin McDonagh was the guy who first kind of made people realize Ray Fiennes could be funny and then was Anderson fully. Unlocked and was like, oh wait, we've secretly got one of the great comedic actors of our time right here and you've all been sleeping on him.

22:06 All we really need at this point is for him to do like the Colin Firth thing, and get his mama mia. Like, that's like, that's what we need is for him to just tilt into the fall musical mode. Wait, wait, wait, have you seen a bigger splash? I have? Yeah, because he has kind of, yes. A big dance scene. That's try where. Yeah, when he puts on, oh, Emotional Rescue by The Rolling Stones and just like, you know, he his shirt unbuttoned, like, wearing a bathing suit, just like goes off dancing around the room. That is, I think that is the closest we've come. Also great performance in that movie. All right, guys, where do you want to go from here with the performances?

22:54 Because this cast has I think I I counted and it's a million people in it and they all kind of share similar screen time except for Tony Revell Lori who we will for sure talk about but I don't know. Brad who stood out to you aside from Ray finds that you'd like to mention here. I mean I think that Willem Dafoe just is playing like the most silent version of the Green Goblin that he can and he's over the top and just ridiculous. And would he when he unbuttoned his coat Puts the The Whiskey in the perfect little pocket for it. Like it's just everything I want out of a Willem Dafoe performance.

23:36 Yes. Oh, this is his, I believe only second Wes Anderson movie because I don't, I don't think he was in the voice cast of Fantastic. Mr. Fox but I always struggle to remember exactly who's in that cast list. And I mean, you could not ask for a more crazily, different character than to be like this vampire fang ass. Assassin who's lurking in the shadows? You know, he made a movie in the early 2000s where he was essentially playing Nosferatu when I was he Patrick remind me? Remind me. Was he Nosferatu? Or was he murnau in that movie? I can't remember. He was Max Schreck. That's the actor who plays Nosferatu who then II actually haven't seen this movie. I'd seen it.

24:20 I've only seen it like on cable or you know, I mean like I've caught pieces of it because the other the other actor in that is mouth Mitch and I can never remember who plays who in that movie is murnau. Yeah God. Hi. I mean, here's a question. It has Malkovich played a vampire. In a movie, I don't know, because he should. I mean, just like take him and dangerous liaison stick a pair of fangs on there and you're good to go. Well, that that was gonna be my point here which was like, he has this vampire look, which is very reminiscent of that movie for me and and really reminiscent. And again, getting back to the influences thing that scene where he's chasing, Jeff Goldblum through the museum and they're doing all of those silent movie in camera transitions. Ins and tricks.

25:07 It's so reminiscent of, like a Fritz Lang movie and I really love what they're doing there. But you're right. Brad, like, he makes Wes Anderson, makes Defoe, this silent era German expressionist villain and it works perfectly, which is kind of one of the things that I think is amazing about this movie. Because this is like, this is kind of, like, Wes Anderson's like closest to a thriller he's made and, like, an action movie. Like, as you were saying, Like earlier, it does obviously like have a really really fast. I like, I got fast-paced, you know, screwball pace and tone everything. But also, this is the only time he's gotten into real like, suspense almost like horror sequences. He's got like full actions.

25:56 He's I mean, I know there's like, you know, there's a little bit of action in The Life Aquatic, but but this is like he's got, you know, like Actual proper. I guess, his version of actions that yeah, this is it this is really like him branching out into some new territory like when has he ever done a scene like that one? With defoe's stalking Goldblum through the museum? I mean he never has and I think that's part of why it's so effective and Brad was actually just talking to me about this before we hit record that the violence in this movie or maybe it was at the beginning of the episode, I can't even remember now Brad, but the violence in this movie is so startling and Happens in a way that you've really never seen before.

26:38 With Wes Anderson that, I think it makes it all the more effective. Yeah, I think that, it feels like most Wes Anderson movies. If there is a fight between male characters, it will just inevitably involve slapping. Like, I don't say that to like, like, that's, I feel like that's just his style of Comedy, right? To have two grown men, like, kind of having a slap fight with one another and so too. So, to move from that, I don't know feel of eyelids from his other movies into one where Jeff goldblum's four fingers, get chopped off, which set up what I think one of the funniest punchlines of the movie when they say they could only thing, couldn't find four fingers on the left hand gives 80-71 fingerprint for the Lancia. Like, it's, it's wildly violence. And yet still accomplishes the the comedic purposes of the And I just it's almost like dissonant and yet because it is dissonant, it makes each part stand out as more violent and more funny than they would have been on their own. Yeah, I do have to say, I think that I've always found really interesting with Wes Anderson, is that his movies very often have like, maybe one isolated violent sea, like his movies are not in general.

28:05 Violence. But but which is why moments like I Richie suicide attempt in the Royal Tenenbaums are. I mean we just watched Moon Risin and the dog gets shot through the neck with an arrow and that movie, I mean, yeah, Wes Anderson loves killing dogs. Yeah, which is why he eventually do a tone and make a whole movie about the exactly are are like, um, Owen Wilson's, death in Life, Aquatic. There's like and like Parts where blood suddenly appears we're like You haven't, like you bring us, haven't seen the color red. And so this sudden arrival of like blood and like, real death, and violence is always so jarring because it's, it's usually so hard to imagine anything like that even happening in these worlds.

28:51 Yeah, and here he goes a little bit further with it where they're a lot more people die, very much. So I also simply I also see this movie and going back to what you were saying earlier about where this stands kind of in his filmography. This is really the start of him playing with genre and playing with form, but also playing with like framing devices and it's something that I mean, really, I think reaches its Pinnacle with French dispatch, which is not, definitely not my favorite Wes Anderson movie, but probably the one that I think you could get the most critical about the structure of like it's, it's really fascinating how he puts that movie together. But here it's a story within a story within a story within a story.

29:32 And you have this really quick set up at the beginning of A girl in present day going to visit the grave site of a famous author and then they show a shot of the authors like headstone a bust and it cuts back to 1985 and shows him as you know, middle-aged Tom Wilkinson and then Cuts back from there to the 1960s where he's played by Jude Law and getting told the story of The Grand Budapest Hotel by F Murray Abraham who we then go even further back in time and see his character as the lobby boy. And I don't know how much of the framing device is strictly necessary to be honest, but it's really interesting to see him start to play with some of these quirks that he's going to add into the way he frames his stories. Honestly it's fascinating how in other movies like a Moonrise Kingdom.

30:25 He's almost trying to capture what it feels like to remember a Summer Romance as a as a teenager, right? But like like the whole movie is set up to feel like Marie. Where is this story is almost set up to feel like what it? What it is to experience a story fourth or fifth hand. It kind of reminds me of the story of cocoa that like if we don't remember the stories of our past as they are told as they're passed down generation to generation. Then you know what meaning does our live have does our life have and and I think he does that really beautifully here, capturing the idea of a vase. A story told down from generation to generation. Yeah.

31:09 And I think that might be a good place to kind of jump off into F Murray Abraham and Jude Law because they're you know the people that we visit with the most outside of that 1930s world. And I really just want to talk about F Murray Abraham because he is incredible in everything he does and he's not in enough stuff and he's not I don't feel like he's appreciated enough but first of all, one of the all-time great. Rating voices. I wish that he would just read to me on a daily basis, but also Brad. This is now the second time that we've had him on the show way back in season one or two. We did Amadeus his oscar-winning role and that movie is structured. Very similarly, like, Wes Anderson, obviously saw whatever.

31:53 Amadeus and said this is, this is my in to telling this story. I need to have a framing device where old F Murray, Abraham tells me the story of young, F, Murray Abraham and I think he took Took a good note there because it really does help the movie out to have that narration kind of pushing things along. Yeah, and it's also my mentor figure out how to articulate this because I do think that I hate to say, like, all all of the framing devices are like, absolutely necessary. But I think they do all add something to the movie because again, if this, you know, if this movie is kind of like, you know, an a celebration of this, This kind of like way of life that it has now gone, you've now have like, the Ripple effects through to the present of like, people are still like he even does like the in the girl, reading the book, people are still benefiting from like Monsieur Gustav's approach to things, even if it's only through like the story about him and to show that they're like, oh these will still like this will still last in some way. But the thing that I think is so interesting about the F Murray Abraham now Aeration is that, you know, was Anderson's movies. They tend to be the characters are emotionally reserved but they're also all movies where people are like frequently dealing with like profound loss and grief and stuff like that, they're just, you know, not they

33:26 don't tend to be like talking very openly about their feelings, right? And and so having those scenes where like, you know, F Murray Abraham starts like Breaking down, like, at dinner, like thinking about Agatha. And but then like not wanting to get really into it and then the thing is like, pretty much all like all of like that the parts of the story that she's in are mostly just the ways that she connects to like getting Monsieur Gustave out of prison. And he kind of skims over like much of this, like very serious romance that they had because he doesn't want to get into it and and Just that thing of like you have this, you know, having this, this Storyteller who is, you know, clearly like, skimming over certain things. He doesn't want to get into, because they're a little bit too painful for him.

34:18 I think adds so much to a movie that is again about, like, all this stuff that has been lost. So, yeah, it is. I think that the, the story of Agatha is like the most grounding element of this movie where Like, you know, we were talking about how it's a story within a story within a story. But you kind of see that in the way it's told a lot of things are exaggerated ridiculous and you know, it's a, it's a storybook type of type of tail. And so he tells it as if it's a storybook whereas with Agatha there's no, you know, heroic death for her. There's nothing that happens in the story. The thing that makes this story feel real coming from. F Murray, Abraham is the fact that he finishes it and just says, yeah, like she died a few years later in childbirth and we're not going to talk about that because that's the most painful moment of my life.

35:18 And it just, it just gives the whole movie. A sense of like, oh yes, it was kind of ridiculous what we told, but it still was set in a very real world. Some whiskey Nation. Do you ever think about Awards of course, he do you drink whiskey and watch movies. Which means that, you know, that nothing is validated until a group of random people say, hey, we love what you're doing. The awesome thing about doc Swensons, whiskey is that it isn't just some group of schlubs that are given them Awards. They have been winning attention from some of the most important, whiskey experts, you can imagine, they've been voted best distillery in Washington state by the New York International Spirits competition. They've been voted the best in Pennant bottler by the Ascot Awards as well as the best finished bourbon from the Ascot awards for their La Mente.

36:07 Exploratory Cask their sport or Cask series is where they release some of the most fascinating and adventurous experiments. If you're ever checking out, docks line up and see a white label is a really good chance that that's the only time you'll see that bottles. Make sure you snatch it up. Documents has been offering. Just phenomenal finished and Blended whiskies for quite some time. Now, you can find them online at Doc's, whisky.com. Cam. That's doccs whisky.com. All right, let's do some rapid fire evaluation of the other performances here. I mean, I think I wrote down, like four or five other people, but we could go on and on and on, I guess I'll start. I think Adrian Brody in this movie is just the man is dialing, it up to 100 and also knocking it out of the park.

36:54 I really like watching Adrian, Brody, in Wes, Anderson movies because the performance is very, you know, drastically from movie to movie. I think he's great in Darjeeling Limited. I think he's great here. I do think it would be interesting as I watched the movie. I thought to myself. I wonder what it would have been like, if he, and Edward, Norton had swapped roles because I think they both could have pulled off the other person's role pretty convincingly. But at the end of the day I really really liked what Brody was doing here. These days is is wasn't just like the only person who's figured out how to use Adrien Brody well in the last like 15 years. I think so. And and I've been really fascinated with the The trajectory of his career.

37:37 And and you know it's one of those things where if you don't know what happened behind the scenes with certain actors, you just kind of as a moviegoer or left scratching your head and with Adrian Brody I'm sure there's a number of things but that clip of him on SNL that has surfaced over the last couple years of him doing the Rastafarian thing. I think that's the moment where where Hollywood was like. Yeah not so much on this guy anymore and and then let's Anderson goes, you know what? No, I can still, I could still make something beautiful. Of out of this man and he has right consistently. Yeah, yeah, I mean the thing with Brody is is like there is that? I mean there's a, I don't know, if you've read Tina Fey's Memoir, but there's a whole section talking about, you know, dealing with Adrien Brody and his insistence on doing the Rastafarian accent because he thought it was the funniest thing in the world and everyone tried to stop him.

38:30 But I mean, there's things like that, but then also just like the roles he would choose. I'm Like other, you know, occasionally they're something they're like okay yeah. Doing like the Peter Jackson King Kong. Yeah, I like that. That makes sense. But but so much has other choices are just baffling and so I'm glad that was Anderson. Also once again unlocked. Oh this guy can be really funny like in this movie just the way that pretty much all the profanity in this movie is really funny because like because like, you know, Monsieur Gustave is so refined all the time and And any time he swears our system and crude, it feels so it feels like hot.

39:12 Like so off coming from him and is always funny but the way the way the Adrien Brody shouts, like what is this is always, it's always like having helped us be the like the most immediately crude person in the film is hilarious. And I feel like but we like this and memorize tandem Ed Norton has kind of gotten this. Looks like I guess place in the woods Anderson movies as the sort of like as a kind of a gentle reassuring figure. Yeah, I've been here when he's like this, you know, the good, the good, not see ya, then the good not see, but it's still just like he's like Edward in.

39:52 You've got a, you've got a nice relaxing voice and you seem like a good guy and you're going to play that kind of person, even though I know you can do all sorts of other stuff. Hmm, yeah, it's weird. It's weird that he's kind of gotten pigeon-holed as that guy because, you know, again, if you're If you think about early, Ed Norton, if thing about fight club or Primal Fear or American History X, I feel like the roles that Ed Norton has taken on in the last 10 years, kind of all tip into that, like, hey, I'm gonna do the Matt Damon thing for a while, and that's kind of, that's kind of the role he plays here. The answer here is that it was Anderson, is a huge fan of Keeping the Faith. That's and he just wants him to like be in that zone all the time. They say we see him as the face of fascism here. He's also been the Face of Anarchy. So, I just don't know if you, you ever know what you're going to get with Edward Norton.

40:42 All right, maybe let's do it this way because we have to break for the whiskey soon. Brad, and Patrick, let's pick one other person and talk about what you liked about their performances. Can I just talk about Tony drive a lorry? Oh, go for it because dude, I mean, it's, it's such a rare pleasure, in movies to to have an and introducing credit for someone who is basically you the lead The movie like, oh, they discovered an unknown and they're great. He's just I mean zero is not as showy your role as Monsieur Gustave but he's just just, he just such a joy to watch in every scene like like he's such an interesting looking guy, especially with his like drawn on pencil mustache. And and it just the way he moves his just like his facial expressions as he does.

41:36 Just like listens with his eyes wide to the rapid-fire directions, that Ray finds his giving him. I mean, he's kind of like the heart of the movie and I just like, I've been watching this for the first time, like in theaters being like, who is this guy? And what will he do next? I was thrilled. When he ended up in the Spider-Man movies, that's like great great put him in all the stuff but he's he's the best. Yeah, he just has an ability to constantly Learn from Mahjong, Gustav. That that is just captivating. And the one time, he always stands up for himself is when it comes to Agatha. And, and once again, it just gives this this, it grounds him as a character that he's not just simply, you know, following Gustav's every lead, he like, he stands up for himself when it's something he really cares about.

42:31 And, and just, the way that Revel Lori says, don't flirt with her Was he flirting with you? I just it just kills me every time, man. Brad what did you think of Saoirse? Ronan? Because you've brought her up a couple times now. So dude, if I feel like if there is a victim of the storytelling device which is, I don't want to talk about Agatha, it's the fact that we don't see Saoirse, Ronan enough in this movie and she should be in more of every movie that she's young. I mean, she she she's like, 30 years old and I think she has four Oscar nominations now Like it's kind of mind-boggling how good she's been for so long and she still so young. Yeah, there.

43:14 There's a tenacity and a sincerity to her performance here that I just, I just can't get over. I, I use that word sparingly, but it's usually one of my favorite ways to say, I really like a performance is to say it was sincere and there's just something about the way she goes about her craft, whether it's making the little cakes. Us with the, the tiny little, Wes Anderson hammers in them, or the way that she fights with zero. As she's like, I'm not going to be offense. That I just love her in this movie. Yeah, because she kind of has the tough role where it's like, as we've already established. Probably a lot like Mustafa, so, present-day are not even present. 1960s 0 old 0 is deliberately skipping over the media?

44:06 Are parts of her story. So like, you know, those scenes are just not present that would probably give her a lot more to do. And so she kind of has to be be both like his idealized version of her because this is being told through his perspective. But then also seem to have an interior life and also like, you know, again tenacity is a good word because you won't have to believe like why she's you know, risking her life doing these things. Things for reasons. Other than that she is hopelessly in love and going along with just whatever stupid plans and and she has to seem like she manages to build so much of like so much interiority and make this person feel like a real person who like and you understand why she's doing these things and taking these risks when probably not a ton of it is on the page. So I here's a scorching-hot take Saoirse Ronan. Good at acting and enjoyable.

45:06 Presence. Who we are? Always happy to see. Absolutely. Well before we get to Whiskey, any thoughts on the Mainstays? Murray Schwartzman. I mean that the Montage of the with the Society of the crossed keys were just everyone just popping up. It's just a delay. It's like it's one of those things where you're just like man I having the time of my life there's been we can't get any better then he makes a phone call and then you just get all of the images and then also just it's a great to see everyone show. Oh up. But then also just the gags of every person. Like their Lobby Boy, comes over. They, they give them the message. They say, you take over like, the one on the guy, like, doing CPR on the tennis court is yes, I mean, again, this, this is what you get is, Wes Anderson movie, they don't get anything else. It is that like, every little throwaway, like shot for a few seconds, it's gonna be in a isn't a heaven. And Her story.

46:07 Like I like a whole like mini movie within this like five second shot. Yeah, it it almost feels like a Family Guy, like chicken fight scene, like it just keeps going and getting bigger and more ridiculous. And I'm here for all of it. I also think that I just feel, like Wes Anderson every time he has, you know, Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman, and his movies. I feel like he has to write them like a handwritten. A perfect calligraphy letter that's like dear mr. William James Murray, I would invite you to perform for my upcoming picture and like, just just this really long letter that he writes to them because there's no other way.

46:51 He would invite them to be in his movies. Yeah. But at the other, like the other hand can you think of a better way to spend a day on set? Like, you know, the food's going to be good, you know, everything's going to be neat and in order and he's like, all right, Harvey Keitel, I have written you. Three lines of dialogue. I would like you to sit here and rhythmically, flex, your pecs and biceps. As you say these three lines and then you can go home and like and slap the shit out of Tony Gruffalo. Okay, one thing that I do want to mention here because the entire prison sequence is just so good. Oh, but the way that they like they never let you forget that these that these nice men That Monsieur Gustave has befriended are all like hardened killers and yeah, those the point when the guys are leaving and they were they were off to the bus and you think they're just catching the bus and then it just cuts back to like a wide shot as they are like choking and killing the bus driver to steal the bus are like that.

47:54 The moment when you know, there are other almost out of the prison and they like pull up the like the trapdoor and then Co know the guards are on there playing cards. And one guy without thinking twice, Whips out a knife and just drops down there and fight two stabs them all to death and finally dies himself at it's just like, it's like, this is like, you know, a Whimsical Wes Anderson movie in, like this dollhouse world and it's all very funny. And, and also death and murder is everywhere all over 100%. All right guys, I think this is a good place for us to take a break Brad. We have a bourbon to try. So let's get to this Russell's Reserve Single Barrel.

48:35 What do you say? Say, let's get to it. Today's sponsor is a little bit of a departure from our usual area of expertise. And man, oh, man, I was blown away by their product. Once we received it, I am talking about manscaped. Now, if you're like me at all, you probably seen the manscaped ads and kind of Wonder to yourself like, do I really need like some sort of specialty trimmer to take care of my downstairs business? And I've just got to be honest. I was absolutely wrong there trimmers called the lon 4.0. And I got to say it is the Rolls-Royce of trimmers. It's got a ceramic blade. That reduces grooming mishaps, a wireless charging base and an awesome flashlight. That keeps things illuminated while you're working and beyond all that it's waterproof.

49:20 This thing is really changing the game when it comes to below the belt hygiene. Now this is just me talking about my experience but this trimmer really is Way Beyond anything I've ever used to keep things neat. And tidy, you can use our discount code film, whiskey, to get 20%. Sent off your order and free shipping head on over to manscape.com and use code film. Whiskey, to get 20% off free shipping, and you will be well on your way to hygiene heaven. Alright, so today we are checking out Russell's Reserve Single Barrel. Now, Russell's Reserve is the brainchild of Jimmy and Eddie Russell from Wild Turkey. It is one of their higher end products, you know, kind of alongside Rare Breed usually actually a bit more pricey. They make a bourbon and a rye, we're trying to Single Barrel today which is always bottled at 110 proof Brad. So it's not necessarily, you know, Barrel proof because that would fluctuate wildly.

50:20 They always Put it out at 110, but wild turkey is always put in the barrel at a relatively low proof like somewhere between 107 and 114 somewhere in there. So it's not like they're watering it down a ton. What's in the bottle is usually about eight years old, and that's actually what we have here today. So this Barrel is from our friend, Austin at The Bourbon earring podcast, who's given us a sample from a barrel that was distilled back in 2011 and bottled in 2020. The mash bill on this bad boy is the same as always. Wild turkeys. 75% corn, 13%, Rye, 12%, malted barley. Those are the specs. Let's get drinking Brad. What are you picking up on the nose here? Oh, what was that?

51:04 Bob, I heard, you say, rare breed and I've just been been thinking about how phenomenal real good as rare blades, dude. It's just crazy. How affordable and spectacular that whiskey? Hmm. Well I'm telling you what, man, I'm actually knows. This right now on the air, I know you've had it already. This is like right up there in terms of nude, phenomenal noses. Like there's a ton of Oak here but it's peanut butter. It's caramel, there's leather, there's pepper. I mean it's just like everything you want in a bourbon that you also know is going to put some hair on your chest. Yeah, I think that there's caramel there's vanilla for me.

51:45 There was almost like an orange creamsicle thing going on like like it's not It's not citrusy, but it's like creamy orange. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah. And then there's like this at the back at your, right. There's a lot of peanut butter going on, but at the back end, there's just that little hint of that 13% Rye that makes me like, just I just get really excited. So, yeah, I am a big fan of the nose here. I'm gonna give it an eight and a half, I'm going to give it a 9. I really, really like this and I'm excited to take a sip. So I'm going to ask that. You share your tasting notes while I sip this. Yeah, I mean, this is like a peanut butter cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. Like, there's all sorts of peanut notes. There's caramel, there's vanilla and then kind of on the back end of the pallet once it hits the back of your tongue. You just get a little bit of that spiciness going on, kind of a rye baking spice feel to it.

52:46 That is complex and I'm just really, really beautiful. For me, it came down a little bit from the nose but not very far. I'll still give it an 8 out of 10. On the taste, I'm going to stick it. A nine man, this thing is really blowing me away so far. It's it's kind of thin but it's thin because it's so alcohol forward, you know, I'm talking about like when you can really taste the alcohol, the way that presents on your palate is is almost more thin. It does coat the palate, but it's not a really viscous oily whiskey and in fact, like, it's, it's Strong man. Like there's a ton of yeah of tingle here. Going on. It's not as stringent and it's not like harsh. It's just that the alcohol in this would make me think that we were drinking something that's like between 120 and 130 proof not 110.

53:37 So like be prepared for this product to kind of knock you on your butt a little bit. But man the flavors it's vanilla and caramel up front. There's a little bit of oak on the mid palate and you're right when you go to swallow, it's just like waves and waves of Peanut super good, just a classic bourbon palette. I'm giving it a 9 out of 10. Yeah, and I think the Finish, like you said, it it rounds itself out with all sorts of peanut butter, the orange creamsicle really sticks around to the end and then the oak comes through, but it doesn't get bitter. It doesn't get anything funky going on. It's just a really well-rounded whiskey.

54:18 I think I'll give it an eight and a half on the Finish. Yeah, I'm going to come down. It too. There are just there's just this one little flavor at the very back of the palate after you swallow. And I don't know if it's just oak or if it's some of that barley that's coming through. There's just a little bit of a funk here that turns slightly bitter and that's the only thing that's really taking this down a peg for me. I'm going to give it an eight on the Finish. Yeah. And overall the balance I will say this is like a semi complex whiskey. It's not like over the top with tons of different. Firs that all work together but overall, it's a really solid experience and all of the notes that you get throughout just blend together really nicely. I'll give it an 8 out of 10 on balance. Yeah, I think I'm going to give it a nine again. I mean, the Finish was a slight step down, but this is a very consistent whiskey.

55:11 Like, from the time, I knows that I knew it was going to have some power behind it and it totally did. There's a ton of Oak. There's a ton of alcohol on this and it's just a really, really Good. Kentucky bourbon like. Is it is it like mind-blowing Lee complex? No, not really, but that's kind of what we like about Rare Breed as well. This is just it seems like an even more potent version of rare breed and I really like that. So it's a 9 for me on the balance. And with value, Bob, I guess I'm curious, I this is a single barrel that was bought at Alexander's Market down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. So I don't I don't really know how are we Gonna score value here. Yeah, I mean, like we're obviously rating the one barrel that we've had and that's the danger of single barrels is that they're not blended with anything else. So the consistency from Barrel, to Barrel can be slightly off. Now, again, like they're, they're charring the barrels. The same, it's the same Mash bill but hey, if our Barrel came from a higher floor in the Rick house than yours did, or if it came from a hotter, part of the Rick house, like, it could have a very different flavor profile.

56:18 So, this is priced at $60 a bottle on a Ridge which I think is a really really decent value again. I don't like that. They're bottling it at the same proof. If it's going to be a single barrel, I think you really need to let the barrel, determine the proof because it's like at that point. Why are you shooting for consistency for things that are inherently inconsistent? And so that's kind of like the only thing I would ding here but I think the proof is high enough, right? Like it's definitely you can tell that it's 110 proof. I think it's a really good value. Brad, is it worth the 10 to 12 extra dollars from Rare Breed? Maybe not but it's also not a bad value. So I'm going to give it an 8 out of 10 on value. Yeah, I think if we were using $60, as kind of The Benchmark for where you would buy this at, I think that's a pretty solid value.

57:11 I'll give it a seven and a half out of ten. I'm coming out to maybe my highest score of the season so far. I'm at a 43 out of 50 on this. Brad. Yeah I met a 40 point five. So we're both coming out above the 40 out of 50 Mark, which is the sign of a genuinely good whiskey on this podcast? Yeah, not just good, great. I mean, we're at an eighty three and a half out of 100 or a 40 1.75 out of 50. Generally around that 35 out of 50. Mark is where we start recommending and anything over a 40 is like an automatic you need to get this. I would say it's worth trying at the bar. Because it's still affordable enough that you're probably paying between ten to thirteen dollars for a poor of it, but it's also worth picking up a bottle. $60 is you know, a chunk of change but it's also not like exorbitant, you know?

58:07 I mean like it's yeah, I want something nice to put on my shelf. Hmm. But it's also not going to break the bank. So for me it's a no brainer try and buy ya, a hundred percent. I am right there with you Bob. Well we really seem to be enjoying His whiskey. And I know we both enjoyed this movie. So let's get back to talking with Patrick about the Grand. Budapest Hotel Bob. This is just the best man. Let's get back to it. All right, everybody, that was Russell's Reserve Single Barrel. Thank you so much to our friend of show. Austin with the bourbon earring podcast man. That was a killer bourbon Bob. I really enjoyed it again.

58:47 Going along with Patrick spicy takes wild turkey makes good whiskey that it's who'da thunk and I would have never expected. All right, but I think it's time for Patrick to get introduced to one of our newer segments and it is called two facts and a falsehood This is the part of the podcast where Brad presents three items to me all of them, as fact. But you know, in actuality one of them is completely made up Brad. I'm doing okay on the season so far especially given your somewhat nitpicky tendencies in writing these things. I think I'm six and six on the year so far by nitpicky. I just take careful consideration as I craft each and every what was the word we used about? Wes Anderson, fastidious you are us study studious. Yeah.

59:34 The way that you construct these. All right. I think that what we're going to do today is we have to work Patrick into this somehow Brad. So what are you thinking? I think that you have a choice. Bob. Okay. Can either answer this question on your own and get two victories if you get it right or you can call Patrick phone, a friend if you will, and if he helps you get the correct answer, boom, you get your normal Victory. However, if he steers you wrong, you ask him for help and you I got two wrong. I think it's worth two losses, in my opinion. I agree. So it's it's either two victories, and 1 loss, or one Victory. And two losses.

1:00:15 Yes. Okay. Yeah. All right. Well, what, we'll see how I feel about Patrick Williams here in a couple minutes. But Brad, hit a hit us with your three facts. All right. Fax number one. The the tattoo on Ludwig are a direct copy of the character of pair Jewel in a towel. I totally want a from 1934, the M AV tattooed on his left arm is the abbreviation of the French saying Mort Vash which translates to death, two cows Vash being a street. Slang for cops or policemen. Fax number two, the name of the fictional country of Zubrowka Zubrowka is based on a Hungarian Spirits company that produces gin which is Wes, Anderson's favorite type of liquor Fact, number three, the soundtrack features a rare instrument, the balalaika, which is a three string, triangular shaped Russian folk instrument was carefully chosen by Wes Anderson.

1:01:15 All right. Patrick. I'm immediately going to come to you for help. So, these are harder than I expected that these ladies are hard, right? All right, I'll say this. I know for a fact that there are balalaikas in the soundtrack. So number three is true. Okay, and Patrick it again. You've been on the show three times now but Brad has not seen a ton of classic films and I would be shocked if he invented a reference To a jean Vigo film from the 1930s, with fact, number one. Mmm. So like, I'm, I'm leaning towards number one, also being true, unless he's being really nitpicky and like, the, the more dvash, or whatever is not a reference to cows or pigs.

1:02:02 Right? And so wait. So this is a thing that the Harvey keitel's tattoos is a reference to lot element that. Yeah, that's what he's saying. OK, I think I watched lots of Lawns like, From year of college and remember nothing. I watched the first 15 minutes of it. One night on HBO, Max fell asleep and never picked it back up. It's only like an hour and a half long, I should finish it. Sometime some kind of cinephile you. Alright, and then number two, Brad was about what? Again, the name of the country. Oh yeah. Movie replica is based off of a Hungarian company that makes Jin. I don't know of any Hungarian Jin's, but I mean, I'm not. Not, I'm not debating that.

1:02:46 It sounds very Hungarian. Also, this is I'm going to stop talking now because I you, you know, you still have can potentially get two wins here so you haven't called me yet. That's true. Now where if it listen if we're gonna go down with the ship here we're doing it together. Patrick so what are you thinking? Which sounds the most made up to you are you officially calling me in? Oh I'm calling and phoning me, your friend. Absolutely. Um you know I'm also leaning toward the gin one. I'm like this might be a thing where it's like oh it may be just a different kind of Alcohol or something like that.

1:03:34 I'll, I'm also, it was interesting. Be a Djinn guy. I don't know. But I'm I'm that's what I'm leaning toward. All right. So it sounds like we're both leaning towards to the caveat being, if Brad changed a very minute detail in one or three, maybe the balalaika has more than three strings. I don't know, I just know, I just know that when I was looking at things about the score, it said, balalaikas and I was like, oh cool, all right. I will say I am doing my best to not be nitpicky. All right, so Patrick and I are going to both lock in number two as the falsehood Bob. Patrick, you are both 100% correct. Yes, we did it.

1:04:19 I was worried about the lateral and I was like, man. Patrick is is pretty well-versed, he probably will know that, that's true, but the fact that you knew the Bible like that, that really put it down and they did an easy. Choice. I think. All right. So I get one victory for that so I'm seven and six on the season. Now I'm back above 500, thanks to Patrick. And I think this balalaika thing is actually a great segue into talking a little bit more about some of the behind-the-scenes stuff here or the the non-acting parts of this film. This movie's score is just delightful, I mean probably the best score. We've had in a Wes Anderson movie to this point.

1:04:59 Brad and Moonrise Kingdom had a pretty good one. I think this one just takes it to the next level. Yeah, this this one is absolutely incredible. In the fact that, you know, we talked earlier about the pacing of this movie and this movie Just moves that like there is no slowing down from start to finish and really a large part of that is the soundtrack there. There's, there's just an impatience to the way that this this, soundtrack moves throughout the movie and it really matches the main character of goose Stop that he is always so fast-paced, he's always just an incredible orator that's that is speaking.

1:05:40 So incredibly fast Bob you mentioned before we got on that you like almost have to watch this movie with subtitles and I would agree with you because Ray finds delivers so many funny lines in this movie. So quickly that it's hard to keep up with and and yet the music keeps up with it and propels you along throughout just beautifully. One of my favorite moments in the score and I feel like the whole second half of the movie is almost the same theme over and over. And it's got this really percussive like satin satin side behind the whole thing. And it reminds me of like all of the praise that we've heaped on like Hans Zimmer over the years for making, you know, like the Dunkirk, soundtrack have this ticking clock thing going on but this is doing the same thing. It's about this guy.

1:06:28 Monsieur Gustave who is racing against the clock but who is also, you know, A fastidious and on time all the time, but my favorite little moment is when they are on those two ski lifts and they're, they're transferring between one and the other, in the ski lift stopped and the creaking of the ski lift as it like goes back and forth is timed to the beach of the soundtrack. And it's again, it's one of these Wes Anderson things where you're like, of course, you would think of that with the sound design but it just, again, it does such an incredible job of making this. This dollhouse World feel like a thing that could really exist. Yeah, I mean the the timing of it it almost has a bit of a baby driver, feel a little bit of Edgar Wright action.

1:07:14 That the the way the the action is moving forward, the sound just perfectly punctuated, see each and every beat of the scene. Bob, I'm with you man. I think that he does a really masterful job of that here. Yeah, like there will always be a small part of me that misses the, the soundtracks of early, Wes Anderson where Mark mothersbaugh added the scores, and then they were like full of great needle drops. And but at the same time, I look at this and I listened to this and like, you know, Alexander dust plots scores for all his movies. I'm like, I can't really argue with this. Like, this is it's so good and I'll also like the thing is, one of the first things I was think of when it comes.

1:07:57 Do you like the music in Grand? Budapest is just the, like, the kind of the very Eastern European kind of like vocal, like, slow vocal music. That that, I feel like it. You know, what, the movie introduces us to this world with, like you sing an example for us? Patrick no real quick. No, I can't. I don't, I hear because I could not do an accurate representation of And I do not want to get the really embarrassing recording of me, trying out into the world, so I'm not falling for your tricks. Your eye, I will not fall into that trap, but, but, yeah, but it is like it almost is like the, the music is slower and more peaceful and then when we're introduced to mr. Gustave then all the music kind of like, like matches his Tempo and and is all this like, you know, it's all quick. Quickly paced at because this is a Chase movie basically. Yeah.

1:09:01 And again, going back to the idea of all of the references that are just, this movie is chock-full of. I was, I've been reading this book about Wes, Anderson by the critic, Ian, Nathan, and it's really, really good. And he talks throughout the movie about some of the, the influences on Wes Anderson that have been present in all his movies and how Charles Schulz is peanuts is especially in his early films like this, this very kind of mopey Youth and this This every character has this sense of ennui. That's not so present here, but I think some of them more silly elements that are influences on. Wes Anderson really come out here, and I noticed it, especially in that scene at the monastery. When you finally go inside and all of the monks are singing because it's, it is essentially a nod to the monks in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

1:09:52 And there is, there's so much Monty Python in this movie in the way that He does these cutaways to little Miniatures and when you know, when they're doing these elaborate jumps off of, you know, ski jumps and they cuts to like a doll just like falling off of everything and it looks so fake. But it also it like undercuts. Again, this dollhouse thing, it's just so reminiscent of some of the sillier low-budget cutaways that you had in Monty Python. And I love that, he's embracing some of that here. Yeah, and I've got to say, it takes a lot of confidence for a To do this move of of cutting to a what's clearly a doll for this wide shot of like an office ski jump.

1:10:35 And and I like that it's moments like that that really communicates to me like man this guy has like fully mastered what he's doing but because he knows that the live-action world of the movie will also be such a perfect. Meticulous dollhouse that cutting to an actual doll will still fit aesthetically. lie with everything else around it and I mean you look at those like those great shots of whether it's Willem Dafoe on the motorcycle are zero and Gustav on the sled which is like the you know the camera locked on there and it's one of those things where it's like it's funny people you know, are always like oh you know Wes Anderson never a person who uses visual effects and it's like no, no their shot on a green screen he has figured out how to How to incorporate visual effects into his, you know what way of working on to not just continue the alike very handmade aesthetic, that he's had since the very beginning but to actually like build upon it and and it's beautiful II, really love it. I want to talk a little bit about Robert Yeomans cinematography here because he kind of grew up with Wes Anderson as a movie maker.

1:11:55 I think he's done eight, Wes Anderson movies. Now Now, he is not the DPI believe on either of the animated films, but he's pretty much done all of the live-action ones, and it's really every single one. Yeah, and it's really cool to see, you know, from bottle rocket to. Now, we talked about Wes Anderson's growth, in terms of stylistic Independence and control. But to see what Robert Yeomans doing even from like Tenenbaums where you first start to get that aesthetic and Rushmore a little bit to Moonrise Kingdom. Everything kind of has this yellowish brag even commented on it, like a almost, a sepia tone to evoke Nostalgia and then you go into Grand Budapest and it's like, let's do everything.

1:12:37 Let's have half the movie be in, like, super Panavision. And then the other half of the movie is going to be an academy ratio. And I don't think this movie gets enough credit for kind of re kick-starting the academy ratio craves that we now see with like every a24 movie that comes out it it really was Was way way ahead of the curve in bringing back some of these, but it also has a purpose in how they're telling the story. Yeah, I remember when I went to see this in a theater when it first came out, that there was a sign on the door to go into the theater saying this movie changes aspect ratios, it is not a mistake.

1:13:19 It is the deliberate Choice by the filmmakers I think because back then, like there were not movies in the academy Ratio being released in theaters, know, so that to the put. Yeah. And so it's like Yeoman is so interesting because obviously he shoots every was Anderson movie which get visually like more ambitious and and more I'm has to say experimental because I don't want to sound like oh they're just like try and Shout. Yeah. But but like you know they're like with pretty much each. One of these movies they're trying to like do some sort of new things. NG even like Moonrise Kingdom. It's all shot on 16. Mm.

1:14:01 And but they're always like pushing a new directions and doing really exciting stylistic things and almost no one else else asks Yeoman to do that, like, he was Paul figs guy for a long time. A lot of of Paul feig comedies, he shot Mamma Mia, here we go again, very good film become where where I do think in some of the musical numbers there especially The Waterloo sequence with, it's like really really careful. Precise choreography and like background gags, I'm like, oh I can see the crossover from like, working on Wes Anderson to doing this, but in general, I'm I'm just like his was Anderson like, his work is always good, but his was Anderson, work is so different than everything else he does. I'm just surprised that more people aren't getting him to like, like I guess it's like to stretch his muscles. Cil's in these kinds of ways.

1:15:00 Well, and again, he loses, he loses the Oscar this year for cinematography and it's movie loses a ton of oscars to Birdman, which I feel like people have done a 180 on when it came out, everyone loved Birdman. And then within a couple years, everyone was like, we're all out on in Erie to and we don't like this anymore. I'm not there. I was not huge on Birdman from the very beginning, right? Well, I think I've never been an injury to guy. I he's Not really my vibe idea. I still watch his movies when they come out but I don't tend to enjoy them very much. I mean I'm a fan of Birdman. I think it's a good movie and the Emmanuel lubezki thing he was doing something that for him was another leap forward and I understand why they gave him the Oscar but going back now and looking at what Yeoman did here, I think this this should have been his year. I mean it Birdman was always going to win that. It's like in the same way 1917 was always going to win. Whereas it's like, oh, if you do like such a notable, obvious like difficult to pull off stylistic thing, that even someone who knows nothing about cinematography can still recognize you're gonna, you're gonna win it? Yeah, for sure.

1:16:13 It's like, if you do a one take movie, you've got it. It's in the bag. It's like so. So yes. And I mean, like, I'm not trying to like discount, the bass Keys work because he's Very good at what he does. He's actually, I wish he'd do more work with people other than in reach, actually because of that silly. But like Levesque, he shot the new David o'russell movie, all the one that's coming out this year. Yeah. I didn't know that. I was it like Amsterdam. Yeah, something like that. The one, the one that Taylor Swift is in. Yes. Yeah, I saw the trailer. I was like who shot this and because I was like, usually Russell's movies are shot by Lena said, And grin and he's busy these days.

1:17:00 So but yeah but in general like I'm not the best he does very good work on birdman even though even if I personally think that movie would be better if it were not a one shot but I feel like you know 50 years from now we're people, the one people will be talking about is Grand Budapest because and this work is like is unreal at end? So wildly different from Every other movie being made these days. Well, and, and thinking about the cinematography talk, a little bit about what effect it has on a movie, when you switch, you know, the aspect ratios, the way they do.

1:17:40 And, you know, for those unenlightened folks out there, definitely not me explain Academy of ratio and how it how it started, how it fell out of fashion? Apparently, I mean, I know all of this myself, but the breakdown of that, so I just have to you. No, give you a film history lesson here. Yes, 43. Okay, so I'll do this as quickly as I can. So when filming started out, they were all shot in a square. Like most of Grand Budapest is, and that, and that was it. That's how movies. Looked and and then and then it became later called The Academy ratio and really that the shift started happening with the Advent of Television, which was also a square.

1:18:26 When And Hollywood was panicking because there are like, oh no, our people are going to stop going to the movies and only watch TV instead, we need to start doing more things to like, you know, separate movies from TV. And one of those things could be, what if we had a wider picture? That, that had that, you know, just like more going on. You could see like a big wide landscape and it at a more reflected, I guess like the, you know, human Vision because we have two eyes that are side by side. I'd and and that was really, you know, the beginning of aspect ratio, it's getting a bit wider and then it went further and further as they're just like, no, we need like bigger gimmicks for movie theaters, what about like, Cinerama and cinemascope? And let's just get wider and wider and wider. And and now we have, hey guys.

1:19:18 Have you seen a movie in screen x yet? No. But I heard is this the one where they're kind of bringing back the smell of vision from the 50s? Kind of. Yeah, it's our. So I will say, I don't know if I'll ever see a movie this way again, but I saw the third time, I went to see top gun Maverick. I saw it in screen X because I heard that, I mean, I guess I already seen it twice and when I heard the director talking about the way they designed the screen X version, I was like that actually sounds kind of fun and I've already seen it twice so but yeah, it this is the thing that I find really funny. How AMC has like the IMAX screens and the Dolby Cinemas and just like the really pristine like best like best quality, like that's that's the actual best experience watching a movie and Regals thing is now just like, oh, we've got 40 x, we've got screen X, right?

1:20:16 We've got that. We've got like the gimmicks that are just like, oh, if you just want to turn a movie into a theme park ride, you come to a Regal Cinema. So screen acts as the one, we're at points in the movie. Squee in action sequences, they have like additional projector is that predict that make the image extend onto the walls on the sides. It's like Cinerama it straight up is and it's a thing like they have a little like intro video to it for you. The plays were there, like you stay looking at the center of the screen as usual, but basically, now the image is extend into your peripheral vision and the interesting thing with like watching Top Gun that way. Was, that was realizing when I would occasionally, like, look at the walls like going, oh, they they actually have like, a lot of additional footage that was just cropped out of the original movie, that does extend over here and like, apparently, because like the, the scenes in the like, in the cockpits, they would have like a six camera rig. So they had the footage that like actually gave you like the cockpit rapping.

1:21:22 Like around you. I'm from the sides. And so I sort of pretty fun You know, if you already seen it before and you want it, you want a fun little gimmick to try again? Anyway, that was a long tangent that has nothing to do with Grandma best hotel. But basically, that was pretty much how Astrid ratios came to be developed there. Like, you know, mostly just ways for Hollywood to try to compete with TV by giving you more image and then hyping it up. And then once they were all established and they basically just became creative choices. We're filmmakers could just be like, what is the best one to use? Is to tell the story and and for Wes Anderson, it was I'm going to have a different aspect ratio for each time period in the movie and that especially for like the bulk of the movie is a reflection of what what aspect ratio was available. Exactly that the period that it's set and are also for Wes Anderson works.

1:22:24 So perfectly, considering you Be like a more claustrophobic frame. That is tighter but you have so many shots are. So like he uses the one-point perspective constantly and, you know, it was Henderson, you know, symmetry all that stuff. That's his jam and but putting that within this perfect square is like, kind of a new experience compared to like his previous movies that I think works really beautifully. I mean, especially you look at just like the lobby of the Grand Budapest and that in this This perfect square. I'm just like I know I wouldn't want to watch this any other way like this is the right choice. Well. And then again like in the 1968 or whatever it is is when he's going super wide with it and again it's echoing how empty and desolate this place has become its it really is thematic it's not just a stylistic choice and Brad it's really similar to when we've watched twice now, The Aviator and how Scorsese and the teepee Robert Richardson would use a coloration. SS that mimicked.

1:23:28 What was available at each time. Period of that movie. So the first like third of The Aviator has this kind of bluish tint because that's what color film looked like in the early days of Color Film and he's doing kind of a similar thing here, but I think it's even more thematic. I just lost a all right. Now The Aviator is such a good-looking movie. Gosh, what a great movie. It's, it's just gorgeous. We constantly say, like, I think it's an unsung Masterpiece for Scorsese. See it I think it just gets slept like, I feel like it's so regarded as like, oh man, he was a strong to win an Oscar and and and doing some Oscar bait. And I'm not like that's that's just like, I mean yeah, it's a biopic but it's one of the best biopics anyway I've ever made. It's so good.

1:24:14 We'll also like they call it Oscar bait but like Oscars is basically a group of your peers saying, hey, you're the best at what we do. So if your goal is to be the best at what you do, then I don't know how that's an Salt right? All right guys, before we get to final scores, we have one new segment that we've implemented just in the last couple weeks here, that we are calling make it a double and that is where we take the movie that we're watching and we try to pair it with another film to make the perfect double feature. Now, Patrick this could be something, you know, thematic it could be something stylistically similar. It could just be like hey this looks like an Ernst lubitsch movie and here's the shop around the corner, you know what I mean?

1:24:55 So Brad, let's start with you. Because I thought we put Patrick on the spot here. If you were going to make this movie a double, what would you pick? You know, I was, I was thinking about the main character of Gustav and I was thinking about a very particular specific type of character who is strange and unique and, and very into his own set ways and has his own ulterior motives. And you know what movie, I thought of Bob, something we have done on the podcast. 1971 s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Oh, interesting. I think I would pair this with it. It it is set in a similar kind of era and feel and I don't know. I just think that the, the unique Oddities of the main characters makes for a good double picture out right down to the purple suit that.

1:25:49 Thank you. I'm glad you picked up on that. I like it. All right, I'm gonna go in a vastly different. Here in bread. I've tried to get really somatic with with my pics and not just pick something that's like this reminded me of this, but the end of this movie. One thing that I really, really love and we've talked about it already here is that so much of the story telling is about what's left unsaid and how you know F Murray Abraham's character keeps saying like I don't want to talk about Agatha at the end of this movie, it's just very matter-of-fact. You know, he asks what happened in the end? He says in the end he shot him and then you get that final voiceover from the author saying I really wanted to get back to the Grand Budapest Hotel and I never did. That's the literal end of the movie. And yet there's something kind of profound in how those lines are set and it reminded me of a movie from 2010 by the Coen Brothers called True Grit.

1:26:45 And these movies don't seem similar at all until you start thinking about the fact that like, roughly, it tells a very similar story, it's about this, this aunjanue, this young person who starts following An older wiser person. Whose eccentric in his own way violence and chases insu and then at the end of the story you get this very matter of fact closing narration where hailee steinfeld's character, I think that the last couple lines in the movie I have it pulled up here. She's talking about this character named LaBeouf and she says, if he's yet alive, I'd be pleased to hear from him. I judge he would be in his 70s now nearer, 80 than 70. I expect some of the starch has gone out of his cowl. Lick time just gets away from us and that's the end of the movie. And I love how both of these movies, meditate on the passage of time, and then also don't meditate on it at all. And that's, that's my pick for making it a double. These are really good answers.

1:27:42 Patrick, you're on the hot seat now. And what would you do? What would you choose? Oh God. Did this is tough because I thought I thought of two answers that are so wildly different that I'm just like, oh man, give it, give them both Patrick. I'll give them both. I think you two, I feel like both put more thought and Care into yours. Mine are going to be more obvious and surface level. Okay, so my two picks which I'm sure, you know, neither which will be surprising are Paddington to and The Shining, pretty much the same movie. Exactly. And I because obviously, you know, Paddington to share so much aesthetically tone. Annalee.

1:28:27 A lot of the time it involves an extended prison sequence and a prison escape sequence and bonding with hardened criminals while wearing like striped prison uniforms accept it and you know, it does. Also interestingly kind of like reckoned with death and loss near the end except it doesn't end in quite a a Bittersweet way, but I'm like that. They have so much DNA in common that I feel like they just make sense to watch together. Absolutely. And and then, The Shining obviously, you know, it's maybe the great Hotel movie ever made Grand Budapest Hotel is a movie about looking back at the Glory Days of this hotel.

1:29:14 And, you know, you've got and The Shining is a movie about people living in a hotel, kind of being haunted by the ghosts of its Glory Days. And it's also a meticulously designed location with With, you know, patterned Carpeting and all of that of a movie that's you know very much about about death and wanting to live in in the past and I mean look at the at the end at the end Jack Torrance basically dusk at to, you know, get to get to stay that back there forever. And so I'm sorry to kind of cheat your question, you know your segments but but I'm You know, depending on the mood you were in on a given day. Here's two very different double features. I love it.

1:30:03 No. Actually when I was trying to figure out why you had chosen this movie, I thought immediately like, oh it's because he wants to work in a Paddington to reference into this episode. But then I was, I was I wasn't going to until I really thought I was going to not mention it at all. Well, so then I was looking at the Wikipedia for this right before we started just to refresh myself of some of the names and stuff. And it said that when Robert Yeoman was trying to figure out like the color scheme of some of this movie, he started watching One from the heart and I was like, oh, maybe Patrick wants to do, like a really deep Coppola dive here and go in that direction to. So I didn't know exactly where it was coming from.

1:30:43 Who that would be a good one? No, I didn't even think of one from the heart. I hadn't done this research and so, I didn't know that he was looking at that. I mean, you know, one from the heart is a good-looking film. It is funny because I I wouldn't have thought of like storaro as like an immediate reference point for this. I will say I have watched a bunch of just like videos and stuff online just like breaking down the lighting of this movie because I'm fascinated by how Robert Schumann like lit, these sets, because especially like the lobby of the Grand Budapest. Enormous seems like, how about damn out. How do you light this stuff? How do you even light, Wes? Anderson movies. But yeah, no, I want to look as much as I love talking about my clothes.

1:31:27 Has personal friend Francis Coppola that was not my plan for this one. All right guys, it is time for us to give final scores here on this podcast. We score the movie out of 10. You can give half points if you would like to Brad I'll go ahead and start us off here. This was not my favorite West Anderson film, going into this miniseries and I think having now re-watched Moonrise and this one, I think this one has really gotten close to taking Moon Rises place for me. I don't know if I like it. Quite as much as Royal Tenenbaum. Which I still think might be his Masterpiece, but this, this is I think even more deserving of the title of like, a Masterwork because it is such a document of his control, over the environment and the script. And there's just not an ounce of fat on this thing. I'm going to give it a 9 and a half out of ten bread. Yeah, man.

1:32:17 I think I might be there with you. Like I just Royal Tenenbaums is very close to this for me but I don't know if I can Imagine Wes Anderson perfecting his craft Beyond this which you know, hey if he's able to, I am excited to see it. But I man, I think I'm with you I'm gonna give it a 9 and a half out of ten. I was really kind of flipping between a nine and a nine and a half but that. Yeah, I I love this movie, man. This is, this is everything I want Wes Anderson to be. You know, I was just going to say nine, but I guess now that nine-and-a-half is, it is an option, you know, I'm gonna join in the fun. I don't wanna be that weird guy.

1:33:01 People are like, what was Patrick's beef with that movie? You only give it another time. I think nine-and-a-half is the Perfect Score where, you know, it's not a perfect movie, but you want it to be a perfect movie because you like it so much. It's also again, it's a thing. For instance, I'm like on, you know, it SMU has probably like letterboxed users and I will say, I give this movie a 4.5 out of 5, when I logged it earlier. Yeah, but I am always so hesitant to give out a 5 out of 5, I almost never. Do people have yelled at me for being like, why did you give this? Like this obvious Masterpiece of 4.5 I was like, I don't know. I feel like I need to watch it like 10 times before I can fully decide yes five done.

1:33:51 Perfect, cause I'm like I have I can't point out a flaw in Grand, Budapest Hotel. Also, here's the thing. If you know, I've probably given five stars two movies that do have flaws because like, you know, who cares about stuff like that. I can't think of anything I'd change. I can't think of like what I would consider a genuine problem. Yeah, with this movie, it is like, as good as it can be. It's it's pretty much as good as a Wes Anderson movie can be. It's like for me, like I guess Rushmore just like clicks with me personally, a tiny bit more even though I wouldn't call it a better movie than this. But yeah. So I don't know. We'll say 9.5.

1:34:33 I love it. We have successfully peer-pressured. One of our favorite YouTubers and filmmakers into agreeing with our score. So guys, it's a 9.5 across the board from us but we'd like to know what you think. So reach out to us on our Social media is. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and new Leon Tick-Tock at film whiskey, or you can jump onto our Discord. We are on there every single day. Talking to you guys about movies about whiskey, and about all sorts of other things. Out of see Baba. As I think about it, we need to dedicate an entire channel on the on the Discord just to talking about Patrick Williams videos.

1:35:15 I think think we should let seems to. Yeah, the thing to do, but yeah. Yeah, if you want to join our Discord, it is incredibly easy to download onto your phone or your desktop. You can find a link to it at the end of every single one of our show notes. We want to say thank you again to our guests today. Patrick H Willems, Patrick, what do you have coming up that you like to plug? Well as pleasure to be here, as always, thank you so much for having me back, the new season of my show started back up recently. We've, I think we've got an episode or two out now. After I took I took the summer off after finishing the movie and so we're back at it again and you can watch my videos on on YouTube at youtube.com slash Patrick H Willems are over on nebula where they have no ads. Yeah that's that's oh and watch my movie. Please.

1:36:12 It's fun. I promise, it's on nebula. It has forgot. I will. I will confess for Bob and I both we haven't watched it yet. The reason being through invited, we live two hours away from one another. And we want to watch it together. We literally wanted to make a date night out of it for real like I'm like, like Bob introduced me to your channel and and, you know, brought you onto the show and I was like, we need to watch this movie together and he has two kids. I have one and, you know, we both work full-time jobs and, but we're going to watch it soon. I promise, I understand. And I accept your Use their, I mean, it's not going anywhere.

1:36:54 It's not like I had like an opening weekend at the box. I was where I was like guys we really gotta like open the top 5 this weekend. It doesn't matter. Watch it. Whenever you get a chance, it is more impressive though. I think that I have watched the 45-minute making-of featurette before. I've even seen the film. Oh yeah. I dove right in man, I needed the Lord. All the spoilers now. Well, hey, what we're about, Actually, they'll be out in this point. The commentary tracks are also now available for the movies. Oh, you can also listen to those. You could also listen to this episode as a commentary track on Grand Budapest because we're at an hour and a half on this bad boy. So, we hope that you have enjoyed this. This watch along with Patrick, H Willems will be back on Monday to kick off another.

1:37:42 One of our mini series, we are going all the way back to Classic Hollywood, and we're going to start watching the films of John Ford. So we're going to be back. Next Monday, with The Grapes of Wrath. But until then I'm Bob book, I'm Reggie and we'll see you next time.