Wes Anderson and the late Stanley Kubrick are two of the biggest perfectionists ever to work in Hollywood. The similarities between the two are numerous: their attention to the most minute details, obsession with symmetry, quirky senses of humor, and frequent casting of top-notch acting talent.
Perhaps all of these connections between the two directors are what made editor Steve Ramsden’s mashup of Kubrick and Anderson’s lodging-based films—The Shining and The Grand Budapest Hotel, respectively—work so seamlessly. In The Grand Overlook Hotel, Ralph Fiennes’s tidy concierge appears to oversee Jack Nicholson’s haunted caretaker and his imperiled family, quipping through the bloody supernatural nightmare they’re living through.
Fans of both directors—and if you like one, you probably like the other—will find much to enjoy here.