Apex Mountain on The Rewatchables
57:18 – 60:04… this in probably most of the categories but Ralph Fiennes performance yeah um to your point Sean about how um you kind of don't always know what a director's apex mountain is or a you know not just a career changing film but a reputation reorienting film would be Ralph Fiennes has been consistently brilliant in movies since his first movie which was Schindler's List and brilliant in a way that almost feels effortless and also brilliant in a way that is rarely he's rarely the star of the movie he's almost always the best or one of the best things in it and he can do almost anything but you rarely see the …
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couldn't pick Thanos I think um I think we're gonna keep talking about this in probably most of the categories but Ralph Fiennes performance yeah um to your point Sean about how um you kind of don't always know what a director's apex mountain is or a you know not just a career changing film but a reputation reorienting film would be Ralph Fiennes has been consistently brilliant in movies since his first movie which was Schindler's List and brilliant in a way that almost feels effortless and also brilliant in a way that is rarely he's rarely the star of the movie he's almost always the best or one of the best things in it and he can do almost anything but you rarely see the conversation shift to considering him with each new Ralph Fiennes movie right and so then to see this in retrospect not just in terms of this performance but in terms of all the other wildly incredible things that he's done in the years since whether I think Hail Caesar was after this wasn't it yeah I was gonna say that it's so interesting that he would take a tiny part like that immediately after being at the center of a massive hit there's a degree to which I think when he first starts out and he's like in the English patient you know he's always been a little bit of a character actor I mean he's he's plays in the remake of Manhunter that Ridley Scott like he's he's in Red Dragon right like I mean he's he's Voldemort yeah he's Voldemort like he's willing to be the bad guy he's willing to be the seventh person on the call sheet maybe but he's also M in the James Bond movies where he's like decent and honorable he just has so many things in his toolbox that to see him just he he he just runs laps around this movie to such a degree and it only works because of how funny it is but it also only works because of how melancholy he is underneath the funny and I just think it's only gotten better it's interesting this is in right smack in the middle of a ten year window for him that is amazing though if you look at from roughly if you want to say like in Bruges and it's also right around when he starts doing Voldemort and in that period of time he's in the Hurt Locker he's in three more Harry Potter movies I forgot about that he's Coriolanus in a Coriolanus adaptation that is very good he's in Skyfall of course Grand Budapest Hotel the next year he's in a bigger splash one of my favorite movies yeah and then in Hail Caesar and you know since then it's a little more wandering in the dark but that's he's also like also throughout that entire time does like a player year yes yes and one of the great Shakespearean actors of his time and but he's this is an extended heater for a 50 year old British guy you know it's a very unusual kind of stardom that you don't see as much these days I saw him do this thing that's on YouTube it's a David Hare play that's just about
107:11 – 112:06… about how um Keitel slapped Tony Revolori when he says good luck kid like 40 times 42 times that was the one time that Wes Anderson went full Fincher wow uh Apex Mountain ensemble of mustaches mmm has there ever been a greater collection of mustaches I feel like there has to be my cruising is in the conversation not as many mustaches as you think though well in the club yeah in the background yeah glory there are a lot of mustaches in glory that's a good one the film glory yeah didn't Matthew Broderick have a mustache the first movie the first two movies that came to mind cruising in glory yeah two greatest …
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so those are those are the main ones did you pick up the one about how um Keitel slapped Tony Revolori when he says good luck kid like 40 times 42 times that was the one time that Wes Anderson went full Fincher wow uh Apex Mountain ensemble of mustaches mmm has there ever been a greater collection of mustaches I feel like there has to be my cruising is in the conversation not as many mustaches as you think though well in the club yeah in the background yeah glory there are a lot of mustaches in glory that's a good one the film glory yeah didn't Matthew Broderick have a mustache the first movie the first two movies that came to mind cruising in glory yeah two greatest movies about men that I can remember why should we also throw in Annie Hall yeah why not why not um is this Apex Mountain for exquisite portrayals of beautiful boys on the cusp of manhood no that's Stand By Me yeah that's cruising uh any other Apex Mountains you're just looking right at me I mean on the serious note it seems like we're suggesting this might be Wes Anderson Apex Mountain I don't know if I agree with that but it's on the cable car I think it's Ray Fiennes' Apex Mountain I think it's well it could be in the real technical terms I suppose English patient or no no this is better Voldemort it's not about what's better yeah you're in definitional zone and we can't go down that rabbit hole right now have you ever said that on this podcast before yeah you can't but it's not about long time first time it isn't the best work right but it is the most juice right so if it's the most juice I don't know that this created the most opportunity for Ray Fiennes yeah I think that is probably the English patient for Wes Anderson I think he rubber stamped another 10 movies with the success of this movie that's a really good point because then at any point going forward they're like maybe it could be we've struck gold I don't want to get too carried away raise the ceiling this could but I do wonder what Dispatch Dispatch had like a just pure theatrical release right but coming out of streaming on Tubi at the same time it came out in theaters yeah well to that point Asteroid City had a theatrical but was on they all were theatrically released Asteroid went to Peacock quickly but it was theatrical okay any other Apex Mountains Revolori for sure or was it Spider-Man Spider-Man I think Spider-Man's bigger right because he's Flash right in the Spider-Man movies not the Flash Chris just so you know the difference yeah I don't think any of the other actors right no and I wouldn't say fictional eastern European cities it's it's it's Sokovia Sokovia Sokovia wow obviously a much more important touchstone for the watch Sokovia flew yeah so and then you have the accords coming out of it right in terms of geopolitical yeah it's kind of important um Cruiser Hanks I'm gonna go Hanks because he has been in a Wes Anderson movie yeah um who would Cruz play in this film Cruz as M. Gustav it's just delicious Cruz's Dimitri would have been really fucking funny he could do that he could do that Henkels yeah would you waste Cruz just being like yeah popping a set up I 100% would by the way one interesting exercise for Wes Anderson movies that we won't do today is retroactively recasting movies as his ensemble has expanded oh yeah so Tom Hanks is now in the company theoretically so would he have played what would he have brought could he have played Royal Tenenbaum right or or Herman Bloom or I mean he would wasn't the right age at that time but it's interesting to consider that each one of these movies has opened the doors to more people being in these movies and and Margot Robbie is now a part of that as well and what if she were in the Saoirse Ronan part or what if she was one of the old ladies good point they had AD yeah now Chris is we had his attention now I'm interested I was interested now you have my attention racehorse rock band wrestler a fantasy team name I think society of cross keys oh yeah sounds like a godspeed you black emperor no dude I went through this so tell me what this is are these references to the movie or tracks on a Mogwai album concierge freed from shackles stack of filthy carpets and a starving goat a tricky war Gunter was slain in the catacombs this has got to be a Mogwai EP it's 100% racehorse I like boy with apple oh that's good mmhmm yeah I don't have any others uh picking nits it's hard to pick nits with a movie like this just because like it's designed down to like a a frame of its life I would note that that the lamb is not in the original order yeah like we said and I just wish there was more Agatha and Zero stuff we haven't really talked about that relationship and uh I think it's indicative of maybe like it not being like the thing you think about
115:40 – 118:26… I'm going with Ralph Fiennes I'm going with Ralph Fiennes I think that's right because I I think that regardless of what we were saying about whether this is Apex Mountain or where it stands in the West Pantheon like he continually and consistently makes movies like this and Ralph Fiennes is so singular in this movie I think it would be his probably unanswerable questions do you think you would have been a lobby boy or a concierge well you gotta start somewhere we all have to start somewhere we learned that Gustav started as a lobby boy Andy is rudeness merely an expression of fear yes I thought that was …
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has an Oscar for the wonderful life of Henry Sugar yes he didn't have one at the time so you would think that this would be a crowning achievement but Ralph Fiennes is so fucking good in this movie that I'm going with Ralph Fiennes I'm going with Ralph Fiennes I think that's right because I I think that regardless of what we were saying about whether this is Apex Mountain or where it stands in the West Pantheon like he continually and consistently makes movies like this and Ralph Fiennes is so singular in this movie I think it would be his probably unanswerable questions do you think you would have been a lobby boy or a concierge well you gotta start somewhere we all have to start somewhere we learned that Gustav started as a lobby boy Andy is rudeness merely an expression of fear yes I thought that was incredibly insightful yeah let me tell you my drive here really encapsulated that there was a Rivian that was behaving in an insane fashion and I but I you know I was empathetic because I was like this person is just clearly clearly just paralyzed with fear put the lights on top of the car pull them over citizens arrest yeah sir please it's like what the thing is it was EV versus EV so it was incredibly macho I know you care about some things in our society not Chris um any other unanswerable questions Saudi Chris gas drill baby drill uh yeah why did the Grand Budapest Hotel get to persist in a in a Soviet society like isn't that one of the first things that would go and be transformed into like a social services space are we sure it's still called the Grand Budapest Hotel I think so uh well I do think it's because I think when author goes to visit I think he has given up however many millions of Kubiaks Klubeks Klubeks yeah to get uh Gary Kubiak Gary Kubiak Kubiaks uh Gary Kubiak uh to buy the hotel so he's like here's here's the trade-off I keep this I try to keep it up and running but you guys get the fortune there's also a tradition I think of um like in Soviet eras like they would keep one hotel for the for for tourists or guests or whatever it was probably every room is probably bugged is that true yeah I mean they I think I think that was accurate in the sense that I once traveled behind the Iron Curtain in 1983 no yes I did as a six-year-old yes you were taken to where I was taken to um uh Budapest to uh Slovakia you know what this means yeah this is not Andy Greenwald you're a sleeper agent this is the no way out Russian agent I don't need to I don't think I need I don't think I need to answer it yeah I was there any other unanswerable questions this is very answerable but Madame D was the secret owner of Grand Budapest Hotel yes and she bequeathed it to Gustav in the event
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