Wassup, Wes Siiide! Really excited to share the new trailer for The Grand Budapest Hotel with you all today. Wes Anderson was one of my favorite filmmakers when I was a teenager, so I feel like I already have a lot emotionally invested in this movie. Watching his films just makes me feel like a child, which is a really good thing sometimes! We talked about the poster earlier this week; and while some of my predictions may have been a bit off the mark, I feel open-minded and ready for whatever this whimsical and off-beat auteur is serving up this go-round.

But first off, for as much as I got wrong about the poster, I was right about one thing: murder! The Grand Budapest Hotel looks to be a madcap murder mystery with a generous side of that ol’ Andersonian father-son angst some people just can’t seem to get enough of. I’ll admit I was a little nervous about this new thematic territory going in, as I always am when faced with new things and the threat of change, but as soon as I saw that lobby boy hat on newcomer Tony Revolori, its function stitched on in immaculate golden Futura, and realized that M. Gustave was just another variation on Royal Tenenbaum and Steve Zissou, I knew we weren’t too far from our comfort zone. There is a secret tiny handwritten code exchanged between young lovers, phew.

Now, can we talk about the cast? I mean, watch your back, August: Osage County! So many people you know and love. Maybe you don’t love all of them, but if you like movies, you have to like at least one of them. I’m personally excited to see F. Murray Abraham as Zero’s father (I think) because I’m not watching this season of Homeland and I need a little F-in’ Murray in my life, y’know? It’s fun that Anderson can get so many quirky character actors in one film, as well as some award-winning actors who get to have fun using a smaller part of their range. Not every film can be August: Osage County, because that would be terrible.

Some people may take issue with Revolori appearing to be the butt of some light ironic racism, but I wouldn’t worry too much about that. He gets to kiss Saorsie Soarise Soyrizo Saoirse Ronan, which is pretty progressive. Others may feel that Anderson is burrowing deeper into an escapist, decorated-within-an-inch-of-its-life cinematic Neverland that he could more efficiently realize in CGI with custom-made 3-D environments and digital puppets of the actors he likes, but those people should lighten up. Those are the sorts of people who complain that the latest Rodarte runway show didn’t have enough character development. Nobody likes those people, if they exist. Nobody likes a Wes Anderson hater either, if they exist.