Ralph Fiennes Is Very Funny

It was a cold, overcast day in Manhattan. That, I recall. My buddy, Mike Sargent, and I were meeting to see a film being screened for movie critics. The screening was in a posh, private screening room in midtown near Carnegie Hall. A new Wes Anderson movie was being screening, so Mike and I figured we'd be the only black folks in the room. We were. And we were glad to have been there because we both were charmed by and loved THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL. This film has a snap and a screwball comedy verve reminiscent of a Preston Sturges or Ernest Lubitsch. Mike hosted a weekend half-hour film review/interview show on cable. To me, Mike's show was a trailblazer. I personally contacted TV columnists I knew in New York City to pay attention and perhaps write a short mention of it in their columns. Or a not so short mention. Mike Sargent is a big, tall, black, huggable straight guy who's been a film critic guest on PBS shows. He loves film arts. His modest apartment is like a DVD rental store. He and I reviewed THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL on his show. Two African American men -- one big straight dude and a shorter gay guy -- both expressed their hope that Ralph Fiennes would get a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his surprisingly hilarious performance in Wes Anderson's 2014 film. He didn't. But he should have.

If you've been used to seeing Ralph Fiennes do exceptional work in deep-dish dramas such as SCHINDLER'S LIST, THE END OF THE AFFAIR, THE CONSTANT GARDNER and THE ENGLISH PATIENT plus play Voldemort in the HARRY POTTER adventures, his performance is THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL is a revelation and an unexpected treat -- like get money back that you loaned to a relative. The movie takes us to Europe in the 1930s and a place where people were not made to feel like oddballs for displaying good manners. Fiennes plays the sexually fluid and sublimely sophisticated concierge of the Grand Budapest Hotel. It's a deluxe ski resort. About his bedroom tastes, he happens to prefer older women. Not older like Mrs. Robinson in THE GRADUATE. More like Old Rose in TITANIC. He's also sort of a mentor to and extremely devoted to a new lobby employee. This new lobby boy is a gentle immigrant. The concierge will protect him from advancing fascist forces while he himself deals with being wrongfully suspected of murder.

 We should all have a friend like Gustave H., concierge of the Grand Budapest Hotel.

It's whimsical and melancholy. It leaves you wishing that such people as Gustave and such places as the Grand Budapest Hotel could be allowed to exist in the world without accusations and bigotry.

The cast includes Tilda Swinton, Jude Law, Jeff Goldblum, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Edward Norton, F. Murray Abraham and Saoirse Ronan. A fabulous standout is new actor Tony Revolori as Zero, the lobby boy. Revolori is a Chicano actor from Southern California.

Fiennes was also a comedy highlight in 2016's HAIL, CAESAR from the Coen Brothers. In that 1950s set Hollywood-on-Hollywood satire, he played the tweedy director assigned to turn a sow's ear actor into a silk purse. A top Hollywood studio has put its popular cowboy star in a drawing room drama with characters sounding like they're at a Noel Coward dinner party. Hobie Doyle is not a tuxedo-wearing star. He's your basic beans and biscuits guy. The director has quite a studio-assigned chore on his hands starting with trying to teach Hobie how to speak elegantly. Here's clip from HAIL, CAESAR featuring Ralph Fiennes and Alden Ehrenreich.

If you need a few laughs this weekend, consider some Ralph Fiennes action.

About my friend, Mike Sargent, and his half-hour film review/interview show. When his show was available on DirecTV, I kept trying to get him some publicity because there'd not been another show like his. Here was a big, brawny, heterosexual black male film critic hosting his own film review/interview show. On every edition, he had two guest critics. One always had to be female. Often both were female. This was refreshing because the field of film critics seen on TV has been predominantly male. His show practiced gender diversity. Not only that, he regularly spotlighted women directors and LGBTQ filmmakers. Tell me -- how many times have you seen a show like that on weekly television? And the TV journalists ignored it.

It was a darn good show -- while it lasted. I'm proud to have been on it.