I understand why most people are reluctant to embrace the films of Wes Anderson. They are clearly not for all tastes. Anderson makes movies about lost souls searching for emotional support and redemption in meticulously-created worlds where everything is filtered through a child’s pure sense of wonder. He is one of the most unique voices in American cinema today and though his films are set in places not fully grounded in the reality that we are all accustomed to, his characters’ actions and emotions are. Their feelings of joy, despair, grief, hatred, and love make them cinematic personalities as authentic in their thoughts and words as those of their creator.

Anderson does not always succeed when he sets out to make a movie, but even his greatest failures – of which there are precious few – are way more enjoyable than the vast majority of films being released these days. There is a reason why the Criterion Collection has released nearly every film directed by Anderson on DVD and Blu-ray, and I am still waiting with great anticipation for that Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou Blu.

Moonrise Kingdom
Directed by Wes Anderson
Starring Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Bob Balaban and Harvey Keitel
Release Date: May 16, 2012

French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard, a powerful influence in cinema and pop culture from the 1960s onward thanks to his radical films, depicted in some of his films the need for the adolescent or youth to maintain their autonomy in the process of society attempting to crush it and mold it for their own purposes. This is pure literary, but in cinema the right director can demonstrate explicitly the harsh tendencies of society.

In his newest film, Moonrise Kingdom, director Wes Anderson, with a script he co-wrote with Roman Coppola, is approaching that topic Godard had always wrestled with, and still is today. It is not easy to do, but with Anderson’s whimsy and vigorous style of direction, unerring in its constant infatuation with capturing perfection, we are able to witness two adolescents restlessly in love in a perfectly concocted world endure an environment that is stifling and stunting their growth.

Focus Features has released a three-minute behind the scenes featurette for Wes Anderson‘s upcoming romantic comedy Moonrise Kingdom. Though the film focuses on the runaway romance between two children, the featurette focuses mostly on the film’s adult cast: Bruce Willis, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, and Jason Schwartzman.

In the video they talk about their experiences working on the set of Moonrise Kingdom and about Anderson’s directing style. You get to see what it was like on the set of the film. The gorgeous simplicity of the set pieces and the beautiful locations that Anderson chose is exactly why Moonrise Kingdom is one of my top ten highly anticipated films of 2012.

The first announcement teaser trailer for Transformers: Dark of the Moon has now arrived online. And though it’s dubbed an “announcement” teaser, it’s actually more like a traditional teaser and shows off some interesting things.

The movie comes once again from director Michael Bay, and is the third in the franchise following Transformers (2007) and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009).

In the announcement teaser trailer, we’re whisked back to 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission that saw Neil Armstrong become the first human being to step foot on the moon. But right after their historic accomplishment, the astronauts on the mission discover something even more remarkable.

Be sure to head on over to the other side now to check out this first trailer for Transformers: Dark of the Moon!

Apart from the much-covered spat between director Michael Bay and starlet Megan Fox, which ultimately led to her replacement with Victoria’s Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as the female lead, and star Shia LaBeouf promising things would be much better this time around, we haven’t heard too much about Transformers 3.

The Bay directed trilogy-capper now has itself an official title, and it will be interesting to see how fans react to it. The movie will now be called Transformers: The Dark of the Moon, which ties to a trio of upcoming Transformer novels with similar titles, Transformers: The Dark of the Moon – Secret of the Autobots, Transformers: The Dark of the Moon – Autobots Betrayed!, and Transformers: The Dark of the Moon: Invasion of the Decepticons.