moonrise kingdom, an ethereal place

perhaps i am biased, but considering the amount of garbage that is forced upon us these days, wes anderson is a persistent and glorious breath of fresh air.  i was fortunate enough to see ‘moonrise kingdom’ this past weekend, and combining the effortless style and wit of all his other movies, i truly think he has perfected his craft with this one.  taking the elements of detail to an entirely new level and juxtaposing them with an unforgettable cast, anderson proves that he is truly a cinephile’s hero.  despite the wondrous performances of big name actors, suzy and sam, the star-crossed lovers and protagonists outshine all others on the screen. played by kara hayward (a pubescent margot tenenbaum) and jared gilman (a hemingway-esque noble young man) you are completely drawn to their love, its genuine intent and post-modernist determinism.  there is the languid air of an orphaned child and parental issues as in all other anderson films, but this is positively delightful.  and if you have a soul, you will want to see it immediately. by sv

She’s Electric by Santiago and Mauricio

the sierra brothers grew up in the ’80’s, can you tell?  drawing inspiration from japanese anime, atari video games and disneyland’s space mountain attraction has combined to create a pretty impressive beauty video featuring looks by makeup artist romy soleimani. this is glossier and more than a smidgen more techno than my taste generally runs, but i can’t help but be drawn by their ability to create velocity out of almost nothing in post. slick. by kl

MUTA

a film for miu miu by lucrecia martel. really cool in a weird way with its beautiful close-ups and location. big budget helps make it great of course, but in the end it’s all about the ideas. by kc

Dior’s Secret Garden at the Versailles: Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin

as always an amazingly beautiful yet completely nonsensical film by inez and vinoodh, at château de versailles. as with all young directors, there are simply too many shots in the same film, a good portion of which should have stayed in the edit suite drive. also if i may  interject here, having 20 models actually could suck, they should have stuck with daria  strokous throughout the shooting, and saved the budget for an after party. all that said, we love inez & vinoodh and have loved them since day one so please continue, we promise to suffer through the good and enjoy the bad. by dd