By this point, you know whether or not you love the films of Wes Anderson.  He’s a true auteur with an unmistakable style, and unless he undergoes a radical transformation, his fans and his detractors will remain firmly entrenched.  His latest, The Grand Budapest Hotel, won’t change anyone’s mind about the director nor should it.  The movie is almost the platonic ideal of Wes Anderson picture, and yet it’s free from over-indulgence and self-congratulations.  The film is vibrant, witty, pristine, and a wonder to behold.  While it falls a bit short of the emotional impact of a couple of his other movies, Anderson has still crafted a captivating mixture of magic and melancholy.

I love everything about Wes Anderson movies.  From the way he creates unique worlds to the unusual characters that occupy the screen, Anderson is a one-of-a-kind filmmaker that always makes something special.  His newest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, just premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and it continues his streak of making exceptional films.  The story mostly takes place in early 20th-century and revolves around the goings-on at a famous European hotel where a legendary concierge (Ralph Fiennes) mentors a young employee (Tony Revolori) against the backdrop of a changing continent.  The film also stars Saoirse Ronan, Bill Murray, F. Murray Abraham, Edward Norton, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Lea Seydoux, Jeff Goldblum, Jason Schwarztman, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, Tom Wilkinson, and Owen Wilson.  For more on the film, watch 13 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage and here’s all our previous coverage.

The day after the world premiere, I participated in a great roundtable interview with Anderson in Berlin.  He talked about where the idea for Grand Budapest Hotel came from, the film’s cast, choosing the locations for his films, his signature aesthetic, the various aspect ratios used in the film and his reasoning behind them, how budget has influenced or possibly changed any of his scripts, and so much more.  It’s a great interview so hit the jump for what he had to say.  The Grand Budapest Hotel opens March 7th.

Fox Searchlight has released an extended behind the scenes look at writer/director Wes Anderson’s new film The Grand Budapest Hotel by way of some b-roll footage.  The story takes place in early 20th-century Hungary and revolves around the goings-on at the titular hotel where a legendary concierge (Ralph Fiennes) mentors a young employee (Tony Revolori).  The film premiered to rave reviews at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this month, and this b-roll offers a look at Anderson’s directorial process on set.  If you missed any of Steve’s coverage from Berlin, be sure to check out his video blog reaction and interviews with Ralph Fiennes and Bill Murray.

Hit the jump to watch the behind-the-scenes footage.  The film also stars Saoirse Ronan, F. Murray Abraham, Edward Norton, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Lea Seydoux, Jeff Goldblum, Jason Schwarztman, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, Tom Wilkinson, and Owen Wilson.  The Grand Budapest Hotel opens in limited release on March 7th.

Over the past week, I got to attend the Berlin Film Festival for the first time.  Unlike Sundance and the Toronto International Film Festival, which feel like they take over their host cities, Berlin’s film festival feels like an intimate event.  The reason I say this is due to the size of the city.  Berlin is massive.  It sort of feels like the Los Angeles of Germany because of the distance from end to end.  However, in one small area of the city, Potsdamer Platz to be exact, the world comes together to celebrate film.  In those surrounding blocks, you can see the best of world cinema and watch excited fans attempt to catch glimpses of their favorite actors and directors.

While at the Festival, I caught a few fantastic movies like Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer,  Yann Demange’s ’71, Eskil Vogt’s Blind and Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel.  The other day, before leaving Berlin, I recorded a video blog about the festival and films with Alex from FirstShowing.  Hit the jump for our thoughts.

I love everything about Wes Anderson movies.  From the way he creates unique worlds to the unusual characters that occupy the screen, Anderson is a one-of-a-kind filmmaker that always makes something special.  His newest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, just premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and it continues his streak of making exceptional films.  The story mostly takes place in early 20th-century and revolves around the goings-on at a famous European hotel where a legendary concierge (Ralph Fiennes) mentors a young employee (Tony Revolori) against the backdrop of a changing continent.  The film also stars Saoirse Ronan, Bill Murray, F. Murray Abraham, Edward Norton, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Lea Seydoux, Jeff Goldblum, Jason Schwarztman, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, Tom Wilkinson, and Owen Wilson.  For more on the film, here’s all our previous coverage.

The day after the world premiere, I participated in a great roundtable interview with Bill Murray in Berlin.  He talked about what it was like to make the film on location in Europe, collaborating with Wes Anderson, the dialogue, whether his process as an actor has changed over time, and more.  In addition, he told some great stories about making Rushmore, his thoughts on Saturday Night Live and Bill Hader, why he quit acting for awhile after making Broken Flowers, and future projects.  Hit the jump for what he had to say.  The Grand Budapest Hotel opens March 7th.

Wes Anderson has made many good films over the course of his career, but Fantastic Mr. Fox is among his best.  The 2009 stop-motion animated adaptation of Roald Dahl’s childrens book is an absolute delight from start to finish, and it’s finally getting a proper Criterion Collection release next week.  In anticipation of the Blu-ray/DVD dual format release, Criterion has put together a swell new trailer that offers a peek at some of the behind-the-scenes material that will be included on the Criterion disc.  The director-approved release includes the film’s digital master as well as a host of extras, including audio commentary, footage of the actors voicing the characters, an hour-long documentary about Dahl, and much more.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer and to see the full list of extras included on the Blu-ray, and click here to pre-order the disc.  Fantastic Mr. Fox Criterion Collection Blu-ray/DVD will be available starting February 18th.

A new clip from writer/director Wes Anderson’s new film The Grand Budapest Hotel has been released online.  The story takes place in early 20th-century Hungary, and revolves around the goings-on at the titular hotel where a legendary concierge (Ralph Fiennes) mentors a young employee (Tony Revolori).  This new clip focuses on Bill Murray’s character as he sets up a getaway of sorts, and it once again highlights Anderson’s use of multiple aspect ratios in the pic.  This is the first film on which Anderson receives sole screenwriting credit, and with the new clip it continues to look like an absolute delight.

Hit the jump to watch the new clip.  The film also stars Saoirse Ronan, F. Murray Abraham, Edward Norton, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Lea Seydoux, Jeff Goldblum, Jason Schwarztman, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, Tom Wilkinson, and Owen Wilson.  The Grand Budapest Hotel will premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February and open in the U.S. on March 7th.

Fox Searchlight has released another clip from writer/director Wes Anderson’s new film The Grand Budapest Hotel.  We saw the first clip from the pic yesterday, in which Ralph Fiennes’ concierge character is introduced to the titular hotel’s new Lobby Boy (Tony Revolori), and today’s clip finds Fiennes interacting with Edward Norton, who plays a policeman.  The story takes place in early 20th-century Hungary and revolves around the goings-on at the Grand Budapest Hotel, specifically focusing on the relationship between a legendary concierge and a young employee who becomes his trusted protégé.  The humor continues to look spot-on and the colorful cast of characters is incredibly promising.

Hit the jump to watch the new clip.  The film also stars Saoirse Ronan, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Jason Schwartzman, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Mathieu Amalric, Harvey Keitel, Edward Norton, Lea Seydoux, Tom Wilkinson, and Bill Murray.  The Grand Budapest Hotel opens March 7th.

Fox Searchlight has released the first clip from writer/director Wes Anderson’s new film The Grand Budapest Hotel, and it’s positively delightful.  The story takes place in early 20th-century Hungary and revolves around the goings-on at the titular hotel, where a legendary concierge (Ralph Fiennes) takes a young employee (Tony Revolori) under his wing to become his trusted protégé.  This debut clip chronicles the humorous first meeting between Fiennes and Revolori’s characters and highlights the fact that Fiennes’ concierge runs a very tight ship.  The film landed on our recent Most Anticipated list of 2014’s first quarter slate, and for me personally the pic’s release date can’t come soon enough.

Hit the jump to watch the clip.  The film also stars Saoirse Ronan, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Jason Schwartzman, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Mathieu Amalric, Harvey Keitel, Edward Norton, Lea Sydoux, Tom Wilkinson, and Bill Murray.  The Grand Budapest Hotel opens March 7th.

A new trailer for Wes Anderson‘s The Grand Budapest Hotel is now online.  The story takes place in early 20th-century Hungary, and revolves around the goings-on at the titular hotel, where a legendary concierge (Ralph Fiennes) mentors a young employee (Tony Revolori).  Like yesterday’s new poster, this trailer is designed to introduce you to the huge cast of characters while still conveying the tone of the picture.  It does both wonderfully.  The performances look diverse, the humor is light but sharp, and it still has Anderson’s familiar atheistic, but it doesn’t feel stale.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film stars  Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, Saoirse Ronan, F. Murray Abraham, Edward Norton, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Lea Seydoux, Jeff Goldblum, Jason Schwarztman, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Murray, and Owen Wilson. The Grand Budapest Hotel opens March 7, 2014.

We have a couple of new posters to share this afternoon.  First up is the debut poster for director Josh Boone’s adaptation of the emotional John Green novel The Fault in Our Stars.  The film stars Shailene Woodley as Hazel, a young cancer patient who strikes up a relationship with another cancer-stricken teen named Gus, played by Ansel Elgort (Carrie).  The poster does a nice job of conveying the tone of the story, complete with the tagline “One Sick Love Story”.  As a big fan of the book, that tagline seems kind of perfect.  The film also stars Nat Wolff, Willem Dafoe, Laura Dern, and Mike Birbiglia and opens on June 6, 2014.

Additionally, Fox Searchlight has released a fantastic character poster for Wes Anderson’s upcoming film The Grand Budapest Hotel.  The one-sheet teases the period film’s swell ensemble cast in true Wes Anderson fashion, and it precedes a character trailer that will be released tomorrow.  The film stars Ralph Fiennes, Saoirse Ronan, and Bill Murray and opens March 7, 2014.

Season’s greetings from Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel!  A new motion poster for the quirky director’s upcoming film introduces viewers to the building in question and brings a bit of holiday cheer as well.  If the poster catches your fancy, then I suggest checking out the trailer to become more acquainted with the movie.

The Grand Budapest Hotel stars Saoirse Ronan, Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, F. Murray Abraham, Edward Norton, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Lea Seydoux, Jeff Goldblum, Jason Schwarztman, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Murray, and Owen Wilson, and opens stateside on March 7, 2014.  Hit the jump to check out the film’s holiday greeting.

Good news, Wes Anderson fans.  It turns out we don’t have to wait until next February to see the filmmaker’s latest project, as a new short film written and directed by Anderson has been released online following its premiere at the Rome Film Festival.  Presented by Prada, Castello Cavalcanti stars Anderson’s frequent collaborator Jason Schwartzman and centers on an American race car driver who crashes in a small Italian village in 1955.  Anderson and Schwartzman previously collaborated on the short film Hotel Chevalier, and their follow-up effort is in no way a let down. It’s a fantastic and incredibly funny film, and running at nearly 8 minutes long it’s a great appetizer for Anderson’s next feature The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Hit the jump to watch the new short film.  Castello Cavalcanti also stars Giada Colagrande.

Last night’s Edward Norton-hosted episode of Saturday Night Live had a little parody fun with the holiday season, this time turning its focus to filmmaker Wes Anderson’s distinct style.  The trailer for the fake Anderson-directed horror film The Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders applies the director’s style to the horror genre, complete with Norton doing a spot-on Owen Wilson impression and Alec Baldwin making a cameo as the film’s narrator.  It’s pretty funny, if a bit on the nose.  Anderson’s an easy target so I was hoping for something a tad more substantive, but the SNL team mostly resigned itself to  quick cameos of the director’s most famous characters.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  Anderson’s latest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, opens in theaters on March 7, 2014. 

With director James Wan‘s The Conjuring hitting Blu-ray/DVD this coming Tuesday, I can’t encourage those who missed the film in theaters to give it a watch from the comfort of their own homes enough. As I’ve said before, I think it’s fantastic (one of my favorites so far this year, in fact) and I can’t wait to see how it holds up on multiple viewings outside of the theater. While the wife and I take great pride in our movie collection, there aren’t many new releases that I consider “must haves” on day one. The Conjuring is the exception to that rule and an instant classic that any horror fan can be proud to own.

My ringing endorsement aside, this week’s installment of the Top 5 includes Carrie interviews with Chloe Grace Moretz and more, the first trailer for Wes Anderson‘s The Grand Budapest Hotel, Kill Your Darlings interviews with the likes of Daniel Radcliffe and Dane DeHaan, a Star Wars editorial that argues against four rules being the key to making the franchise great again, and The Fifth Estate interviews with Benedict Cumberbatch and more. Like all the times before, a brief recap and link to each of the above resides after the jump.