Moonrise Kingdom

Logline: A pair of young lovers flee their New England town, which causes a local search party to fan out and find them.

Cast: Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Harvey Keitel, Francis McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman

Directed by: Wes Anderson

Moonrise Kingdom has generated a ton of buzz since its release. With a director like Wes Anderson (Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore, The Life Aquatic, The Darjeeling Limited) expectations were through the roof & critics have praised it for exceeding them. I actually couldn't wait for this movie.

Review

One thing that Wes Anderson understands completely is the ability to keep an audience interested through both storytelling and visuals. I would go as far as saying he's one of the most unique directors out there & considering many people, including myself, have him in their top list of directors, that's quite an achievement. I will expand on this in my Topic of the Day, but I found it necessary to bring it up in this section because it really makes this movie great, in my opinion.

Instead of using the many variations of the word brilliant, I'll just list everything in this movie that falls under that category: characters & the uniqueness of each one, humor, plot development & unpredictability, setting & visuals, goals, time stamp of when the story will end (with the biggest announced storm in the history of the setting's existence), and the overall tone of the movie - smart, quick, and paced.

I can't really dive into these too much without spoiling, but it's definitely more than well done. I think the only negative thing that I could really say about this movie without getting too critical is that it doesn't really have that umph that makes you think after it's over. It's a pretty cool story, but since the main character is a young child overcoming his outcast social standing & we never really see him in that state, it's hard to really triumph in his victory as much as we could have. The whole time our hero is funny, clever, and waaaaay too smart for his own good and we cheer for him because of that - but we never really see him as an outcast in the beginning. We just see the other boys vaguely talking about him being a weirdo. Still good though.

Topic of the Day

STYLE.

What makes Wes Anderson so memorable is the fact that he flaunts his own personal style from the director's chair. Numerous times in the movie you see two people have stand offs. They're both funny and intense + they make the scene interesting. He actually has this way about his direction that I'm having trouble describing, lol. And the soundtrack is quirky and awesome. Just watch a few of his movies and you'll get what I'm talking about. Style is a tricky subject. Think of great directors - what makes them great? They all have their own style. Think of movies that aren't made by these directors and most will come up bland. The thing with style is though, if it's not a good style, it could ruin a completely good movie. Plus, it's just another thing people can judge your movie by... I guess this is what separates the artists from the posers in the industry. This movie is a great example of a film with style.

Consensus

Moonrise Kingdom is a beautiful, unique, and interesting story about a young rebel boy scout in search of love and acceptance. The dysfunctional relationships and the witty humor combine for an interesting chase movie like one I haven't seen before. Wes Anderson impresses yet again with his great camera work and distinct directing style. This is a must watch; definitely worth a classic rating - especially for those who are fans of Anderson's style.

9/10