Here’s the thing people, Moonrise Kingdom is a Wes Anderson film through and through. It’s full of all his trademarks, it’s farmilliar and it is in no way a departure from any of his previous works. It’s ‘twee’ and ‘cute’ and ‘hipster’ and every other adjective you’ve ever heard thrown out about his other films. What I’m getting at is that by now you either like Wes Anderson films or you don’t. I happen to like them and therefore, I thought Moonrise was fantastic.
Anderson has crafted a very particular style. At the start of MK he seems assured of it and the viewer feels almost too comfortable from the get go. But with only a few minutes passing into the running time, the audience gets to know the characters quite well and becomes fully engaged in their adventure. The plot follows two kids, a twelve year old orphan Khaki scout and a troubled female bronoculars enthusiest, that are running away together. The preteens at that pivotal moment in their lives, finding love and true friendship for the first time. But the story is of course much like a play or storybook, full of fun and endearing characters experiencing out of the ordinary and fantastical events. Besides all the warm and fuzzies the movie offers up, it’s completely drenched with amazing performances from the entire cast. Truly, there are no weak points in the chain, including all the younger actors that do the film proud. It’s also nice to see Norton and Willis do something a little different and I think they both nail it. I wouldn’t be suprised if Bruce showed up in another Wes Anderson world due to his stellar turn in this movie.
All in all there isn’t a whole lot to say about Moonrise Kingdom that hasn’t been said already but it deserves recognition as a fabulous film on it’s own. It’s tough to compare it to film’s I’ve seen dozens of times but I think it stacks up pretty high with Anderson’s other works.
