The point is, Wes Anderson makes very unique and interesting movies. I’m not entirely sure his style is for me, but given my well-documented love for a good coming-of-age movie, Moonrise Kingdom seemed like the logical choice to get me on the Wes Anderson hype train.
The first thing that seems worth mentioning about Moonrise Kingdom is the sheer amount of visual style on display. This movie hurts my eyes to watch, but in the best possible way. If a shot can be symmetric, it is. Conversations are always shot from perfect ninety-degree angles: either the camera is positioned laterally at two characters facing each other, or it’s directly between them, cutting back and forth as the characters appear to address the audience directly. Everything looks flat, and while I have no idea how they did that, it’s really fascinating to observe as the camera slowly and deliberately moves through this two-dimensional world. From what I understand, all of these little idiosyncrasies are trademark Anderson, but here it really seems like they’re dialed up to eleven. Seriously, every single frame is organized with the obsessive-compulsiveness of a cracked-out penguin.
But, like most movies starring child actors, Moonrise Kingdom lives or dies by the kids’ performance… luckily, the two stars and all their compatriots do brilliant work here. The way these kids talk to each other is totally unrealistic; it’s like the way you see kids talk in an elementary play when they’re pretending to be adults. They’re totally self-serious, and I think that’s kinda the point. This is a movie where the kids are clueless and the adults even more so.
The crux of Moonrise Kingdom is the young love between Sam and Suzie, and I totally bought it. It felt eerily reminiscent of my own early-days grade school crushes, and not necessarily in the most flattering of ways. What’s also worth mentioning is how these kids are basically acting out fantasy stories; more than once, Suzie reads Sam & the other boys excerpts from her favorite novels. Watching this film a second time, I was really struck by how it all ties together - the fantasy stories, the surreal visual style, the unrealistic dialogue & fantastical plot elements. Moonrise Kingdom is a fantasy story, but one about mundane, relatable things that we’re all familiar with.
Overall, Moonrise Kingdom delivered exactly what I wanted it to. I love the surrealist style and the fantasy tone; both fit this story exceptionally well. The humor in this film is peculiar - all the jokes seem real subtle and polite, as if you’re not even supposed to notice them. But this movie is bittersweet in all the right ways; if unique coming-of-age stories are your thing, I’d highly recommend Moonrise Kingdom.
It's weirdly fortuitous (in a Wes Anderson-y way) that I decided to check out this director's filmography just a few months before his latest film, The French Dispatch, is released. Check out the first trailer, it looks kinda bonkers. And no, this whole post is not some elaborate advertisement for The French Dispatch.
(That being said, Searchlight Pictures - email me.)
Image & Info Sources
Moonrise Kingdom IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt1748122/?ref_=ttmi_tt
Wes Anderson image: the-talks.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Wes-Anderson-01-690x360.jpg
Lighthouse image: media2.fdncms.com/chicago/imager/wes-anderson-reigns-benevolent-over-moonrise-kingdom/u/r-big16x10/6573459/rr_moonrise-teaser.jpg?cb=1562191320
Tree fort image: www.itl.cat/pngfile/big/162-1620483_screen-shot-2013-06-06-at-moonrise-kingdom.png
The French Dispatch trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcPk2p0Zaw4