Moonrise Kingdom

MOVIE #1,260 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 11.30.23 WES ANDERSON: DIRECTOR FOCUS Doing this Wes Anderson series in reverse chronological order has been interesting for several reasons, but the most fascinating moment — in my, very personal, opinion — is this one. I would have bet (via memory) that Moonrise Kingdom was easily better than The Grand Budapest Hotel but, having just been delighted and amazed and given that film a 10/10, this is clearly the lesser work. My inkling that these are a pair, though, holds water. It might be hard to see but he’s clearly trying to do SOME things differently: gone are the myriad needle drops in favor of Alexandre Desplat’s score pushed to the forefront, and the ensemble cast has ballooned to the extreme in both affairs. Whereas one of his lesser known old standbys (like Seymore Cassel or Kumar Pallana) would have featured in the supporting roles, now it’s A-listers cast in all parts, no matter the size.

And then there's the weird underage sexualization stuff that is difficult impossible to ignore, but I'm not going to moralize. Make of it what you will. It's actually worse than I remember too! They were both 14 when they filmed this (playing 12 year olds). Does a review need to mention this? I don't know. I have a review website and I just did. Would it have worked better or worse without the egregious on-screen push? It's difficult to argue that it doesn't heighten the stakes with its salaciousness, regardless of how you feel. Also, it’s set in the 60s: does that matter?? It feels like a cop-out on my part to mention this and then just blurt out a few rhetorical questions, but I think it would feel weirder not mentioning it all.

Regardless, I think this film is lacking on an overall structural and narrative level, but there are many memorable moments and some of his most quotable lines. Like, after Wes kills yet another canine, the two leads quip: “Was he a good dog?” “Who’s to say?” And Bill Murray (who seems mostly bored or too deadpan in this performance) replies to his wife’s plea for their children with “it’s not enough.” Or the very subtle Godfather reference when Coppola’s nephew Jason Schwartzman remarks, “take the carbon, leave the bible.” (Schwartzman chews it up in this very limited role, by the way: forever the perfect Anderson actor and always will be.) And there are visual splendors galore, naturally.

The two major criticisms I walked away with were A) the Bruce Willis/Sam dynamic is not established nearly enough especially given the ending, and B) the Bob Balaban narration/framing device felt a little undercooked or stifled/forced. Although, I think both actors are still good in their individual scenes. And this seems representative of the movie as a whole: it’s still really entertaining even when its flaws are undeniable.

[Ed. Note: SOMEHOW after doing 1,260 movie reviews on this site, this is first Bruce Willis I've logged?! Seems impossible.]

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,259 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,261 ⫸

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Moonrise Kingdom is a 2012 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Wes Anderson, written by Anderson and Roman Coppola, and starring Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Bob Balaban, and introducing Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward. Largely set on the fictional island of New Penzance somewhere off the coast of New England, it tells the story of an orphan boy (Gilman) who escapes from a scouting camp to unite with his pen pal and love interest, a girl with aggressive tendencies (Hayward). Feeling alienated from their guardians and shunned by their peers, the lovers abscond to an isolated beach. Meanwhile, the island's police captain (Willis) organizes a search party of scouts and family members to locate the runaways. It was released on May 16, 2012.