Every Friday Chris hand-selects a streaming recommendation for your weekend.
This Week’s Featured Flick
Moonrise Kingdom on Netflix
THE TRAILER
THE DETAILS
DIRECTOR: Wes Anderson
WRITER: Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola
CAST: Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Bob Balaban
GENRE: Comedy
RUNTIME: 94 min
YEAR: 2012
THE PLOT (via criterion.com)
An island off the New England coast, summer of 1965. Two twelve-year-olds, Sam and Suzy, fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. As local authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm is brewing offshore . . . Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom stars Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward as the young couple on the run, Bruce Willis as Island Police Captain Sharp, Edward Norton as Khaki Scout troop leader Scout Master Ward, and Bill Murray and Frances McDormand as Suzy’s attorney parents, Walt and Laura Bishop. The cast also includes Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, and Bob Balaban. The magical soundtrack features the music of Benjamin Britten.
THE REASON
For my money Moonrise Kingdom is the most Wes-Andersonian film the Texan auteur has ever made.
If a statement like that excites you — I know you don’t need to be sold on this movie, because you’re almost certainly seen it already. If that statement made you nauseated to the point that you just can’t even — I implore you to give the guy a second chance with this one.
It has all regular traits that tend to set some folks on edge, meticulous shot composition, absurd and slightly abrupt dialog, Bill Murray — okay, fine, I’m not sure many people get up in arms about a mandatory Murray cameo — but the thing that makes Moonrise Kingdom more Anderson-y than the rest isn’t any of these. In fact, it’s the same thing that makes it a great re-entry point for those with an Anderson aversion. It’s Suzy and Sam, the two young lovers at the center of this story.
Children pervade throughout his oeuvre. Often we see juveniles occupying very adult worlds while their adult counterparts act as children themselves. MK is no different in this regard, but this time the youths outnumber the grown-ups. This is where the magic happens. Anderson gives his audience a knee-high view of the world that brings back memories of childlike wonder. The same aesthetics that may appear too staged or whimsical to some when used in a seemingly real world setting seem very authentic here among Suzy and Sam and the other Khaki Scouts.
It feels like childhood felt. All knees and elbows and an ernest commitment to playdate plans that everyone knows are preposterous from the start. Do you remember that time you tried to start an empire selling sugar water at the end your best friend’s cul de sac? Or the time you held Jedi council meetings with every kid your age on the block every day after school for two weeks straight, because you were all dedicated to becoming Jedi masters? Or what about that summer when you spent every day hanging out with the kid down the street, the one you were never really close with again. Remember how the two of you worked on that treehouse all summer long? What was your plan? Something about running away once school started and living off the land?
That feeling you just got thinking about all those grand adventures is the same feeling I get every time I watch Moonrise Kingdom.
BONUS: BILL MURRAY HOSTED TOUR OF MOONRISE KINGDOM
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