Moonrise Kingdom

An oddity for indie lovers, hipsters and various other weirdos who will probably drool over the film of the year. For a normal viewer, however, except for a few moments, it is almost non-stop suffering with oddly chosen music and a convoluted ending. At least in terms of actors there is someone to lean on. (17/01/2022)

I have to say that this time the whole is less than the sum of its parts. In Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson works everything (everything that the eye can see) to the tiniest detail, which is nice and I appreciate it, but the charm of the story gets drowned under all that heavy and refined splendour. Visually, it’s beautiful – it was a lot of fun to pour over each scene and notice how Anderson moves with the camera (the opening credits!) – but I never got into the story and it didn’t affect me at all on an emotional level. All of Anderson’s films are standoffish, but you can find in them places to feel sad or moved… but here I missed them. The same applies to his characters, they are all (very) weird, but this time I missed the vitality I felt in Mr. Fox, Zissou and others. In Moonrise Kingdom I only found that vitality in Bill Murray’s character (the night scene in the bed), who was given very little space. Immediately after watching it, an unenthusiastic 80%, but it needs to lager a couple of days. (19/07/2012)

Like a heretic, I confess that I have only seen Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox, which didn't quite fit my mood at the time and has been waiting for a second chance ever since. After Moonrise Kingdom, I will definitely give it that chance. And I'm definitely going to (finally) watch Anderson's older films too, because this one literally charmed me - with everything. An original, funny, endearingly childish adult spectacle, perfectly cast, even better written and directed, and with a great Desplat score. What more can I ask for? (09/03/2014)

Wes Anderson lives in a strange world full of strange and crazy people. It seems a bit as if his films had eaten a ton of mushrooms before the screening, and I watched the rain alternating with cloudy weather. And that’s when the moon comes out. Anyway, I have to say plainly that I expected a little more, mainly because of the great cast who appear in the film. That included both my favorite Bruce Willis and, on the contrary, Edward Norton, with whom I never know what to think, as well as the director’s staples like Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman, who are always joy to watch. I didn’t have a problem with the actors; what was worse was the storytelling and the scouts, who seemed to have crawled out of the factory for the absolute. It was nice, but it was weird and that’s why the three stars are just right. (04/01/2013)

I was pretty lukewarm on Wes Anderson's Rushmore, but I'll gladly stand behind Moonrise Kingdom for what would be a quality film from a very oddball director. The whole thing felt so terribly childlike and playful at times that it even reminded me a bit of Michel Gondry's work (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep). A perfect cast of actors portraying a panopticon of bizarre yet incredibly likeable characters. Besides that, what struck me about the film was the rather unusual cinematography, more precisely its movements, and the great attention to various details about the characters, which were constantly repeated and seemed funny (left-handed scissors, Sunday school shoes, "Social Service"). In short, a film that is probably not for everyone, but those who agree to Anderson's rules and submit to his "poetics" will be extremely satisfied. (01/10/2012)