(directed by Wes Anderson, 2012)
If hipsters had a heaven, you can bet everything
would be framed precisely in the center.
Which is to say that for Wes Anderson fans, “Moonrise
Kingdom” is about as good as it gets. Gone is the cloying self-consciousness,
the hip detachment, the willingness to create genuine human moments only to
undercut them, all of which plague his films at their worst.
Or wait. That’s not exactly true. That’s all still
there; his tricks haven’t left. Instead he presents these tropes that are the
comforting reminder of a Wes Anderson world, then snatches them from beneath us
to present a world of true melancholy, warmth, and honesty.
What results is one whimsical concoction that’s not
entirely like anything else in theaters this year. And yet that’s true for all
Anderson movies, isn’t it? Love him or hate him, how many directors can screen
any random five seconds of any of their movies, and you instantly know whose it
is? What a rare and precious gift that is.
That this
movie’s making money is even more encouraging. Anderson breaks through to the
multiplex crowds, and he does it without condescending or changing what makes
him special. Never in “Moonrise Kingdom” do we catch a whiff of Anderson
sacrificing his artistic ideals. Instead he AMPLIFIES them, and forces the
audiences to bend to his auteur groove.
Set on a 1960s island that might well have sprung
from a picture book, “Moonrise Kingdom” concerns two preteen outcasts. One is
Sam, the outcast of a summer scout camp for cub scouts, who was probably born
wearing his glasses. The other is Suzy, who lives on the island and runs away
with Sam as a hurricane rapidly looms overhead. This jailbreak doesn’t make a
whole lot of sense, as the island leaves relatively little space for them to
hide. But hey, it’s an adventure for a week.
Maybe they’re genuinely in love. Maybe they’re just
infatuated with the idea that someone else seems to understand them. It doesn’t
matter. Anderson treats it with utmost respect just the same. Bill Murray also
shows up because of course he does. And this being Bill Murray, his eyes reveal
enough lurking melancholy to render the screenplay moot.
Throughout all this, Anderson fills his canvas with
colors, but not the sort that call attention to themselves. It’s mostly a
series of muted greens and khakis, amplifying the natural landscape and the
scouts’ uniforms themselves. All as if to say this world feeds off and mirrors
those that occupy it. There might as well not be any people on the island
outside those concerned to the movie.
Not a frame gets wasted. Not a frame calls attention
to itself or feels like it’s showing off or exists for its own sake. Anderson
is in complete command of his craft here, tailoring every image to
simultaneously inform, entertain, and enchant.
Hipsters get a bad reputation, and with good reason,
because they suck. But maybe that’s the easy way out. The way of standing back
and judging that which we do not care enough to understand. What makes people
loathe hipsters (along with many other reasons) is their conscious effort
to appear different. Knowing they’re cool isn’t enough. We all need to be
subjected to it too.
That’s too simplistic, though. Empathy is one of the
most important human emotions, and key in this case is to recognize the human longing
lurking beneath.
All this to say that “Moonrise Kingdom” feels like
Anderson’s own response to his earlier work. He returns to the familiar twee
tropes. But then reminds us there’s a real beating heart in there too.
What a magical place his mind must be.
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