SVS: “Moonrise Kingdom”

If you’re not  a fan of the highly distinctive brand of Wryly Quirky and Meticulously-Centered Hipster Cinema peddled by one Mr. Wesley Wales “Wes” Anderson, just keep moving. Today is not your day.

For the rest of you, I will point out that Moonrise Kingdom is currently streaming on NETFLIX INSTANT. And YOUTUBE($). And AMAZON INSTANT($). And MORE($).

Set in the 1960s, this period comedy drama follows a pair of young lovers from an island off the New England coast as they head for the hills and throw their small town into a frenzy.

Herewith, a few fly-on-the-wall/heat-of-the-moment thoughts I jotted down mere minutes after seeing it for the first time a couple months back. Which means they’re even less organized than usual. …if that’s even possible.

Every time I watch one of Wes Anderson’s films, I find myself thinking: “Now THIS is the most Anderson-y thing Wes has ever done.”

And that’s exactly what I said true here, as well. His particular brand of dead-pan pathos and quirkisms might not be for everyone. But if you like what he’s done in the past, you’ll like this.

I especially liked the way the film mirrored Britten’s piece, first breaking the families/groups apart and then assembling them for the finale. (I say this as someone who has enjoyed Anderson’s distinctive mix-tape approach in the past, but also as someone whose first musical love will always be classical.)

Loved the action-y climax — at least as “action-y” as Wes gets. And this film is easily the best thing I’ve seen from Willis in quite some time.

The scene where the Bishops discuss their marital issues (right before the metaphorical and actual storm) was really fantastic. Could this film be the definitive answer to Wes’ themes of Broken Fatherhood?

Perhaps.

I’ve subsequently seen The Grand Budapest Hotel, which easily and emphatically supplanted Moonrise as “The Most Anderson-y Thing Wes Has Ever Done,” but the rest still seems pretty true to me. Especially the Bruce Willis bit. And my obsession with the music. And my claim that it just might be the definitive answer to the Broken Fatherhood issues that have plagued Anderson from the beginning. A view that seems re-enforced by the sudden and surprising lack of reliance/focus on those very same long-recurring themes in Budapest. (I feel like there’s something interesting to be said about the fact that this film’s Suzy wants to be an orphan and that film’s Zero is actually an orphan. But I can’t quite put my finger on it. Yet.)

I had known Moonrise was coming to Netflix some time soon, but after searching for it a number of times (and turning up nothing), it dropped off my radar…until friend and film critic Jeffrey Overstreet reminded me. Be sure to check out his review, especially the way he, too, latched onto the symphonic bits. (And the visual connection he makes between a couple of Bill Murray films.)

As the theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar wrote:

By performing the divine symphony, all the instruments of creation discover why they have been assembled together. Initially they stand or sit next to one another as strangers, in mutual contradiction. Suddenly, as the music begins, they realize how they are integrated. Not in unison, but what is far more beautiful—in symphony.

In Sam and Suzy’s declaration of love, the music has started. Let the great reconciliation begin!

Attribution(s): All posters, publicity images, and stills are the property of Universal Pictures and other respective production studios and distributors.