Review of Moonrise Kingdom (2012) by Jack A — 24 Sep 2015

This film seems to have passed largely under the radar, unlike Wes Anderson's next movie, Grand Budapest Hotel. Which is odd, considering how it's in this film that Anderson's unique style and technique is finally moulded into something coherent and brilliant. All of the hallmarks that made Budapest Hotel so Grand are here - the absurdist comedy and idiosyncratic characters from The Darjeeling Limited - the miniatures and detailed set design from Life Aquatic - even the narrative style from Royal Tenenbaums - all of these little quirks from his previous movies, all finally fit together like one big puzzle, to form something beautiful, memorable, and utterly hilarious.

Moonrise Kingdom is a comedy without jokes. The subject matter would be serious, if it weren't presented in such a way that constantly holds a mirror up to itself to recognise its own absurdity. The visual comedy is executed brilliantly, and the acting is stoic and deadpan - even when it really shouldn't be - which adds to the style and humour. To treat the ridiculous with utter seriousness is the key to the laughs here, and to do that, constant parallels are drawn on other popular movie tropes.

This is a film about a troubled soldier and orphan, that escapes from his platoon in order to run away with a girl he met (also troubled), whom he had been secretly communicating with. His own platoon is sent after him to hunt him down, and bring him in - but being the least popular (see troubled, again), they don't mind so much if he's brought in dead or alive. A deadly cat and mouse game ensues.

Only, these aren't soldiers at all. They're boy scouts. The "prison break" involves nothing more complicated than cutting a hole in the side of his tent and escaping, but the hole is covered-up with a map, a la Shawshank Redemption. As the movie progresses, it becomes clearer and clearer that the Khaki Scouts are an analogy for soldiers, and there's some brilliantly funny scenes walking through camp where we see the little boy scouts running obstacle courses, marching in unison, zip-lining and setting off rockets... all drives home this wonderfully absurd mix of the serious and child-like, which permeates everything about the film.

Another favourite Anderson staple of mine that appears here, is the symmetrical composition, and fast 90 degree camera swivels. Every shot in the film is painstakingly arranged for maximum effect, and every frame is a work of art. Attention to detail is everything here, and every element - from the yellow tint that gives every shot the feel of an old photograph - to the flowery French text that appears as captioning - all is specifically designed to evoke some kind of reaction - and in this case, it's to give the film grounding and context as a 60's era piece of euro-cinema.

In short, this film is nothing short of brilliant, and absolutely on par with Grand Budapest Hotel. Fans of that movie are guaranteed a good time with this one.