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Moonrise Kingdom
Wes Anderson goes west with some foster parents and a son, his new love, her family, a cop, his affair with her mother, a scout leader, his troup and a whole bunch of other characters in this cascade of major catastrophic events on this otherwise minor island in the middle of god damn nowhere...
In authentic Anderson fashion, Wes dresses up his quirky characters in charismatic fashion with calculated problems to the waist line and places all of them in a place with very little space and a dose of off-shore satire and subjective humor. No one does Anderson like Anderson and his style of writing, visuals and soundtrack is super easy to identity and almost impossible to redefine or duplicate and I admire that about him. 'Moonrise Kingdom' is no different in any of these departments, but despite not being atypical Anderson, it is still the suggestive abnormal Anderson all-around, whether you like that or not.
Personally I do enjoy his works, but subjectively he is the life action answer to Miyazaki films. I sometimes find myself stuffed to the brim with sensory inputs from every direction to the point of disorientation - something that sometimes lifts the film and other times it degrades itself downwards from its own high-flying expressions. Anyways, the visuals are arguably Anderson at his most playful yet, which suits the youthful and mysterious spirit of the movie. The images are still of the familiar static nature, but the look of the actual nature combined with the colossal colorful vision of the cinematography, really makes the compact look feel grand. Anderson's cinematic style still channels the idea of a real life doll house, where Anderson can place and play around with the people of his movie exactly as he pleases and move them around organically inside this little film adaptation of his mind. The images are endlessly impressive and entertaining to escape into, where his characters either stick to the image or act as stick figures to the story.
Now that we are at the story, I love the idea of Anderson's imagination being intergrated with a younger cast and a youthful story about young love. Having the main characters take on the "camping trip of a life time" with love and luring dangers duelling in the battle of forbidden feelings, adventures and emotions is just brilliant. The story structure is tightly vowen together in the vein of the visuals, but despite of the plot constantly progressing in an almost chaotically wild and weird way, it never loses a single step - at least not in the mind of the director. Anderson seems in control of his chaos at all times and whatever he is doing might not appeal to all but it is easy to admire and respect. The writing of the dialogue is just as precise as the plot and the attention to detail is almost obsessive in nature - an element to Anderson's filmography that might frustrate some audiences and fuel others. Personally I'm equally persistent and perfectionistic with my writings, so obviously I'm very fond of his pin-point plot structure and bullet point thematic flow. Anderson might be the most fluent off-beat auteur I can recall at the moment, whatever that means, exactly.
'Moonrise Kingdom' is like a fantasy tale of factual happenings, filled with enough heart and soul filmmaking to stimulate the senses and a story simple enough to follow and a core sophisticated enough to feel. Anderson is never on the wall about the emotions of his characters and they often appear more quirky than complicated. But it isn't about the level of each element but the layering of them. The weird may first in line, but the humane lies just beneath the surface. Admittedly, Anderson is not about creating complex characters, per say, more complex worlds, but the small hints of all the hidden things is hugely rewarding when you do catch it. Some are obviously obvious and some are even played up front for laughs, like the depression of Suzy's father - but you are still given a glimpse big enough to develop the darker side of it yourself and I liked that a lot.
The humane aspect is very much alike that of a depressed stand-up comedian - a very loud and jokingly funny attitude but the cracks may show at a few occassions even if he or she will try to hide it - actually that is often the most complex state of such emotions, but they may not adapt to the screen the way we want it to. However, back to the movie, there is no doubt Anderson's movies are about the world building, quirky characters, complex writing and weirdly costructed visuals - and I got to say, despite the problems I have, most of the times I love living in Anderson's world for those 90 minutes or more.
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Wes Anderson goes west with some foster parents and a son, his new love, her family, a cop, his affair with her mother, a scout leader, his troup and a whole bunch of other characters in this cascade of major catastrophic events on this otherwise minor island in the middle of god damn nowhere...
In authentic Anderson fashion, Wes dresses up his quirky characters in charismatic fashion with calculated problems to the waist line and places all of them in a place with very little space and a dose of off-shore satire and subjective humor. No one does Anderson like Anderson and his style of writing, visuals and soundtrack is super easy to identity and almost impossible to redefine or duplicate and I admire that about him. 'Moonrise Kingdom' is no different in any of these departments, but despite not being atypical Anderson, it is still the suggestive abnormal Anderson all-around, whether you like that or not.
Personally I do enjoy his works, but subjectively he is the life action answer to Miyazaki films. I sometimes find myself stuffed to the brim with sensory inputs from every direction to the point of disorientation - something that sometimes lifts the film and other times it degrades itself downwards from its own high-flying expressions. Anyways, the visuals are arguably Anderson at his most playful yet, which suits the youthful and mysterious spirit of the movie. The images are still of the familiar static nature, but the look of the actual nature combined with the colossal colorful vision of the cinematography, really makes the compact look feel grand. Anderson's cinematic style still channels the idea of a real life doll house, where Anderson can place and play around with the people of his movie exactly as he pleases and move them around organically inside this little film adaptation of his mind. The images are endlessly impressive and entertaining to escape into, where his characters either stick to the image or act as stick figures to the story.
Now that we are at the story, I love the idea of Anderson's imagination being intergrated with a younger cast and a youthful story about young love. Having the main characters take on the "camping trip of a life time" with love and luring dangers duelling in the battle of forbidden feelings, adventures and emotions is just brilliant. The story structure is tightly vowen together in the vein of the visuals, but despite of the plot constantly progressing in an almost chaotically wild and weird way, it never loses a single step - at least not in the mind of the director. Anderson seems in control of his chaos at all times and whatever he is doing might not appeal to all but it is easy to admire and respect. The writing of the dialogue is just as precise as the plot and the attention to detail is almost obsessive in nature - an element to Anderson's filmography that might frustrate some audiences and fuel others. Personally I'm equally persistent and perfectionistic with my writings, so obviously I'm very fond of his pin-point plot structure and bullet point thematic flow. Anderson might be the most fluent off-beat auteur I can recall at the moment, whatever that means, exactly.
'Moonrise Kingdom' is like a fantasy tale of factual happenings, filled with enough heart and soul filmmaking to stimulate the senses and a story simple enough to follow and a core sophisticated enough to feel. Anderson is never on the wall about the emotions of his characters and they often appear more quirky than complicated. But it isn't about the level of each element but the layering of them. The weird may first in line, but the humane lies just beneath the surface. Admittedly, Anderson is not about creating complex characters, per say, more complex worlds, but the small hints of all the hidden things is hugely rewarding when you do catch it. Some are obviously obvious and some are even played up front for laughs, like the depression of Suzy's father - but you are still given a glimpse big enough to develop the darker side of it yourself and I liked that a lot.
The humane aspect is very much alike that of a depressed stand-up comedian - a very loud and jokingly funny attitude but the cracks may show at a few occassions even if he or she will try to hide it - actually that is often the most complex state of such emotions, but they may not adapt to the screen the way we want it to. However, back to the movie, there is no doubt Anderson's movies are about the world building, quirky characters, complex writing and weirdly costructed visuals - and I got to say, despite the problems I have, most of the times I love living in Anderson's world for those 90 minutes or more.
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