For Your Eyes: Moonrise Kingdom

Last Sunday I was invited to a screening of Wes Andersons latest release, Moonrise Kingdom hosted by Elvis Mitchel and film independent at the LACMA Musenum. I am a huge Wes Anderson fan so I decided to give you all my own little critique, for lack of a better term. The story is about two young kids who fall in love and try and run away and elope. For starters this movie has all the usual Wes Anderson details; great set design, really cool framing, imaginative story plots and quirky characters. In fact I would argue that this might be one of the most "Wes Anderson" Wes Anderson films he has done to date. He really dives in to what makes him great! The film has a ton of Cameo's and star appearances; Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman (who has a short but great Cameo), Edward Norton (who along with Frances McDormand have the best adult parts in the film), Tilda Swinton & Bruce Willis. But really, the main characters in the film are all 13 year old kids, who are really fun to watch. Wes does a great job, as always, of having the kids act like adults, reminiscent of Truffaut's classic, Small Change. Unfortunately, that is the gift and the curse of this movie. Although overall I was widely entertained and found myself laughing out loud more than I usually do in his films. I also found that this film lacked the character depth that Rushmore or Royal Tenenbaums had. It's almost as if Wes just got a little lost in the set design and with the children actors which ended up "shorting" the character development...especially with fan favorite, Bill Murray's character as well as Bruce Willis' charters who end up being kind of boring. All in all I still loved this film...I would place it in the Fantastic Mr. Fox and Life Aquatic range, but as I said before not quite as good as Royal Tenebaims and Rushomre. Still well worth the $12 price of admission. 4 out of 5 Stars. Go see it! One ... Chris