Moonrise Kingdom Review

            

            Wes Anderson is one of the best writer/directors out there today and his newest film Moonrise Kingdom, which finally came to town, is his most personal film to date. It was definitely on of his best, but surprisingly not his most yellow.

            Set on a small island off the coast of New England in the 1960’s, Sam (Jared Gilman) runs away from his khaki scout troupe to meet up with Suzy (Kara Hayward), the girl he loves. Shortly after they are discovered missing the entire town creates a search party to find them, turning all their lives upside down. The search party includes police officer Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis), Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton) and the rest of his troupe, a Social Services officer (Tilda Swinton), and Suzy’s parents Walt and Laura (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand).

            As I said before, this is Wes Anderson’s most personal film, perfectly capturing the feeling of a person’s first love, but it’s also his most daring suspenseful movie to date. The cast, which also includes Jason Schwartzman as Cousin Ben, Harvey Keitel as Troupe Commander Pierce, and Bob Balaban as the narrator, is great and there should be an Oscar Nomination for Edward Norton in this one. This is the most Wes Anderson has ever stepped out of his comfort zone since The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and yet it still has plenty of his quirky style and humor in the film.

            This is the best movie all year and is a shoe-in for the at least a few awards this coming Oscar season. I’m unsure whether it is my favorite Wes Anderson movie, but it is definitely up there. I give it an A.