Film Review: Moonrise Kingdom

seeing the political in the apolitical

Originally published June 23, 2012. I’ve since additionally watched Wes Anderson’s Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, and the Grand Budapest Hotel. I look forward to one day watching Bottle Rocket, The Darjeeling Limited, and Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Last night I went to the cinema house and watched Wes Anderson's new film Moonrise Kingdom. Prior to this, the only Anderson film I was familiar with was The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. I appreciated that film, and was thus enticed to view this one. My perspective is not of a long time fanatic, but of a new admirer of his work.

The movie has an indie feel due to the stylized cinematography, yet it maintains an A list cast. Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman to name a few. There are a few moments of hyperbolic action scenes, but the emotion of the youthful protagonists remains ever authentic throughout the experience. The presence of a bearded historian, Bob Balaban, narrating creates the vibe of an intimate play. He takes a moment here and there to address the audience, as a visible narrator, with anecdotes about the history of the island of New Penzance. Besides the protagonist Sam Shakusky, the historian's visage appealed to my desideratum to apprehend every facet of Anderson's gem of a fictional world.

It may be the case that my spectacles have lenses with the ability to highlight the non-interventionist leaning elements of our world more keenly then the average Joe. Perhaps you saw "Moonrise Kingdom" and thought naught of liberalismus. However, without any spoilers I will reveal some concepts that I want you to think about while viewing Moonrise Kingdom.

The division of labor and how essential it is to the characters' fulfillment of life, as opposed to the solitude of the loneliest number, 1. A goon from the apparatus of coercion, Social Services, hunting an enemy of the state. Individuals attempting to live free pushed into the act of self-preservation. A pure mutual agreement between man and woman, marriage, divorced of sanction from the conglomerate of compulsion. Last but not least, the pioneers' art of homesteading bringing about the title of the story.