I've been following Wes Anderson's career since I fist saw his movie Rushmore, which is still one of the quirkiest and funniest comedies I've seen, but Anderson hasn't made a movie anywhere near as enjoyable as Rushmore. His movies since have felt overlong and paced as if a turtle was in a race, as as I will explain. I also liked his next movie The Royal Tenenbaums even though it clearly had a structure and focus problem, which clearly hindered the pacing of the movie that his previous movie Rushmore didn't have a problem with. Those problems became more compounded with next movie Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which was good but was starting to border on pretentious and quirky for the sake of being quirky. Where as Rushmore was quirky, but that quirkiness was supported within the story and didn't feel like a hindrance. It was more focused as it had a main character to follow whose quirkiness helped to define him and not vice versus a. I skipped his next movie The Darjeeling Limited because it just seemed very pretentious with a quirkiness that Anderson was becoming defined by instead of letting the quirkiness flow with the story. With Rushmore the quirkiness organically mixed with the story but with the his later film this quirkiness seemed forced as it seemed with The Darjeeling Limited thus the reason I didn't see it. Then finally Anderson seemed back on form with Fantastic Mr. Fox. One of the strangest and most delightful kid's movies I've ever seen (and I use kid's movie in the loosest sense of the term, that's not from content but just from oddness).
Now I'm glad to say that Anderson has finally delivered an enjoyable live action movie that heralds back to his Rushmore days.
Moonrise Kingdom delivers and the quirkiness doesn't feel forced, but flows with the narrative and characters in ways his previous movies had left behind. It's a simple story about two kids who fall in love, run away from home and the insuring pursuit of them that follows. The kids seem much older than their young years, but never did I doubt this because the story line supports this. The world Anderson creates in this movie is a joy to see and watch enfold before my eyes and his framing (of which Anderson is known for) of certain scenes are wonderful to behold. The world seems wholly believable and the way his characters interact within this world are funny and convincing. Another thing I like about this movie is how Anderson doesn't tell a lot things but shows what happens and leaves it up to the viewer to pay attention to what is happening. If you pay attention there are things that happen which will seem confusing. He shows instead of tells, but shows in a convincing manner that supports the story line instead of just showing for the sake of showing wherein lies the most problems with "art" movies. He doesn't use interpretation of a scene as a crutch to the viewer, but instead uses it as it's supposed to be used, to further the the storyline. This is a fun, fairytale movie with delightful acting, a good solid story line, quirkiness in every frame, and a true love that is believable.
No comments:
Post a Comment