Moonrise Kingdom: Summer Camp, Wes Anderson-Style
Every Wes Anderson film creates a world of its own. Movies like Rushmore and The Darjeeling Limited take familiar people and situations and drop them into the unknown. This is Anderson’s genius; he transforms familiarity into hyperreality (or unreality in some cases). Arguably, the best genre filmmakers are able to build unpredictability out of familiarity. Anderson’s latest, Moonrise Kingdom, draws from numerous genres such as the summer camp comedy, family melodrama, and the adventure film in order to create a unique experience.
The film takes place in 1965 on a New England island called Black Beacon Sound. This narrow, 16-mile-long strip has some general residents as well as Camp Ivanhoe — home to the Khaki Scouts led by Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton). One of the scouts, Sam (Jared Gilman), takes it upon himself to sneak away during the night. Another young islander, Suzy (Kara Hayward), also ran away from her parent’s home around the same time. The island police (Bruce Willis as Captain Sharp), whose headquarters is a small shack at the end of a dock on the ocean, are promptly alerted and a search begins.
Sam corresponded with Suzy as a pen pal for some time — both have serious problems. Sam’s parents recently died and his foster parents refuse his return. The rest of the Khaki Scouts suspect Sam may suffer from a mental illness — they keep an eye on him while packing weapons. Suzy’s parents (brilliantly played by Bill Murray and Frances McDormand) have lost touch with Suzy (as well as each other). In addition to the detachment from her parents, Suzy suffers from uncontrollable fits of anger. A cute love story builds as we see how Sam and Suzy manage to balance each other out.
Both children are running from shaky backgrounds in hopes of finding stability elsewhere. Sam leaves the summer camp while Suzy escapes her deceptively stable household. Here we see a combination of genres, the summer camp film (Sam leaving camp) with the family melodrama (Suzy fleeing family issues). Mix that with a bit of adventure and a never-ending supply of quirky characters from the mind of Wes Anderson and you’ve got a good idea of what is going on here. Constantly on the move both physically and psychologically, each character keeps the narrative flowing. There really are not many stable relationships on the island, which makes Sam and Suzy’s quest a unique one.
The problem at Black Beacon Sound is that the kids have their heads on straight and the adults do not. As with many summer camp films, the protagonists are children who usually have to overcome some kind of obstacle perpetuated by overbearing camp counselors. This works well with the family melodrama tropes that deal with mending broken families. Sam must fill a void left by his parents while Suzy yearns to find a connection with her family. Seeking out each other in order to satisfy these needs is not an easy task because they are constantly being pursued. Engaging in hijinks with fear of being caught is a common trope in summer camp films. Moonrise Kingdom carries these elements but uses the runaway children to signify much bigger problems than defying grown-ups. Sam and Suzy search for something pure — a true connection.
Watching the traile, Moonrise Kingdom may look like a throwback to summer camp films of the 1990s. If anything, though, Anderson’s new offering more resembles The Graduate (though I won’t provide spoilers as to why). Of course, instead of adults this love story is about children. Intelligence is inverted in this film, which is common in the summer camp genre. The kids have love figured out while the adults do not.
This film also emphasizes the beautiful landscapes, which is something a genre film like Heavyweights does not. Summer camp films often take their rugged, outdoor location for granted. Moonrise Kingdom appreciates its location in the way John Ford did with his Westerns by filming breathtaking wide shots in Monument Valley. The beautiful, secluded landscapes in Anderson’s film signify the separation the two children seek from their everyday lives as well as the beauty of the kind of life they aspire to achieve.
Those looking for a new summer camp film in the traditional sense may be disappointed. However, there is plenty to like in Moonrise Kingdom, from Anderson’s quirky characters (played by a wide range of great actors) to the setting and parallels to classic narratives. Anderson certainly has his own genre, his films being difficult to classify or compare with those of any other director working today. Fans of his work will be delighted and those looking for something new should be pleasantly surprised.
Saw movie last night. Theater was packed. Everyone liked the movie. The acting was perfect from the adults to the kids. Of course when you have actors like Norton, Willis, Keitel, Murray, and McDormand (from Fargo fame) you expect the best. The kids were sensational. Highly recommend it both for adults and kids. The only distraction in the movie is a dog dies in a scene from an arrow. It wasn’t essential to the story but it may upset young dog lovers as it did my daughter. However, this movie is still a gem. Go see it.
Um, I saw the trailer and the movie looks very strange. Doesn’t seem funny, but rather dry. I’m also getting a little tired of “children coming of age” movies. This reminds me of movies like “Stand by Me,” “The Parent Trap,” and “The Baby Sitters Club.” I guess they all in some way covered the same ground. I certaily could be wrong, but it doesn’t seem to be my cup of tea, really. I think I’ll pass.
Completely understand, Libertyship. My life was blessed with not having a TV or seeing more than a few select movies over FORTY years! They were astonishingly productive years just therefore.
Now in retirement I watch TV, and a half century of, for me, new movies. I have learned that good stories and real actors have filled the silver screen in hyperbolically decreasing numbers since the 60s. Well, art imitates life, so this phenomenon simply is art imitating a depreciating culture.
Don’t blame the art. Blame the teachers who failed to pass on the culture.
As for the art of film making, Marshall McLuhan got it right: the content of new media is that of the old, and the old tries to renovate by copying the new as best it can. Hollywood took New York television techniques of time-stuffing glimpse-images to maximize advertising transmission. But in doing so they left withering the verbal transmission of dialogue. The pre-modern brain evolved to react to images, but modern man developed reflection and reason from language, not images. Declamations in the theater have become BAM-BOOM-BANG-AAAAARGH! liberally laced with giant plooms of orange flame and black smoke — even if a car just hits the curb. The logic of algorithmic stringing of words, operator/operand/value, predicate/substantive/modifier, that leads to reflection, reason and speculation is absent.
Thus the technique of story fragmentation per “Matrix” and “Once Upon a Time”. No perceivable message, so no discernible moral. Like Henry James’ “Turn of the Screw”, one has to stitch together one’s reactions, and make up one’s own story. Thus themes of vampires, zombies, endless shoot-em ups, never-ending action, graphic sex, no character development, fragile anchors to known facts and events, if any.
If you know real history you know that such “reaction” versus “thinking” led to the horrific last chapters of civilizations such as Babylon, Sodom, Gomorrah, Sybaris. But this time the slide comes with the time telescoping and force projection of today’s technology.
Conclusion? The theater has become the school, and the school has become the re-edcuation camp.
Our culture is passed on through art which imitates nothing. Generations already have lost their time lines — when was the Civil War, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, WWI, the defeat of the Mensheviks? What were their consequences? Nobody knows. But they know where to get free stuff and how to blow everything up if they don’t.
B-, at best. Only one surprise in the film. The rest was a generic rehash. Bottle Rocket was warm, funny,surprising, and you liked all the characters. In this one nahhh!
If you are an Anderson fan you’ll love it.
First Wes Anderson movie I’ve seen. And the last.
A perfect example of why “hilarious” = forced, lame humor.
I am certainly not an expert, but the film just did not do it for me. And I agree about the dog scene.
I would’ve loved this movie, but the dog getting senselessly killed ruined it for me. It didn’t add one thing to the movie.