The premise seemed very interesting, an orphan loner escapes from scout camp to elope with a young girl. The authority figures (police, scout masters) search the island trying to find them, with the help of the girls parents and the rest of the scouts. It sounds like a classic coming of age story between two socially inept outcasts, were it conjures the isolation of adolescence and the awkwardness of youth as it enters into sexual maturity. But the film wasn't really about the story at all and this is were it fell massively short. Moonrise kingdom is basically about how many visually symmetrical shots Wes Anderson can put onto a screen within 1 hour and 30 minutes. The colour scheme is typical Wes Anderson, vibrant red, greens, yellows and blue's, little bobble hats on most of the characters. The man has a 5 minute sequence at the start of dolly shots going up and down a house. Then followed by a dolly shot that travels left to right tediously for about three minutes with Edward Norton as he wakes up and goes outside for breakfast. He repeats this shot about 3-4 times during the film for similar lengths of time. When a letter appears on screen it's shot from birds eye view from above, when the main character reads a map it's shot from a birds eye view from above....everything is perfectly symmetrical. When they go to open a tent it's shot dead centre, then it's shot inside perfect symmetry as you see the zip being opened… Expand

Wes Anderson's best movie in years - right up there with Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore. (Fantastic Mr. Fox, Life Aquatic, and Darjeeling each fell well short of my own expectations.) He nails the time period, the locations are perfect, the young actors are amazing (not over or underplaying anything) , the cadence is on the money, and the adults are much more genuine and sincere than they have been in other W.A. films. There is nary a dull moment in the film. Best of all, it brought back warm memories of my own time in the Khaki Scouts. It's my easiest recommendation in a while.… Expand

This is the best of Wes Anderson's films, everything feels and looks just right. You may or may not like what Anderson does, but if you do, you will definitely enjoy this, and that's and understatement.

Definitely an Oscar film, Wes Anderson's offbeat (and at times, dark) sense of humor sets this comedy apart, as do wonderful performances by both the name actors AND younger cast members.

The best word I can think of to describe Moonrise Kingdom would have to be "Beautiful." The trailer is one of the greatest examples where a trailer is actually honest about the film. This film was really worth the trouble of finding the New York theater and I even skipped part of a class and I don't regret it, definitely a must-see, wether you're a Wes Anderson fan or not.

Very cute movie. Definitely different! Thought acting was great and the story was quite funny. Can never understand why it is so important for the film industry to blaspheme the Name of God, but the do several times in this movie.

Quirky, well acted, and amusing. Wes Anderson's films are not for the masses, as they are subtle and, quite frankly, more intelligent than the fodder we are fed by corporate Hollywood. I imagine his movies don't cost that much to make, that the actors all work for much less because they like him, and that because of these financial assets, make enough money to let him make the next one. I have liked them all to one extent or another. That's how it is with his films. If you don't like the quirky pathos infused humor, you just won't like his movies. He has his own voice and clearly his own aesthetic vision. I loved it.… Expand

I thought the best thing about this film was the big name talent in the small character roles. The story was cute and held my attention but it wasn't that funny as some in the audience found it. Still, I enjoyed it despite not being enthralled by a movie about preteens.My rating of this film is more a commentary on the lack of good films that are available for viewing today. Hopefully that will change as we head into the Fourth! I was excited to see Edward Norton back and to see that he is in the new Borne film.… Expand

Wes Anderson's latest takes place on a New England island in the 60s. A pre-pubescent couple runs off, while a group of family and others tries to find them. The director has taken his deadpan style and dense visual statements to it's extreme. I kept waiting to be charmed and amused, while everyone around me was delighted. It's an interesting stylistic escape, but just too twee for my taste.

A great story but Wes Anderson's trademark tweeness and arty shannanigans just take me out of the moment. There's that air of unrealism that typifies most of his films. Also a bit dissapointed to see great actors like Bill Murray being wasted in shallow roles. I switched this film off when the two kids started dancing on the beach. Was too cheesy and made me want to vomit.

This is a beautiful film deserving of your attention. If you are a fan of Wes' previous work then you will love it. It encapsulates everything he excels at as an artist. "Moonrise" might be the most thematically clear and rich of all his films as well. Everyone involved shows a lot of discipline in bringing this tale to the screen and that includes a lot of child actors who had to rise to the material. Every actor is given their time to shine, and Wes proves once again that he has a prodigious talent for casting the right actors in the right roles and getting brilliant performances out of them. Even Bruce Willis fits right in here. Bruce Willis. In a Wes Anderson movie. Think about that.… Expand

Moonrise Kingdom is a peculiar and beautiful movie, treats the story of a boy and a girl who met on a school play and fall in love, so they start to sending letters to each other and one day plan to escape together, in order to have a new life, far away from the adult world, which they both hate. It is interesting the dynamic that is generated between these two characters, because they both give to the other what their family does not provide; he compensates the understanding and support that needs the girl, and she pay off with attention and love. This story is so charming and magic because is the one that everyone wanted to have during their first love, although is not a complete happy ending; it has the precise end to make the story believable. Another exciting topic of the picture is the contrast and comparison between the child and the adult world. We see that the children do whatever they want and live guided by their imagination; however the adults do want they have to do and live guided by social conventions. Then we notice that the roles are change, the grown-ups cannot have a relationship or manage the children, but the boys have relationships and do not care of what the adults say. All of this happens because the story develops in the moonrise kingdom, a mixture between dreamland and neverland (the idea that the island where they live is fictional, also contributes to this concept). The performance of the protagonist couple is just brilliant.… Expand

The film has strong and weak elements. On the positive side, it is really, really easy on the eyes. I could watch it with the mute on. But you don't want to miss the music. Hank Williams and classical music on an old phonograph took me back to my childhood. The quirkiness is amusing. Negatives: Amusing is not the same thing as funny. I chuckled maybe twice. It might be funnier with friends. The movie was not very emotionally involving. It seemed a bit formal, somewhat two dimensional. Sometimes the plot seemed to be just going through the motions. The movie was not boring but was far from engrossing. Quirkiness, audiovisual perfection, and good acting keep the canoe afloat.… Expand

Watching this movie I felt like a Democrat stuck in a Republican convention. I understood that everybody seemed to be liking what was going on in the movie but for the life of me couldn't figure out why. Liking whimsy and fair tales is a must for all Wes Anderson fans who, in my opinion is Tim Burton lite. Chacun a son goute.

Absolutely fantastic in every aspect of film making! Just about every element that goes into production that I can think of was spot-on. Whether it be the characters, music, story, tone, look of the film, or anything else really. This was my first Wes Anderson film, and he's acquired one more fan. A joy from start-to-finish, this is not a recommendation, this is a must-see.

Moonrise Kingdom is an absolutely adorable film superbly written by Wes Anderson (who also gorgeously directed it) and Roman Coppola about two kids from completely different familial situations who find a connection in their shared sense of loss, either from parents who were deceased or parents who were alive, yet never present.  The struggles to survive their individual childhoods are soothed by each other.  In one another they find the support to move through their pain, progress into adult situations and give each other comfort they couldn't receive from adults.  The quirkiness of the script's situations are typical of Anderson films, but the "yellowing" of the film's color and the exquisite use of children as the main characters add to the depth of perspective, showing the adults as the goofy, clueless, immature element of the cast.  In their own chaos, the kids appear to have it together much more than the adults.  Throughout this wonderful film, the kids deal with the adult scenarios with maturity and logic while the adults come across as trained monkeys.  The children come together as a strong, empathetic team while the adults are miserable robots succumbing to the rigidity of their mundane lives, clinging to every vice there is, from cheating, lying, drinking, smoking, etc. while all the kids want is to be loved and happy.  The simple things we all set out to obtain.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A pre-teen's fantasy of rebellion and how adults might act in reaction to a runaway by two unlikely misfits. A failed satire of military organizations that tries way too hard to be precious-cutesy at the same time. We're given scenes from "Peter Pan" wtih the ersatz Wendy reading to the "Lost Boys" and every military movie in which the soldier "busted" before the group with his emblems ceremoniously removed, who later commits acts of heroism in defense of the group and the clueless leader who 'busted' him. The 'adults' alternately act realistically in one scene, then as caricatures in the next. This is a disappointing mess of a movie.… Expand

This movie is just another sad excuse for Anderson to waste time and money of decent film enthusiasts with his asinine and deluded films. I have yet to enjoy any of his films to date but everytime he makes a new one I try to give him the benefit of the doubt only to be let down everytime.

While its beyond quirky and weird script, acting, and direction has been applauded by many, I fail to see what is exceptionally great about this film. The entire concept honestly seemed intriguing, but it just felt too...well that's just it...I don't know how to describe this film. I am not sure whether I thought it was a unique mediocre film or a complete blunder.

This movie is pointless. One of the worst films I have ever seen. Simple metaphors made lifeless and absurd. I can't believe that this cast chose this script; maybe the problem was with directing? The kids are smarter than adults formula made even more unpleasant than usual because the kids in this movie are just as unpleasant as the adults. This is not art, it's fools gold. Just being weird is not enough. Ugh.… Expand

Moonrise Kingdom by Ivette Fred-Rivera

I loved the movie, I recommend it.

Excellent ambience of the sixties era, great music used as a narrative element adding drama and rhythm, the use of the reading of the letters by Sam (Jared Gilman) and Susy (Kara Hayward) to show how their friendship as pen pals progresses into love in a linear sequence, actually, excellent performances of both, dynamic and unusual camera angles such as the ones seen when two scenes in different places are presented simultaneously because the screen is visually divided in half, and how we spectators identify with the left side of the screen where the good and concerned characters about the welfare of Sam are located because we have already identified ourselves with orphan Sam! (how could we not)? Exquisite composition and use of light. Very careful visual arrangements to advance the plot. I have to say that the detail of the mother… Expand

This was the first Wes Anderson movie I have seen, and I loved it. You know, it just shows you love can start at any age and last for an eternity. The filming was great. The actors were outstanding. The boy, Jared Gilman and the girl, Kara Hayward were so funny and I hope I see them in more films. Its just a fun filled loving movie that I will definitely watch again sometime.

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The year was 1955. Thereupon Ngo Dinh Diem's launching of a propagandist campaign("Denounce the Communists") against the Viet Cong, his collectivist-minded opponent, the war began, in earnest. During the intervening time, before our boys entered the fray, the South Vietnamese president killed 12,000 of these so-called commies, and for good measure, imprisoned 40,000, no doubt, innocent men, but still we supported the ROV despot. Ten years later, our consortium with a nation that allegedly shared the same democratic principles and ideals with our forefathers continued, bombing Diem's enemy to the north in the process, as part of an operation called Flaming Dart, which knocked out North Vietnam's industrial infrastructure. 1965 was also the year that President Johnson deployed the 3rd Marine Division(the first Americans to arrive in the Southeast Asian country) to quell the uprising of North Vietnamese insurgents at Da Nang Airport. Meanwhile, Keith Richards was dating Linda Keith, the groupie who would serve as his muse when the debauched musician penned "Ruby Tuesday", an elegiac ballad from The Rolling Stones album Between the Buttons. The song serves as the soundtrack of forbidden love in The Royal Tennenbaums, when Richie declares himself to his adopted sister Margo, and has the razor cuts on both wrists to prove it. They lie down in Richie's tent, sharing the same sleeping bag they used as children, when the pair ran away from home and camped out in a museum. Not for nothing does the on-screen narrator establish the year in Moonrise Kingdom, since this period piece film is a humanist riff on the French New Wave classic Pierrot le fou, Godard's polemic against the Vietnam War. The exposition is stealthily laid out in The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, the Benjamin Britten album that Suzy's brother plays on his phonograph, which indirectly explains how the film could be interpreted as Francois Truffaut's take on the 1965 film, when the scratchy female voice deconstructs art, explaining how an artist can play variations of the same theme. Similar to the self-aware French gangsters, Sam and Suzy are lovers on the lam, who end up occupying a coastline. Although the children lack their adult counterparts' pessimistic worldview, Moonrise Kingdom has more than Small Change on its mind. Its romanticism is barbed. This seemingly comic film is also politically-charged, sharing with Pierrot le fou, the same anti-Vietnam sentiment, best-exemplified in Sam's resignation from the Khaki Scouts, a thinly-veiled reference to our armed forces, which makes the small boy a conscientious objector. Scout Master Ward runs Camp Ivanhoe with the bombast of a four-star general, treating the boys as subordinates with a regimented severity that is uncannily military-like. When the scout master emerges from his sleeping quarters, it's with ceremony, demanding reports from the Khakis about their respective projects and threatening them with demeritorious citations like a cartoon version of Patton, as he advances incrementally towards the dining area, where the tight ship he commandeers is suddenly undermined by Sam's disappearance. Alone in the tent, Ward dictates his memoirs into a tape recorder, as one would during wartime. (Later, he saves a superior officer's life, which is pure war movie hokum.) When the search party discovers the children's encampment on the beach, and the children themselves, caught, perhaps, under post-coital conditions, reverberations of The Royal Tennenbaums can be felt. This time, the forbidden love, of course, isn't attributed to any quasi-blood relation, but rather, their prepubescence. A manifesto, however, is embedded in the children's actions that transcends the illicitness of their love. Juxtaposed against the representative military base, Fort Lebanon, whose Vietnam iconography can be glimpsed in the background as Cousin Ben walks the underage couple to the chapel, the children's affinity for each other seems like a revolutionary act. It's more than a case of puppy love, more than your typical boy meets girl narrative. Their romance is symbolic, of the anarchic sort, both personal and political, bringing to mind the late-sixties catchphrase: "Make love, not war," due to their preternatural maturity, and what such a relationship entails contextually. Sam is a lover, not a killer. In Pierrot le fou, Ferdinand tells the story of the man in the moon's exile from his sphere, after an American astronaut shoves a Coke bottle in the lunar being's mouth. In Melody, Alan Parker makes the same critique against capitalism when Daniel knocks over a Coca-Cola bottle during a dinner party thrown by his bourgeoisie parents. Not working in the Truffaut spirit, Parker has his students attacking the teachers, in order for Daniel and Melody, the newlyweds, to get away by trolley car. Sam and Suzy are romantics, but they won't be bricks in a wall.… Expand

The more I see of the end-of-year blockbusters destined for awards, the more I appreciate this quirky, sweet film destined to be enjoyed and eventually watched again. The actors seemed to have fun and the viewer does, too. Giving it a 9 only because (in my opinion) it's not as great as "The Royal Tenenbaums."

I love the look and feel of this film; yes, it’s got a lot of quirkiness, but that’s not allowed to overrun the narrative too much. The soundtrack also adds to the enjoyment in a way; it becomes part of the world these people inhabit. The very black and white sensibilities of children are explored here; everything it taken as a matter of fact and accepted without question. I found it quiteuite refreshing in a way; it made a nice change from the brainless comedies I’m usually subjected to. All the performances were excellent with my top awards going to the two youngsters; Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman. Well worth a look if you haven’t seen it and (probably) well worth a re-watch if you have!

SteelMonster’s verdict: RECOMMENDED

My score: 8.2/10… Expand

beautiful film. The people that are talking smack about this film are so stupid it makes me sick to my stomach. Someone even talked about pedophilia. OMG people can be so stupid I just want to punch them in the face.

I had to travel to L.A. (one hour) to see this film and it was worth it. When I saw "Fantastic Mr. Fox" I had a smile on my face the entire time, and this live action film captures the same quirkiness of that classic animated film. I can't say enough about how great the two lead child actors this film are - Wes Anderson likes a certain style that requires both timing and a certain way of conversing, and everyone in the film captured it perfectly. The story was kind of a modern day Huck Finn (although set in the 1960s). I already look forward to his next film, and that is the best compliment I can give any director.… Expand