by Luca (’16)

Wes Anderson’s movies are charming and colorful, albeit very similar. They have funny captions, dysfunctional families, and mysterious narrators. But they all have a marvelous take-away feeling: the sensation of being warmed up inside. All his tales leave us with the need to enlighten everybody who hasn’t seen a Wes Anderson film, and Moonrise Kingdom is a good place to start, with a beautiful story about two young lovers running away on an island in Maine. This movie is very light-hearted and has a fantastic cast that include Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Tilda Swinton, and Edward Norton, all who play their part fantastically well. The two kids, Suzy and Sam, were pen pals until they formulated a plan to escape from their respective homes and ran away into the wilderness, never to be found by their crazy parents ever again. The smile that this movie puts on your face will linger until the very end. The only problem I can see with this film is that it is a little too long. It has several perfect places to wrap things up but then continues, overstaying its welcome just a tiny bit. Also, for a pretty mellow film, the pyrotechnics start in the final act as the boy scouts are struck by lightning, the scoutmaster’s tent explodes, the Church steeple is also blown to smithereens and the movie ends in a completely ridiculous fashion. The movie unshackles itself from reality entirely but sometimes, especially in the grand finale, it feels like a little too much. This movie is extremely fun, extremely colorful, and extremely sweet. All in all, it is a fantastic film.