Green and yellow

Rating: 8/10 (27 July 2014)

Playing as Wes Anderson's greatest hits, Moonrise Kingdom features teenagers in love, ineffectual but sympathetic father figures, memorable use of music, a whimsical bittersweet tone, an astounding attention to details, a style based on rigorous camera movements, symmetrical compositions and an exquisite use of colours - the dominant palettes here are green and yellow (Anderson has been changing them in nearly every movie).
Some viewers, both those who have lost their affection for the director around the time of Fantastic Mr. Fox and those who could never bear him, might see all this as mannered and trying too hard to be quirky: I see it as an auteur with full command of the medium.
Performances are superb, with a cast featuring both Bruce Willis and Edward Norton brilliantly cast against type, Frances McDormand, Anderson regulars Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzmann. Special mention for the two young leads Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward, who give eye-popping debuts as the teens who escape together in a bucolic New England island and are pursued by police, scouts and parents.
8/10