Half cheek mooning

Rating: 5/10 (20 October 2012)

I can pinpoint the moment when I jumped off the bandwagon as a Wes Anderson fanboy. It was when Steve asked his camera kid to check the light toward the end of the movie. The kid pulls out his Minolta incident meter quickly...cue snobbish laughter from Wes Anderson.
"Oh man, only 5 people out of 100 will get this joke. That is why I'm so funny." I got the joke Wes. It just wasn't all that funny. I carry a Minolta incident meter. I know what it means to push two stops. Hardy freaking har. This is tongue in cheek but only half cheek.
It really began in Tenenbaums. Where the entire movie was an endless exercise not in absurdity itself, but in the obnoxious abandon to which we are beat over the head with the absurdity. "It's so absurd! Can't you see how absurd this is?!?! That's why I'm so funny!" Tenenbaums had more than a passing redemption in the overall execution and strength of cast, but as we turn the page back to Moonrise Kingdom, I cannot say the same.
Bill Murray is here to punch the clock again in his typical Wes Anderson stoic retiree. Murray was far more persuasive in Rushmore - as was the level of absurdity - mainly because Max was surrounded by people who didn't want to put up with his absurdity. But, like the weaker ends of his catalog, Moonrise Kingdom is a celebration of the obnoxious child. The one Wes Anderson can't let go of. A half hour or so in after the (SPOILERS) the dog was shot, it took me a week to finish the movie. Everey ten minutes, I found myself distracted and left the TV to do something else. I've seen it twice now and found the premise to be interesting, but absolutely zero value in the way of payoff or resolution. {Sigh} To quote Mr. Fox, it was a cussing waste of my time.
Fantastic Mr. Fox, along with Rushmore, is brilliant and proof positive there are venues more appropriate for Anerson's vision and character than others. Venues where we accept the absurdity immediately and get on with absorbing the characters and the story. But not here under the Moonrise. No sir. I had my fill of the full tilt Anderson after Tenenbaums. By the time Life Aquatic and Darjeeling dropped, it was downright obnoxious and painfully dull.
I don't think Wes should stop making movies. I don't think Wes should change the way he makes his movies. I don't think Wes Anderson should make movies that will only please people like me. What I want is a Wes Anderson movie where awkward is merely a scene - not an entire film and the character a human, not an in joke for him and Roman Coppola.
The career dagger would be if the title of his next film was actually "Shaggy Dog Story." He doesn't realize we got the joke right away, nobody told him. So he's up there on stage for two hours telling it over and over, louder and louder. I can hear his thoughts, "Ah, they don't get it, let me try again..."