Hatchets, and knives, and clubs--oh my!

Rating: 10/10 (4 December 2014)

Early on in MOONRISE KINGDOM, as a scouting lynch mob is catching up to resigned orphan "Sam," this flick seems to be veering from a Stephen King STAND BY ME coming-of-age story to a LORD OF THE FLIES-type bloodbath. Young lovers are about to be Shish-Kabobbed before the consummation of their dreams by their less precocious peers. But MOONRISE KINGDOM is set in the more innocent days of 1965, when the worst fears of nonconforming kids were confined to the simple pleasures of electro-shock therapy and frontal lobotomy. Typhoons, dam breaks, and lightning strikes served merely to break the monotony of this low-stakes, ultra-safe childhood environment. These were NOT the fast times of today. Twelve-year-old Suzy has to "sit" for her nude portraits by Sam (whereas in the 21st Century her bare Selfies could be seen from Houston to Hong Kong in a flash). Back then boys enjoyed tame pleasures such as piercing their gal pal's ear lobes with fishhook jewelry. Today's Pre-teen guys are too busy abusing the women within their video games to talk to any real girls outside the classroom. If you're missing LEAVE IT TO BEAVER, why not take a trip to MOONRISE KINGDOM?