For the young romantic...

Rating: 7/10 (30 September 2017)

Wes Anderson, the director of "Moonrise Kingdom", applied a variety of camera angles, lighting, and framing to portray a drama that tells the tale of 2 star-crossed lovers held back by authority. Two examples of the decisions Anderson made include his use of neutral lighting and deep focus to not make "Moonrise Kingdom" a simple movie, but instead to present it as a theatrical play. Anderson used neutral lighting to express both the youthfulness and innocence of the romance between Sam and Suzy, two twelve-year-olds who decide to run away from home to pursue a future relationship together in the woods. Albeit a neutral light ensues a normal or natural feeling, Anderson decided to utilize bright colors in both the props and costumes within the movie. These colors contrast with the natural lighting by alluding to how the theater uses vivid colors for both props and costumes to both brighten the stage and better the audience's sight of the stage. Bright colors are also used in storybooks for children. Since this is a love story between two children on the brink of adolescence, Anderson used the vivid colors to show how young and naive the two are. While Sam left his scout troop, Suzy left her whole family in hopes of continuing her relationship with Sam by living with him. He also employed a deep focus camera angle to portray this movie as a drama rather than a mere film. When watching a play, the audience is able to see all the actions of the characters. It doesn't matter whether they be the main focus of that moment in the play or not, each character has an important role at that moment. Unlike a rack or soft focus, a deep focus not only targets the main character of that moment of the play but also allows the actions of other characters to be seen. "Moonrise Kingdom" was a light watch for me. It was neither boring nor overly stimulating. However, Anderson's and Coppola's direction did make this movie extremely funny. The shots and the character's lines were prime and the movie left me with a pleasant, warm feeling. I look forward to watching their work in the future.