Hacker Cinema
Moonrise Kingdom
2012 · Film · 94 min
Directed by Wes Anderson
Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, Moonrise Kingdom tells the story of two twelve-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. As various authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm is brewing off-shore – and the peaceful island community is turned upside down in more ways than anyone can handle.
5 positive5 neutralfrom 10 commenters
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10 comments on Hacker News
Rushmore was my favorite of his films until the release of Moonrise Kingdom.
Fun fact: Rushmore was shot in an era without social media. All my film nerd pals were aware of Anderson after Bottle Rocket, and were tacitly awaiting his next film, but its ultimate arrival was a surprise. Even MORE surprising (at least for us) was that it was shot right here in Houston -- recognizably, obviously Houston. (I'm sure the St John's community was aware... )
Its release also solved a puzzle for my friend E. and I dating from the winter of 97-98. We'd stopped for sushi at a middling but reasonably priced joint between our rental house the bar we were headed to, and after posting up at the corner of the sushi counter and ordering a bit, we noticed the guy at the far end of the bar. He had a sort of admiring entourage with him of 2-3 younger folks.
The guy looked familiar, but we couldn't place him. Finally:
"Wow, that guy looks like Bill Murray."
"Yeah, he really does, doesn't he?"
"I think that might actually BE Bill Murray."
"What the hell is he doing in Houston?"
"No idea. Is there a tournament at the River Oaks club?"
We ate. We left. We forgot about seeing him -- until we saw Rushmore the following fall.
(In the unlikely event someone reading this knows Houston: this was at the Miyako that used to be just north of 59 on the west side of Kirby, so close to River Oaks.)
I certainly enjoyed The Grand Budapest Hotel, but I remember it more as an absurdist exposition rather than a gripping drama. I may be misremembering though. The only other movie I have seen from him is Moonrise Kingdom, so there's a lot left to explore. Thanks for the recommendation!
Maybe you're right that my request is quite narrow. I didn't mean it to be, but it occurred to me that many stories seem to fall back on the rather formulaic "one person's struggle against the world", so my intention was to specifically ask for movies outside of that formula. I could probably have phrased it better than I did.
Funny. I think he has decent engagement metrics behind the scenes because my list is
Moonrise Kingdom tied with Grand Budapest Hotel
French Dispatch
Then Fantastic Mr Fox
and not liking anything else he’s ever made, I tried. I thought I “liked Wes Anderson movies”, but really I like the direction his recent ones have gravitated more towards
and the French Dispatch doubled down on what he’s become known for, and I’m glad he did it. Third act was too much and I like the limited series idea.
I definitely think his audience may have changed (maybe at the risk of being too niche and alienating) because I really liked it
so, praise the algorithm
I remember walking away from that film thinking Bruce Willis would need something to rescue his career.
And my goodness, didn't he luck out with RED and Moonrise Kingdom.
What a great idea! I wonder how big the 16mm film communities are in these days of pervasive digital, given the costs of developing film and the risks associated with processing.
What I also found interesting is this site:
https://www.indiewire.com/gallery/movies-shot-on-16mm-moonrise-kingdom-carol/
Everybody knows the famous story of how El Mariachi was made, but I was surprised by some of the other films in the list (eg. Black Swan).
The death of film has more to do with distribution than acquisition; the pervasive switch to digital projection completely killed the last bastion of demand for film stock. (A typical film might requires 100s to 1000s as much stock for delivery to theaters as it needed for initial capture.)
That said, you can't get the entire Super8 look with digital filters. There are optical properties (have to use the same lens and sensor size), and the way it handles highlights vs lowlights is different than digital sensors. (The 'rolloff' in the highlights, rather than clipping at saturation, is very desirable.)
And it's true that film isn't entirely dead in Hollywood. Quentin Tarantino shot his most recent film on 70mm stock. But that's nearly 100x the resolution of 8mm film, so they're not really comparable. OTOH, I recently saw Wes Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom," which was shot on 16mm reversal (color, not negative) film stock for the look.
In each case, the choice of film stock definitely affected the look of the film. It also affected the act of shooting the film; even if you can mimic a filmic look digitally (through digital acquisition and post processing), shooting digitally is very different than shooting film. I happen to prefer digital, but courses for horses.
But yeah, for consumers, it's pretty much a hipster affectation. Good for Kodak, though! Also of note in the annals of hipster retro photography is 'The Impossible Project,' which revived Polaroid film:
https://www.the-impossible-project.com/
Also, 'lomography.'
Just for fun, check out http://everysinglewordspoken.tumblr.com/
It takes a movie and cuts together every single word & sentence spoken by an actor of color. Often the intro music is longer than the compiled lines. Moonrise Kingdom: 10 seconds.
My favorite movies of the year:
1. Moonrise Kingdom
2. Beasts of the Southern Wild
3. Argo
4. Life of Pi
5. Amour (Only NY and LA for now)
6. Monsieur Lazhar
Moonrise Kingdom was the best. The Hobbit was great.
Looper was good, but the ending wasn't logically consistent I think.
Since no one has mentioned it, I would recommend Dredd. It was a good movie going experience. Don't know it would make good viewing outside a cinema, though.
Cloud Atlas was interesting, but not as insightful as it was made out to be.
I suppose it says something that Argo and Moonrise Kingdom are the only movies that I can remember really liking in 2012. Flight was also memorable, if you're into character dramas. I've also heard really good things about Searching for Sugar Man, but I didn't get a chance to see it in theaters.
Avengers was solid entertainment, but I wouldn't make a special trip to see it. Most of the other big releases with nerd draw were disappointments: Lincoln was overhyped Oscar-bait, Brave was forgettable, and the last Dark Knight movie was just bad (below average for summer movies, which is a low bar).