95% Moonrise Kingdom

All Critics (116) | Top Critics (34) | Fresh (110) | Rotten (6) | DVD (1)

There's no denying the extravagant pleasures "Moonrise Kingdom" affords as an erudite wish-fulfillment fantasy of empowerment and autonomy.

If it's not as deft as his most adorable confections ("The Royal Tenenbaums," "The Fantastic Mr. Fox"), it's still got plenty to chew on and chuckle over for initiates in the Cult of Wes.

Last time out, in Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wes Anderson adapted a children's book by Roald Dahl. Now, in Moonrise Kingdom, he's made one of his own.

It's an adventure, a love story, a biblical allegory complete with approaching storm, a mash note to composer Benjamin Britten and a profoundly touching discourse on the needs of troubled children.

"Moonrise Kingdom" is Anderson's seventh movie, and it's the first since "Rushmore" that works from the opening shot to the final image.

It's a fable about what it feels like to be 12 years old and afflicted, from head to toe, by a romantic crush the size of a planet.

Moonrise Kingdom might be Wes Anderson's purest work yet -- a tender tale of longing and melancholy as seen through the eyes of a handful of people on an isolated (fictional) island off the coast of New England.

Anderson's most involving and sardonically funny movie since Rushmore (and maybe better).

Another great film from Anderson, and the beginning of a fantastic career for Hayward.

The adventurous circumstances and sensations of young love permeate Moonrise Kingdom.

It's the filmmaker's best piece of live-action cinematic art since 'Rushmore' and nicely joins 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' in his return to fine form. (Full Content Review for Parents also available)

Moonrise Kingdom feels like a culmination, like Anderson has been working towards this one movie.

Wes Anderson films are not so much directed as curated.

Funny and heartfelt in equal measure, "Moonrise Kingdom" is a top-to-bottom charmer and one of the most heartfelt peans to the power of young love that you will see anytime soon.

Has individual moments that are alluring to the eyes, but like the aforementioned dollhouse where Suzy lives, take a closer look inside and it becomes obvious how artificial all the parts are.

Who else can capture with such chilling accuracy that fragile period between childhood and disillusionment, the time when the novelty of true love overwhelms the heart with its immensity and futility?

If you can meet with realism and surrealism and treat those two impostors just the same, then yours are the movies and everything in them. I'm paraphrasing Emilio Estevez but I think you get the idea.

A true delight - a fun, clever, and, of course, whimsical tale about the days when love seemed worth running away from home over and getting a scout badge meant the world.

Anderson's most delightfully bittersweet live-action movie since The Royal Tenenbaums.

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