96% Moonrise Kingdom

All Critics (92) | Top Critics (24) | Fresh (88) | Rotten (4) | DVD (1)

Its moments of transporting beauty and visual brilliance overcame my growing aversion to Wes Anderson's brand of ultra-stylized archness.

We may look back on Anderson's works as we do on the boxes of Joseph Cornell -- formal troves of frippery, studded with nostalgic private jokes, that lodge inexplicably in the heart. In Moonrise Kingdom, that lodging is already under way.

It makes you nostalgic for the pangs of young love.

What makes it an Anderson movie are the things he adds which mark all his films - the pop-cultural obsessions and excruciatingly detailed set decorations, overarching thematic concerns and little stylistic tics.

I liked this one because of its young performers, the evocative island setting (filmed in Rhode Island), Alexandre Desplat's lovely score and Robert Yeoman's slightly grainy cinematography.

The director's best film since 1998's Rushmore, it has none of the self-conscious smugness of The Life Aquatic or the empty eccentricity of The Royal Tenenbaums.

A gossamer fable of adolescent romance, played out with the cheekily whimsical, visually delicious style for which Anderson is famous.

Wes Anderson's most sartorially significant film yet.

At once funny and melancholic, whimsical and poignantly true.

One is at times reminded of AE Housman.

Moonrise Kingdom is a delight... stuffed full of the quirky details and gags that are Anderson's trademarks, but it also possesses an emotional undertow that will tug at those viewers in tune with its singular sensibility.

Capturing our inner children

If the deadpan sensibility of the film ultimately leaves it feeling a tad lightweight, that isn't to say that Moonrise Kingdom isn't a funny, witty and well-crafted film.

Typically quirky Wes Anderson dramedy has lots of heart.

A bittersweet and evocative period piece that's both a visual and narrative delight.

No one has an eye or sensibility like Anderson's, but this is a chilly disappointment. The unaffecting kids are meant to be the emotional center, yet the adults steal the film.

I really wanted to like this film. I respect Wes Anderson and his distinctive voice as a writer-director ('Rushmore' is one of my favorite films of the 1990s), but this latest endeavor is so precious and self-aware that it nearly smothers itself.

Those who find the director's work flawed by preciousness, however, may grow impatient well before the movie reaches the 90-minute mark.

Anderson has imagined the '60s on the East Coast as if from an Eddie Bauer catalog and Boys' Life, with the sensibility of The New Yorker.

Like many holiday locations, you wouldn't want to live there, but a mini-break from the norm can be a real tonic.

A sweet, charming and altogether delightful bit of whimsy from writer/director Wes Anderson.

I normally end up liking Wes Anderson's films, but I love this one.

The delightful Moonrise Kingdom marks a career high for offbeat auteur Wes Anderson.

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