Flick of The Day: Moonrise Kingdom

There are few mainstream film-makers that are as “ Marmite” as Wes Anderson. For those who love his work, I included, his films are a blend of fine storytelling, quirky wry humour and a distinctive visual style. For those who don’t, the visual style and humour are undone by their off kilter sensibility. This view is often summed up by an exasperated “Oh that film is so annoying”.  His best and probably best loved film is The Royal Tenenbaums while Rushmore, Fantastic Mr Fox, The Darjeeling Limited and The Life Acquatic with Steve Zissou have all found a willing audience. This latter film remains my personal favourite, a beautiful and deeply funny look at the life of renowned oceanographer Zissou played by the incomparable Bill Murray.   It would be fair then to say that I was looking forward to Anderson’s latest film, Moonrise Kingdom. 

Opening with a typically melancholic credit sequence, we are introduced to the inhabitants of the island of New Penzance, an idyllic New England community in 1965. These include the Bishop family led by Walt and Laura, a pair of duelling attorneys played by Bill Murray and Frances McDormand and their “troubled” teenage daughter Suzy, an excellent Kara Hayward. There is also the Island’s policeman Captain Sharp, played by Bruce Willis in fine form and a troop of scouts at Camp Ivanhoe led by Scout Master Ward, a hilariously earnest Edward Norton.

One fine morning, the Scout Master awakes to find that one of his charges has flown the coup in the night, in a funny scene reminiscent of The Shawshank Redemption. We soon learn that the missing boy is a 12 year old orphan named Sam Shakusky who has disappeared off into the hinterland of the island. He has however not gone alone and is joined as a runaway by his lady love Kara Bishop, much to the chagrin of her father Walt. The pair have been pen pals since meeting the previous Summer at a church performance of Noye’s Fludde and have resolved to run away together to escape their uneasy family life. Sam has absconded with enough camping equipment to enable a nomadic existence while Kara has brought a stack of her favourite books and borrowed her brother’s record player. Together they set off for a secluded cove which they name Moonrise Kingdom.

Of course, they are soon captured by the good hearted Captain Sharp and the deputised scouts. Walt vows that the two shall never see each other again and social services in the form of Tilda Swinton are soon on their way to take young Sam into care. However fate in the form of an epic storm intervenes. Will the island survive its onslaught? Will Scout Master Ward lead his troop to safety? Will Sam and Kara be reunited or will he be dragged off to be a ward of the state? Time will tell.

Anderson has assembled another fine ensemble cast for this film. Each actor brings an undoubted love for the script and their character to the table. Bruce Willis gives his most nuanced performance in years and that’s a sentence I did not expect to write. Bill Murray plays what now seems to be a recurring performance as a cuckolded husband in Wes Anderson films, that together with Frances McDormand forms a loving if emotionally distant parent group. The real stars are the two young protagonists Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman who bring a self-assured maturity to their roles.

The real joy of the film is how Anderson, together with co-writer Roman Coppola has managed to capture the feel of a childhood summer which feels endless at the time and yet so quickly is overcome by a return to normalcy at Summer’s end.  The attention to detail and the quirky eccentric nature of his work are spellbinding in my opinion.

It is Anderson’s most complete film and I think possibly his best live-action film to date. It, like so many of his previous films, manages to transport the viewer to a time and place that they really would like to visit in real life. This is the magic of cinema.

Flick of The Day: American Splendor

On July 12th 2010, the American underground comic book writer and music critic Harvey Pekar passed away, aged 70. He worked most of his adult life as a filing clerk in a veterans hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. He was of course better known for his creation of American Splendor, a series of comics which documented his day to day struggles and achievements on the streets of Cleveland.

American Splendor

The film stars the ever brilliant Paul Giamatti as Harvey, documenting his life and his thought and how he came to write an autobiographical comic about an average life. The film is narrated by Harvey himself and is interspersed with archive and modern footage of Harvey and his friends and colleagues and interviews he gave for the film. While jarring at first, it quickly grows on you because you get to see all of the weird and wonderful people in the flesh and compare them to the actor playing them. It is a minor triumph. It quickly becomes apparent, even if you are unfamiliar with Harvey's work, that he is a morose and naturally depressive character, even in his own words.

The real heart of the movie and what makes it a little gem, is that while Harvey is a depressive grouch, he  comes to realize that it is the little moments of ordinary life that make it worthwhile. This is what he sought to portray in his work, the ordinary struggles of an everyday man just to live. In his own words:

"Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff"

American Splendor, the comic, is unlike anything else out there. Its real, there are no super heroes who will save the day. Indeed, Harvey went on to document his struggles with cancer which I think was a particularly brave move. The scenes with his wife and collaborator, are touching and at times very funny. They seem to have been made for each other, though of course they had their ups and downs and this is borne out by the interview with the two of them in the film and Hope Davis is excellent as Joyce, portraying her. as somebody who was half frustrated, half in love with Harvey. The funniest scenes are between the two of them with Giamatti delivering some great deadpan lines.

I have to say I loved this film. Harvey Pekar was a very engaging character and Paul Giamatti captures him perfectly by all accounts. He captured the simple nobility in living an ordinary life, working hard and hoping that something good will come of it. Though even at the end, Harvey refuses to see the bright side of life, but then I suppose that's what made him how he was, made American Splendor what it was. As the man said:

"The theme is about staying alive. Getting a job, finding a mate, having a place to live, finding a creative outlet. Life is a war of attrition. You have to stay active on all fronts. It's one thing after another. I've tried to control a chaotic universe. And it's a losing battle. But I can't let go. I've tried, but I can't"