Moonrise Kingdom 4K 2012 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

The 1960s. A pair of teenagers in love, living on an island in New England, run away from adult supervision. Sam Shakusky is a Boy Scout, an orphan who was abandoned by his foster parents and has become an outcast among the other Boy Scouts because of his difficult character, and Susie Bishop is a withdrawn twelve-year-old unstable girl who lives with dreams of magical worlds. After the discovery of the disappearance, the local sheriff begins an investigation, and the Boy Scout camp counselor organizes a search party.

Review 4K Movie

Luck was on my side, and a couple of days ago I was fortunate enough to refresh my memory of Wes Anderson's amazing film “Moonrise Kingdom.” It is a film in which the director skillfully weaves together reality and fantasy, creating a world in which childhood collides with adulthood, and escape from reality becomes a search for oneself.

The action takes place in 1965 on a fictional secluded island off the coast of New England. Here, among the forests and lighthouses, lives twelve-year-old Suzy (Kara Hayward) from a prosperous but cold family. Her fate is intertwined with Sam (Jared Gilman), a young orphaned Boy Scout who decides to escape from society's rejection and loneliness, and ultimately finds love—his first, naive, tender, and sincere.

Of course, the film's visuals are striking in their sophistication, as in all of Anderson's films. Every scene, whether it's the interior of the Bishops' house or the Boy Scout camp, is constructed with mathematical precision. The camera glides across spaces as if scanning them, and the sets resemble illustrations from children's books. Anderson is a visionary. As I wrote in my previous review of his new film, The Phoenician Scheme, his films are created to be enjoyed in his worlds. His refined style applies not only to the visuals; each character is accompanied by a soundtrack that perfectly complements what is happening on screen.

Another of Anderson's trademarks is his cast, although it would be better to call it a fireworks display of absurd, sometimes ridiculous, but always memorable characters played by A-list stars. And he is putting together his own “repertory theater.” Norton is perfect as the pedantic but kind-hearted Ward. Willis is unexpectedly touching as the quiet, weary sheriff. Murray and McDormand create a stunning duo of unhappy intellectuals. Tilda Swinton, in a tiny role as “Social Services,” is the embodiment of official indifference. The young actors playing the main roles, Gilman and Hayward, demonstrate remarkable maturity. Their acting is devoid of sentimentality. They are serious, determined, a little awkward, but incredibly sincere. Their eyes convey all the pain, hope, and unshakable faith in their escape.

One of the main themes of the film is growing up as a loss of paradise: the film is an elegy to childhood. The Kingdom of the Full Moon is that mythical place where the characters strive to go, their personal Eden. But the film does not sugarcoat anything. Their “kingdom” is a tent in the rain. Their “wedding ceremony” is naive and touching. Anderson shows that this ideal place is illusory, but the belief in it, the very attempt to create it, is the main miracle available only to children. Adults either cynically destroy this belief (social services) or try to protect it (Sharp, Ward), while being deprived of it themselves.

Moonrise Kingdom is not just a charming stylization of the 1960s. It is a deeply sad and infinitely beautiful film about the fragility of childhood, the inevitability of losing innocence, the all-consuming power of first love, and how adults, without meaning to, destroy the magical worlds they once built. We understand that Sam and Suzy's escape is doomed. But in their attempt, in their belief in their “kingdom,” in their willingness to fight for it — there lies the main victory. The film leaves a feeling of bright sadness—like a memory of a place we all longed for but could never return to. It is a requiem for a kingdom that lives only in the full moon of our imagination, and it is one of Wes Anderson's most perfect and nostalgic works.