Okay, I'll admit up front that for the most part,
"quirky" usually does not work for me. Most of the TV comedies of the
past, say, decade and a half that were critics' darlings and multiple award
winners I've found to be unfunny and downright annoying. The same goes for
movies. From what I understand, writer/director Wes Anderson is known for films
that are quirky. I can understand that after watching MOONRISE KINGDOM.
Which is not to say I hated it or even disliked it. I wouldn't be writing about it if I did. ("If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.") The plot's not bad: a couple of 12-year-olds fall in love and run off together, prompting a search that involves a rather wacky troop of Boy Scouts (they're called "Khaki Scouts" in the movie). Some of the characters are likable and interesting, there was an occasional funny line, and the movie generates enough suspense that I watched the whole thing because I wanted to know what was going to happen.
But almost everybody in the movie delivers their lines in the same deadpan monotone, which quickly got so irritating I wanted to yell at the screen, "Just talk like normal human beings, already!" The things they were doing and saying were oddball enough to start with.
So MOONRISE KINGDOM left me scratching my head and wondering how I felt about it. I still haven't figured it out. I think I kind of liked it...but I'm not sure yet.
Which is not to say I hated it or even disliked it. I wouldn't be writing about it if I did. ("If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.") The plot's not bad: a couple of 12-year-olds fall in love and run off together, prompting a search that involves a rather wacky troop of Boy Scouts (they're called "Khaki Scouts" in the movie). Some of the characters are likable and interesting, there was an occasional funny line, and the movie generates enough suspense that I watched the whole thing because I wanted to know what was going to happen.
But almost everybody in the movie delivers their lines in the same deadpan monotone, which quickly got so irritating I wanted to yell at the screen, "Just talk like normal human beings, already!" The things they were doing and saying were oddball enough to start with.
So MOONRISE KINGDOM left me scratching my head and wondering how I felt about it. I still haven't figured it out. I think I kind of liked it...but I'm not sure yet.
4 comments:
Don't try the BUDAPEST HOTEL then. Even more annoying.
I liked MOONRISE KINGDOM. Did not like GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL at all and cannot understand all the Oscar nominations.
Jeff M.
Liked this quite a bit and loved GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL. I've liked every Wes Anderson movie I've seen, in fact.
Anderson's first film, Bottle Rocket, set in Austin, about an inept group of criminals is hilarious. Martin Scorsese ranked it in his top 10 films of the 90s.
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