Moonrise Kingdom

Jared Gilman Director: Wes Anderson Wes Anderson

Overview

Director/co-writer Wes Anderson teams with screenwriter Roman Coppola for this period comedy-drama set in the 1960s, in which a pair of young lovers (Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward) from an island off the New England coast head for the hills and throw their small town into a frenzy. Bruce Willis co-stars with Bill Murray, Edward Norton, and Frances McDormand.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/22/2015
UPC:	0715515150712
Original Release:	2012
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen, Color]
Time:	1:34:00
Sales rank:	11,371

Special Features

Audio commentary featuring Anderson, Bill Murry, Edward Norton, Jason Schwartzman, and Roman Coppola; Selected-scenes storyboard animatics; Interviews with cast and crew; Exploring the set of "Moonrise Kingdom," an original documentary about the film; Norton's home movies from the set; Behind-the-scenes, special effects, and test footage; Auditions; Trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Jared Gilman	Sam
Kara Hayward	Suzy
Bruce Willis	Captain Sharp
Edward Norton	Scout Master Ward
Bill Murray	Mr. Bishop
Frances McDormand	Mrs. Bishop
Tilda Swinton	Social Services
Jason Schwartzman	Cousin Ben
Bob Balaban	The Narrator
Lucas Hedges	Redford
Charlie Kilgore	Lazy-Eye
Andreas Sheikh	Panagle
Chandler Frantz	Gadge
Rob Campbell	Deluca
L.J. Foley	Izod
Gabriel Rush	Skotak
Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick	Roosevelt
Tommy Nelson	Nickleby
Larry Pine	Mr. Billingsley
Marianna Bassham	Becky
Neal Huff	Jed
Eric Anderson	Secretary McIntire
Jake Ryan	Lionel
Tanner Flood	Murray
Wyatt Ralff	Rudy
Max Derderian	Chef
Hugo DeAscentis	Edgar
Liz Callahan	Mrs. Billingsley
James Demler	Noah
Christine Noel	Noah's Wife
Jean-Michael Pion	Ham
John Peet	Junior Khaki Scout Master
Carolyn Pickman	Mrs. Lynn
Ada-Nicole Sanger	Sparrow
Isabella Guinness	Owl
Violet Guinness	Bittern
Caris Yeoman	Curlew
Lily Tiger McEnerney	Dove
Kevin DeCoste	Morse Code Khaki Scout
Harvey Keitel	Commander Pierce
Tyler Metivier	Bugle Khaki Scout
Cooper Murray	Indian Chief Khaki Scout
Coledyn Garrow	Trampoline Khaki Scout
Ben Haffner	Archery Khaki Scout
Michael Malvesti	B-B-Q Khaki Scout
Rich Conant	Ft. Lebanon Khaki Scout
Johnathon Deneault	Ft. Lebanon Khaki Scout
Jack TeJean Hartman	Ft. Lebanon Khaki Scout
Preston Hatch	Ft. Lebanon Khaki Scout
Alex Milne	Ft. Lebanon Khaki Scout
Jordan Puzzo	Ft. Lebanon Khaki Scout
Steve Smith	Weather Man (Voice)
Dakota Pimentel	Acolyte
Roman Keitel	Acolyte's Assistant
Derek Sardella	Pigeon Scout
Conrad Pope	Conductor

Technical Credits

Wes Anderson

Roman Coppola

Wes Anderson	Director,Producer,Screenwriter
Douglas Aibel	Casting
Molly Cooper	Co-producer
Roman Coppola	Screenwriter
Jeremy Dawson	Producer
Alexandre Desplat	Score Composer
Nate Grubb	Asst. Director
Craig Henighan	Sound/Sound Designer
Sam Hoffman	Executive Producer
Peter Jarvis	Songwriter
Kasia Walicka Maimone	Costumes/Costume Designer
Mark Mothersbaugh	Songwriter
Octavia Peissel	Associate Producer
Conrad Pope	Musical Arrangement
Randall Poster	Musical Direction/Supervision
Steven Rales	Producer
Mark Roybal	Executive Producer
Scott Rudin	Producer
Adam Stockhausen	Production Designer
Gerald Sullivan	Art Director
Pawel Wdowczak	Sound Mixer
Andrew Weisblum	Editor
Lila Yacoub	Co-producer
Robert Yeoman	Cinematographer

Editorial Reviews

Of all the filmmakers of his generation, Wes Anderson has most firmly established not just a look, a tone, or a style, but a genuine all-encompassing aesthetic. It first came to fruition with his sophomore feature Rushmore, and every movie since then has been a poignant story of love, loss, and dysfunctional families with an exquisite soundtrack, stylized dialogue, Bill Murray, and painterly visuals. Moonrise Kingdom, his tale of first love, is unquestionably his, even if it isn't among his best. The movie stars newcomers Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward as Sam and Suzy. Sam is the least-liked member of Khaki Scout troop 55, a group who are spending the summer of 1965 camping together on a New England island under the watchful eye of scoutmaster Ward (Edward Norton) and the island's lead security officer Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis). Suzy is the daughter of lawyers Walt and Laura Bishop (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand), who live on the island, and she's unbalanced because she knows her mother is having an affair with Sharp. The two kids write letters back and forth, hatching a plan to run away together. They succeed in getting away from the adults responsible for them, but when a severe storm threatens to hit, everyone on the island pitches in to search for the missing duo. Like David Mamet, Quentin Tarantino, or the Coen brothers, Anderson writes dialogue that requires a certain spin from the actors. If the performers can't find the music in them, the words take on a leaden quality. In this capacity, the adults in Moonrise Kingdom fare rather well. Willis gives the film a soulful center, while Murray and McDormand share the movie's best scene, a late-night conversation in which they discuss painful truths about themselves. Those scenes reveal how much is missing from the interactions between the two kids. The child performers surely give the line readings the director wanted. However, they are both so emotionally flat, so one-dimensional in how they look and sound, that Sam and Suzy never feel like real kids, especially ones experiencing overpowering love for the first time. They're just part of this precious diorama that Anderson has formulated. In many ways, their relationship recalls the star-crossed romance between Margo and Richie Tenenbaum, the relationship at the heart of The Royal Tenenbaums. What passed between those two characters was fraught with sexuality and existential despair, and while Sam and Suzy have more physical contact than Margo and Richie, they don't have any of the profound longing. Again and again, the child actors fail to bring out the nuances in their scenes and their situation, in large part because of how Anderson has directed them. This discrepancy rears its head again at the end of the movie when Jason Schwartzman shows up to deliver some of the film's best laughs. He's one of the few actors -- alongside Owen Wilson and Murray -- who has a flawless ability to make Anderson's dialogue flow, accentuating the laughs without sacrificing the emotional truth of the scenes. That depth is missing when just the kids are onscreen, and since those scenes take up a big chunk of the movie, it's easy to grow bored or impatient. Anderson has always composed his films so that the shots carry as much emotional weight and humor as the actors. His ability to employ stylized, often cartoony, visuals runs through every aspect of his films from costuming to the dialogue. Sam's ever-present coonskin cap reveals as much about his personality as anything he says or does, as does scoutmaster Ward's freshly pressed shorts. Anderson's unquestioned gift is the ability to make the real world seem like a fictional place, and he does that throughout Moonrise Kingdom. People who enjoy being immersed in his singular vision won't be disappointed at all. Have no fear, Anderson hasn't lost his touch and his muse hasn't stopped talking to him. The shark has not jumped; there's not even a dorsal fin anywhere in sight. That said, Moonrise Kingdom does reveal some limits to this gifted filmmaker's talents.

All Movie Guide - Perry Seibert