Quick Takes: "Moonrise Kingdom", "Damsels in Distress", "La Luna", "Battleship"

"Moonrise Kingdom" (***)

Directed by Wes Anderson

For once I don't feel like Wes Anderson has lied to me again. Not that any of his previous films have claimed to be anything else, but it so often feels like his stories pitch notions that they have no intention of keeping. Wes is all about the innocent beauty of romance in the context of a not-so-innocent world, or at least that's how it often seems. I walked into "Moonrise Kingdom" like so many else did, expecting more of the quirky, entertaining, but still hollow and dishonest brand that Wes has been pushing across six previous features. What surprised and delighted me about the film is that it's still Wes, but he doesn't seem to faking sincerity this time around.

Taking a tweedy and knowingly ridiculous interpretation of a chaotic ex-military romance, Wes brings some actually true conflicts about adulthood, life, violence, and love to a much younger setting. In embracing the youth of his brand, rather than run off with adults who act like children, which serves ever so annoyingly in nearly all of his previous film, Wes taps something that doesn't feel dishonest. The amazing beauty that his team is often capable of constructing can finally be given the chance for the audience to drink it in. It's not a lie, and the emotions that the characters feel aren't an obvious facade. This is a fascinating debut for Kara Hayward, a place where Edward Norton can finally sink into something fresh again, a project for Tilda Swinton to wax ridiculous playing "Social Services", and honestly a career-best performance from Bruce Willis, if that means anything. It's a thing of true beauty, and one that Wes is sadly not likely to achieve again.

Dry Months of April

It's hard to peg down a single month that is the most depressive slog of the year, but I'd make a strong case for April. Sure, January is an immediate drop off from the rush of quality cinema that greets the close of the year, and February is little better, but both of those have the positive bump of Oscar season on the skirts to divert attention away from sparse new cinematic offerings. March often has plentiful blockbuster offerings, even if some fail to live up to the stature of others. And we know that May through to December is often full of exceptional fare to some degree. April is four weeks of padding, and even if there are good films out there, they're not exactly bombastic.

Maybe it's that we're so close to big entertainment that small offerings just don't seem to have their place. "Titanic 3D" even seems to have a small nature surrounding it, as unlikely as that sounds. If you see the film, you know that James Cameron packs in quite an exceptional amount of scale, so why isn't that more of a draw? I'm not entirely sure, but nothing in me has much reason to want to see it on the big screen. It might just be a matter of time and place, and April is not a month you really want to head out for massive adventure. Quite often, and this is not just the case for students, it's a time of getting heavy loads of work done.

Weekend Rundown: Blast from the Unnecessary Past

This weekend isn't exactly a weekend to be storming out to the theaters, as I have on numerous occasions asked myself precisely what was coming out. In truth, nothing new is coming to wide release. What you'd be paying to see is either a rehash of stupid things you've already seen, or quite literally what you've already seen. As I was watching "Pina" on Tuesday evening, I was reminded constantly how much I wished I could have seen it in 3D glory, but was glad I still took it in theatrically. And then I thought about my feelings towards "Titanic" and asked the question, "Is it worth seeing in 3D"? The answer I came to was that it wasn't worth seeing in 2D, let alone in theaters. It's not profusely horrible, but it's just simple. Not bad, just nothing special.

That goes even more so for "American Pie", which indeed is less than nothing special, and I wouldn't allow myself to be paid to see any of those films. "American Reunion" honestly doesn't just seem pointless, but... oh, fine. That word sums it up perfectly. It's absolutely pointless, aside from the fact that they'll make money from people who want to see these characters again... doing the exact same thing they were doing before. My heart aches, because I know "Damsels in Distress" is out there in limited release, and if people knew about it more, they'd easily choose that over this dreck. But I'll settle with seeing "Shame" again. Never a bad night.

Films to see in 2012: April

There's a sense of charm that comes to establishing your most anticipated films months in advance, because I have no reason to change my current list of anticipated films for this coming. The further I get into this year, the less I've seen of the films highlighted, and it's getting to the point where I have no knowledge outside the hype people display. I only ever treat their hype suspicion, because I don't trust anyone else to know if a film's worth it. So this April, from my eyes, is just the same as any of the many months that come after it. There's going to be some great cinema, and some less than exciting films as well. That goes without saying, since it starts out with "American Reunion" of all things, continuing the tradition of not letting things die.

Technically speaking, though, the month effectively kicks off with "Titanic 3D", which even though I am never hasty to spring up and watch it even when it's on television, I'll still see it. Why? Because it's back in theaters, and the experience is the only thing James Cameron has ever been concerned with. He's doesn't obsess over script or story integrity, but he cares deeply about the audience interaction with what's onscreen. I'll politely caution you to avoid cheap space thriller "Lockout", and even more so to skip out on "The Three Stooges". I have never felt greater pain than the abysmal trailer for that feature. 

VENICE: "Damsels in Distress" Reactions

Such a delight that Venice goes out on a high note, as one usually expects the closing night of the festival to end in a whimper. That's mostly because most journalists are already Toronto-bound, and we'll get to our covering of that festival when the time comes that I become interested. Suffice it to say that there will be some that are downtrodden to hear that they missed out on something great in Whit Stillman's "Damsels in Distress". Stillman is another example of a director coming back into the fold after a long hiatus, but he's been out for 13 years, so who's to say what he's been up to? In any case, word is positive on his latest. And if Neil Young sounds a bit negative, keep in mind that it's his favorite of the festival.

Guy Lodge (In Contention; ***1/2): "It’s tempting to imagine that the reason for Stillman’s 13-year gap between features is that he was merely waiting for an actress as ideally attuned to his oddball intelligence as Gerwig: a quicksilver comic actress often cornered into passive roles, she’s on gloriously spry, expressive form here, finding reserves of empathy, however blinkered, in a character that many might play as an unremitting nightmare. (Her cohorts are very nearly as impressive, notably Megalyn Echikunwoke, whose gleefully mannered timing seems set to make “playboy and operatOR type” a beloved catchphrase among Stillman fiends.)"