In the trailer for Wes Anderson‘s newest movie Moonrise Kingdom, we are treated to the usual Anderson fare: an egg wash of cartoony reality splashed deliberately on the screen, a geeky/cool hero that will be the template of hipster values, a charming family of dysfunction, and characters that we admire because we don’t quite understand them. Moonrise Kingdon is a confident nerdy boy meets cute girl story and — well –that’s about it. Padded with his usual suspects (Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman) and some new citizens of his world (Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton), the movie is a hearty dollop of Andersonisms:

Looks about right.

Wes Anderson is unknown to regular people, an “auteur” to cinephiles, and God to hipsters.

Then there’s this bizarrely staged picture of me, him, Jason Schwartzman, and Roman Coppola (who co-wrote Moonrise Kingdom with Anderson) from when I interviewed them for The Darjeeling Limited.

Consider yourself one degree closer to all of those people in the picture. That’s very special. And yes, I think I just name dropped all over the place.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed the homegirl quitting her job by means of humiliating messages on a dry erase board (which I later learned was a hoax), I can’t get enough of Jason Schwartzman and Michael Cera (starring in the upcoming Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) doing the weather report on a news station in Atlanta:

I don’t know if the above is really considered “viral” — but it makes me chuckle…and it makes me want to report the weather at my local Fox affiliate.

Which one is more entertaining to you?

The foxy characters of ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’

In Anderson’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children book, George Clooney provides the voice of Mr. Fox, a sly character that gives up his days as a poultry farm hunter in order to please his wife, Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep). Fast forward 12 fox years (two years for humans) and Mr. Fox is now a newspaper columnist and living with the missus and their cynical son Ash (Jason Schwartzman), who is “different” and wants nothing but to prove himself to his father.

To mix things up, Mr. Fox plans a three phase heist (a la Ocean’s 11) from his neighboring farmer big wigs: Boggis, Bunce and Bean. He succeeds only to find that the three are not happy. Once they find out that Mr. Fox has been stealing their loot, they are out for blood. Mr. Fox’s blood. In turn, Fox, his family and the entire community of badgers, opossums and beavers are put in danger; digging through holes for escape, making battle plans and avoiding all the Wile E. Coyote antics from the trio of angry farmers (one of them wears Mr. Fox’s tail as a tie – a fashion trend that could catch on).

The movie is as charming as Mr. Fox’s wheat sprig pocket square and trademark double-click of the tongue/winking gesture. Not having read the book, I had no clue about the story. I never even saw a trailer for this movie and rarely saw one-sheets plastered all over movie theaters. All I know is that there was a Fox involved and – well – that’s about it.

Perhaps my naiveté about Mr. Fox was a good thing. I had no preconceived notion in about these rascally creatures. Watching the film was refreshing from the enjoyably diluted cinema I have been indulging as of late (ahem, New Moon). It was smart. It was fun. It pulls you out of reality and throws you into a world of craft-store sets and puppet-like characters and it made you believe. Most of all, it had Anderson’s capricious mark all over it.

I never thought that stop-motion could have such personality. Then again, you can’t deny the magnetic charm of Clooney. His voice alone can give a box of hair personality (in this case, it was a woodland furball, so it was kind of close). The same goes with Streep, Schwartzman and Bill Murray (who plays Badger). The story is based on a children’s tale, but the dialogue and comedic timing (courtesy of a witty script by Anderson and Noah Baumbach) and was executed in a way that was unexpectedly expected, thoughtful and appealingly dry – something Anderson tends to feed us in delicious, clever morsels.

Watching intense close-ups of talking taxidermy that deliver irreverent overtures was quite surreal, but the film was pleasantly deep-rooted in classic, American story telling.

Grade: A-