Wes Anderson is always quirky, and often funny, but his stylized vision can sometimes be difficult to empathize with. Moonrise Kingdom shone though. Of course it was painstakingly stylish, but the endearing tale of two awkward teenagers drawn together by familial dysfunction made it all work. The closing titles (you know… the bit where most of the people in the theater get up and wander out) are worth watching all on their own.

We had a great turnout for Moonrise Kingdom this week; especially great because Bernd and Nina, A.K.A. “The Newly-weds”, flew in from Berlin for a few days and included MovieNight in their list of must-go-to’s. From Bernd we learned that thousands of genetically-modified research mice died during Super Storm Sandy; not the sort of loss we tend to think about straight away. I’m sure there are many many other extraordinary consequences we will learn about, probably for years to come.

More about this film on IMDb