Despite a scraggly beard that shares the consistency of a porcupine’s quill, I was once a child. Though that soul may have died with pubescence, I remember an idyll world that beamed when I was happy and that cried when I cried. I remember developing a universe that centered around me because as far as I could tell, I was indeed that center. And I remember feeling nothing was particularly important because everything was.
Moonrise Kingdom, a film by Wes Anderson, is exactly this – a moment, a feeling, an entire worldly existence of childhood captured in the amber of film. At the very surface, it is no more a story of two children wrapped in the unadulterated swirl of pre-sexual fantasies and love. They elope, as loosely as that word can be applied. They try to find their paradise, Moonrise. And they dance around in underpants when time permits.
It is entirely unrealistic. A consistently aesthetic universe somehow contains the foibles of the major characters - characters that often reach a spiritual equilibrium without consulting the terms of good and evil. But that is the point.
Beyond the fantastic picturesque scenery and the inescapable moral scruples describing a world that seems anything but moral, it is a movie about what it means to be children.
It is about the limitations of time in the desire for unlimited aspirations, about when imagination is free from the dissatisfaction and realism of adulthood, about the triumphs in simply living fully rather than filling up our time with seemingly triumphant endeavors.
At its very core, it is about the world – our world – constrained only by on our ingenuity, not by what we know. Because as children we know nothing, and that means everything.
Now as I type here as a presupposed adult with worries, debts, and an ever-growing anxiety, I know this film is good. My inner child tells me as much.
By: Kacper Niburski
The Standing Short Festival
For an entrance fee of $10 at Club Absinthe (38 King William Street), you can check out Hamilton’s half-stand up comedy, half-comedic short festival on Aug. 4. Barbecue on the patio all day and after party to follow. Burgers, music and lols? Worth it.
Starlite Drive-in
There comes a moment every summer (usually halfway through my hundredth Godfather marathon) that the reality of my laziness finally hits me and I realize I need to stop watching movies on my laptop in bed. But I don’t exactly feel up to blowing 15+ bucks on a movie I may or may not like. Piling into a car with my friends and going to a drive-in is always fun and refreshing.
It must also be a perfect date spot – not that I would know (that’s a longer list for another time). If you’re in the area, Stoney Creek’s Starlite Drive-In sounds like a great spot.
Westdale Movie Theatre
If you aren’t feeling especially adventurous and you’re in the mood for a limited-release film in an old-school theatre, Westdale is the place to go.
Now playing: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
FYI
Youngblood, X-men, How to Deal, Against the Ropes, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Cinderella Man, Four Brothers, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, Silent Hill, Away from Her, American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile, Hairspray and The Time Traveler’s Wife were all filmed in Hamilton, at least in part. Who Knew? (Wikipedia, apparently.)
Reviews in 50 words or less
I have yet to see The Avengers, but judging by the number of box office records it’s broken and the billions of dollars it represents, I’m sure I’ll feel “mind = blown” afterwards and able to quickly shake off the nagging knowledge that it’s based almost solely on commercial interests.
The most important character in Woody Allen’s To Rome with Love is Rome itself, and we can forgive the lackluster dialogue and familiar storyline thanks to the loveliness of the Eternal City.
