Moonrise Kingdom

Moonrise Kingdom

Innovation is all well and good. Career development – well, it's hard to object. But that feeling of pleasure when watching the trailer for Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom – it's only partly the gorgeous lighting, the Françoise Hardy music, the cracker lines. Mostly, it's relief. Every box is ticked: Schwartzman, Murray, pint-sized precocity, a retro pallette, distracted dads, slo-mo hand-holding, fab hats, dead-centre deadpan. And those new elements (Norton, McDormand, Bruce Willis – and his hair) feel fresh and diverting enough that you don't feel too sore about the gaps (what, no Wilson bro?).
A year and a half ago my colleague Xan Brooks wrote this in response to the Wes Anderson Spider-Man pastiche trailer:

Some directors spawn imitators. Others, it transpires, prompt spoofs. For better or worse, Anderson's work is now so instantly recognisable that its hallmarks can be easily distilled and converted into a simple comedy formula. Or, as he puts it himself: "I have my own personality and some people are going to like that and others are not. I think some people find it very annoying when they feel that a film-maker's signature is too visible. But without ever quite making that choice, that tends to be the way I make 'em. You can spot 'em a mile off."

Submarine has since queered that pitch: it's hard to watch Richard Ayoade's debut and not sense the hours he's spent in front ofRushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums seeping through the screen. But somehow that cribbing serves only to heighten the real-deal glow that ebbs from Moonrise Kingdom's promo.

What do you make of the trailer? Do you wish Anderson was pushing the boat out further? Or reeling it back to yet more familiar shores?

Moonrise Kingdom