predictable obsessions

Last weekend, I went on one of my coveted solo movie outings to take in Moonrise Kingdom. I'm a big fan of Wes Anderson's visual creations - but not always the entirety of his movies. The Royal Tenenbaums is still one of my top five re-watchable films (insert rant about Bottle Rocket being his only decent movie here) but Darjeeling and Zissou left me a little cold in the full-shebang department.
Maybe it was just the magical feeling of the whole thing, combined with a long, quiet walk home to fully digest it. Maybe it was the charming interview with Terry Gross that I listened to earlier in the week (in which Anderson weirdly avoids mentioning either of the kids by name - they are simply "the boy" and "the girl"). But I really, really loved every second of this movie. The awkward child actors - and there were many, my far and away favorite being Redford, the ignobly wounded, dirtbike riding ginger - gave off a feeling of pre-adolescent importance that I found charming. Their words and actions reminded me of that giddy fantasy feeling of starring in a Very Relevant play based on your own Very Interesting life. Of course Sam is an orphan, fitting the description of every hero and heroine of all the stories I wrote.
Anyhow, I was able to ignore my hypocritical annoyance with the crowd of twee couples in three-piece suits and fifties housewife dresses and fully embrace my completely predictable, art-school grad love. And then I went home and proceeded to draw. You can say a lot of things about Wes Anderson, but his work always makes me want to create things.