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Moonrise Kingdom | 2012 | PG-13 | - 5.4.3

Wes Anderson's newest movie takes place over three days in the summer of 1975 on a remote island when two young lovers (Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward) flee and attempt to start a new life together. Also with Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman and Bob Balaban. Directed by Wes Anderson. [1:34]

SEX/NUDITY 5 - Throughout a long portion of the movie we see a pre-teen girl in a bra and baggy, brief-style underwear and a pre-teen boy wearing brief-style underwear and a tank top or T-shirt: the girl and the boy dance, embrace and kiss; the girl asks the boy to "French kiss," explaining that it is kissing with their tongues touching, they kiss and hug and the boy makes a remark implying he has an erection to which the girl says she "likes it," while they continue to hug; the girl tells the boy that he can touch her chest, and he places his hands on her breasts and squeezes them; we see the girl sleeping in her underwear and bra with her arm around the boy and they are discovered by the girl's father and several other people; the girl's mother grabs the girl's arm and pulls her away as she tries to cover her with a dress; we see the girl and the boy reclined on a rock, with the girl's head resting on the boy's shoulder; the boy paints a portrait of the girl (he is wearing a T-shirt and brief-style underwear), and we very briefly see the portrait and it is implied to be a nude; and it is implied that the girl and the boy had gone swimming in their underwear.
 A pre-teen boy and a pre-teen girl hold hands, and the girl kisses the boy's hand. A pre-teen boy and a pre-teen girl hold hands after a man "weds" them unofficially in a ceremony. A pre-teen boy and a pre-teen girl hug and then kiss. A pre-teen girl blows a kiss to a pre-teen boy.
 Several pre-teen boys speculate if another pre-teen boy got to "second base" with a pre-teen girl, one boy asks, "over shirt or under shirt" and we hear no answer. A woman tells her husband and another man that their pre-teen daughter has exchanged "intimate" letters with a pre-teen boy (we hear voiceovers, nothing is sexual). A pre-teen girl tells her mother that "she knows" what the woman's relationship with another man is; the woman does not elaborate, but we later see the woman telling the man that they have to stop seeing one another, implying they were having an affair. A pre-teen girl tells another pre-teen girl that a pre-teen boy "likes her."
 We see a watercolor of a teen girl in a bathtub; she is nude with the profile of her bare breast visible and a pre-teen girl asks the artist (a pre-teen boy) if the painting was of her. A woman helps bathe her pre-teen daughter; no nudity is visible (we see the pre-teen girl's knees pulled up to her chest). On multiple occasions we see boys shirtless with their bare chests and backs visible. A man is seen shirtless and his bare chest and back are visible.

VIOLENCE/GORE 4 - We see a standoff between several pre-teen boys and a pre-teen boy and girl: one of the boys is on a scooter, the boy with the girl tells him not to approach him (he is holding an air rifle), we see an arrow being shot and hear a shout, and moments later we see a group of boys running away, one holding a bloody cut on his lower back; the girl and the boy stand above a dead dog and we see an arrow sticking out of the dog's neck -- the dog looks obviously fake as they kneel next to it.
 A pre-teen boy shouts at an injured pre-teen boy, saying that he had killed a dog; the second boy shouts back and we see the first boy attacks the injured boy, punching him above the kidney area, where we see a bloody gauze (he shouts in pain).
 A large totem pole falls onto a tent where an older man was sitting, a series of fireworks begin to go off inside the tent, smoke pours out and another man leaps into the tent and pulls the older man out (he is carried away to safety and is seen unharmed later).
 Lightning hits a pre-teen boy as he stands in front of a group of other pre-teen boys; the boy is thrown back from the impact, but he stands up unharmed but covered in soot. Lightning strikes a church steeple where a man, a pre-teen boy and a pre-teen girl are standing; the steeple falls and smashes the top of a car and we see the silhouette of the man, girl and boy holding hands as they dangle off a ledge (they are all later seen unharmed).
 During a very rapid montage we see the following: a pre-teen girl shouts at another pre-teen girl, flips over her desk and charges toward her; several teen boys throw rocks at a pre-teen boy; a pre-teen boy punches a teen boy in the stomach; a pre-teen girl picks out glass from a woman's head as she explains that she had thrown a rock through the window; and a pre-teen girl shouts at her parents and three younger brothers.
 A pre-teen girl whimpers as a pre-teen boy pierces her ears with fishhooks (we see a small trail of blood on her neck). We see a pre-teen girl holding a bloody pair of scissors. We see bloody gauze wrapped around a pre-teen girl's hand; a pre-teen boy asks what happened and she says she had gotten into a "fight with a mirror." A man is seen with a black eye (it is not explained how he got the black-eye) and a woman implies that she had given him the black eye, saying that the man had "fallen in a ditch."
 We briefly see a string of dead animals hanging from a clothesline. We see a boy using gasoline to set a small fire and he explains to a man that he is "burning ants." A dam is seen breaking and people race to avoid being hit by the water as it rapidly pours through a crowded scout camp.
 Several pre-teen boys say that they are going to "find" another pre-teen boy; one boy remarks that he does not want to be "without a weapon" when they find the boy and we see one of the boys holding a stick with nails sticking out of it. Three men and a woman shove one another briefly, and the fight is immediately broken up as the lights in the building go out. A man angrily throws a shoe at another man as he shouts at him. A man shouts when he sees a pre-teen boy with a bloody injury above his kidney and leads him away on a stretcher; we later see the boy recovering and using a crutch as a narrator explains that the boy was recovering but would have possible kidney problems after being stabbed in the side with a pair of scissors. A pre-teen girl shows a pre-teen boy a book titled "Coping With A Very Troubled Child" and begins to cry when the boy makes fun of her for being upset; she slams a suitcase closed and storms away. A pre-teen girl and a pre-teen boy hold hands while standing at the top of a tall church steeple and they swear to one another that they will jump together.
 A woman shouts at two men after they say that the woman's daughter had stabbed a boy. Two men interrupt a woman, correcting her after she says that a pre-teen boy had stabbed another pre-teen boy and the men say in unison that a pre-teen girl had stabbed the boy. A woman accuses a man of allowing a pre-teen boy to be "hit by lightning" and a second man acts surprised. A woman shouts at a man, saying that their pre-teen daughter could be "killed out there." A woman shouts at another woman that she had allowed her pre-teen daughter to stab a pre-teen boy. A pre-teen girl warns her father that he is going to push her "too far"; the father acts surprised and the girl tells him to consider it "a warning." A man warns a pre-teen boy that life will be difficult in a juvenile hall but is "better than shock therapy." A man chides a pre-teen boy, saying that building a tree house so high up is "guaranteed death." A man chides a pre-teen boy, saying that revving a motorcycle's engine is "reckless cycling." A pre-teen boy remarks to other pre-teen boys that another pre-teen boy will have a "part of his brain cut out." A man tells another man that a pre-teen boy is an orphan, after his parents had been killed. Several pre-teen boys discuss how another pre-teen boy's parents had died. A pre-teen boy tells a pre-teen girl that another pre-teen boy is "emotionally disturbed" because his parents had died. A man records a memo to himself that he cannot allow a pre-teen boy to "drown or fall off a cliff." A woman asks a man if a boy had been injured. A man tells another man that a boy had run away, taking an air rifle with him. A pre-teen girl and a pre-teen boy dramatically tell one another that they are willing to die for each other. A man remarks to his wife that he hopes the roof of their bedroom flies off so he can be "sucked up into space," adding that "they are better off without" him (the woman disagrees). A pre-teen boy warns a pre-teen girl that a turtle would bite her if she put her finger in its mouth. A boy screams when he sees a papier-mâché dummy in his pre-teen sister's bed.
 A boy spits on the ground. A man tells several boy scouts that he is doing "latrine inspection" and a boy pours water down a spout as the man deems the latrine okay. A pre-teen boy briefly warns a pre-teen girl that he might "pee the bed."

LANGUAGE 3 - 1 sexual reference, 7 mild obscenities, name-calling (beige lunatics, emotionally disturbed, crazy, selfish, creepy, sad and dumb, scruffy, mean jerks, bimbo, impossibly inappropriate custodians), 3 religious profanities, 5 religious exclamations.

SUBSTANCE USE - A man drinks liquor on multiple occasions, we see a man drinking wine, and a man offers and pours a small amount of beer for a pre-teen boy who drinks it. A pre-teen boy smokes a pipe and throughout the movie we see men and women smoking.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Running away, difficult teens, young love, adultery, death of a parent, revenge, bullying.

MESSAGE - Finding true love can be difficult.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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