• Courtesy of Focus Features
• TIL SCHOOL DO US PART: Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman

The coming-of-age comedy Moonrise Kingdom avoids identifying the exact location of New Penzance Island, but the quaint community with its lighthouse, summer camp and Native American trails probably lies in New England. New Penzance unmistakably belongs within the borders of WesAndersonLand, that cinematic territory of bittersweet whimsy where kids have more wisdom than adults and history seems to have stopped in the 1970s.

As a filmmaker, Anderson restricts himself to a narrow visual and emotional palette, perpetually exploring themes of neglectful parental figures in scenes so meticulously designed, they resemble museum displays more than human habitations. In Moonrise Kingdom, like his breakthrough film Rushmore, the twee style dovetails with the point of view and self-perception of Anderson's star-crossed young protagonists, so the layers of nostalgia don't muffle the film's heartbeat.