Taking On 2012: Lead Performances

With the best supporting performances out of the way, actors and actresses getting their just dues, I have decided to revert back to last year's formula and go through the best lead performances in one post rather than breaking it up in to two. Again, as with each list, there are certain blindspots that I have been unable to fill prior to making this list. At this point I'm just going to count Amour as a 2012 film. So, theoretically, we'll end up seeing Riva appear on this list in a year's time. And with that caveat, let us get on to the list!

Remember When We Had Them All On The Run?

Moonrise Kingdom (Anderson, 2012)

I never went to summer camp. I don't know if that makes me an outlier to the quintessential American experience, but growing up I never spent a day of summer at a day camp. Looking back I'm not entirely sure what I missed, but the romantic notions that I have associated with what occurs at camp (thanks in no small part to Salute Your Shorts) have always left me wondering what would have changed if some of my summers were spent in this idealized wonderland of quasi-freedom. Now of course I'm sure no camp is anywhere close to how I imagine, but I think what draws me to it is the fictionalized allure of sorting out all the strange feelings of approaching maturity with boys and girls who were all on the precipice of adolescence. And it's this feeling, one that permeates throughout the whole of Wes Anderson's latest film Moonrise Kingdom, that makes my imaginary sanctuary a semi-tangible reality. This almost fairy tale that is underscored by so much painful reality, an escape that forces confrontation of truth.