“DID you enjoy it?” asked the box-office lass as I emerged from Wes Anderson’s gentle, affectionate allegorical lampoon of a choice selection of contemporary American social, political, military and institutional habits. I enjoyed it a lot, which I don’t often do.

It’s a mid-’60s fantasy on an imaginary island off the north-eastern US coast with basic infrastructure and strong community values. At a Khaki Scout camp run on military principles (rather than those propounded by Baden-Powell), Sam (Jared Gilman), an orphan who has never fitted into any fostering arrangement, goes AWOL to join Suzy (Kara Hayward) and begin a life of togetherness free of adult strictures.

The search for the young lovers forms a simple dramatic core to which the screenplay attaches well-crafted observations of a myriad of social values, expressed with clever humour and sharp wit providing the film’s main joy.

There’s wonderful use of Benjamin Britten’s music and my heart leaped up on hearing the opening bars of Hank Williams’s delightful ‘50s ballad about Kaw-Liga, the wooden Indian.

The cast is top hole. Beside the two impressive youngsters, the list includes numerous names known better for their acting than celebrity status – Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Harvey Keitel and Tilda Swinton, to name the top rank.

It’s about young adolescents, but I suggest that its target demographic is somewhat older. And if you refuse to enjoy it, you’re a grouch!

At all cinemas