Where The Wild Things Are...

... The Official Review.



"Let The Wild Rumpus Start!"
This movie was absolutely fantastic. I'm definitely glad I got to see it. Spike Jonze and David Eggers really did a great job capturing precious childhood moments. Their character development was awesome. There were so many things that they slipped in there that reminded me of my childhood, I actually looked around me in the theater to see if other people were as excited as I was. The movie started off really good, and it had a very meaningful setup. I really connected with Max's background, and felt like they really showed what it was like living in such an environment. Max had an older sister who was too cool to hang out with her little brother, the boys came to pick her up and shoved Max in the snow, I definitely know how that feels. Max was in search of an audience, and living in a single-parent household can make that hard. His mother seemed to care more about not embarrassing her boyfriend than giving Max the attention he deserved. When kids, especially boys, feel like nobody is paying attention to them, it usually means big trouble is up ahead. More than just Max's situation, I connected with Max himself. He seemed just like me when I was that age, and there were SO many good examples of this. I made such a long list of great moments in this movie, I think the people behind me were sick of me having my phone out. But anyways, it's the little things that count, like Max sticking two heads on one lego-man. Max jumping from stacks of books to pillows, trying not to burn his feet off in the hot lava, and his view of his mother on the phone as he laid upside-down on the floor underneath her desk. So many parts of this movie reminded me of my childhood, and that's one of the most important goals of a good movie, to relate to it's audience. To appeal to an emotion that somebody has previously felt. This movie was made from a book from our childhood, and Spike did much more than bring us back to that, he brought us back to that ERA. Which isn't an easy task. When we get older, we forget how scary some things used to be as kids, and this is another reason why I enjoyed this movie so much. As Max sits in class, his teacher explains to the class how the Sun is going to eventually burn out one day, and then explode. While other kids fight off sleep and boredom, Max sits enthralled in the teacher's conversation, petrified actually. That kind of stuff really IS scary, and now that we're all older, science is just science, and we don't even really think about it, we just accept it as a part of life. Max on the other hand, is a constant thinker, wondering why the Sun has to burn out one day, and what will we do after that? The kid who played Max was awesome, as well as the rest of the cast. I recognized James Gandolfini's voice almost immediately, ( he's getting a lot better, see Romance and Cigarettes if you don't believe me) Otger voices included Forrest Whitaker, Chris Cooper, Catherine O'Hara, and Paul Dano.
The movie was written so well. I really loved the dialogue the most. There were so many quotable lines, it was hard to write them all down. Taken out of context, I guess they are not as meaningful, but they sure knew the exact place to say them in the film. The dialogue really felt real, even though it still held onto a childlike feel. "Don't go... I'll eat you up I love you so.."
I like the way it was filmed too, which is weird because it's almost exactly the opposite of my style. The constant over-the-shoulder and unbalanced camerawork gave the movie a very realistic feel, and the creatures fit right into the movie, no sore-thumbs here. There was a part towards the end that i really connected with: Max is the type of kid to enlist himslef in countless projects, kind-of like I used to do. He likes to build forts, which was one of my favorite past-times as well. He spends hours and hours making the perfect lair, but when his sister's friend smashes it, you see Max the most upset he gets in the entire movie...(yes, even more upset than when he is running for his life)
When you build things, it's not even really about you, you just want to show people what you've done. That you've created something all on your own. Unlike his sister, Max realizes and understand how much work goes into these projects, and was completely fascinated when his favorite monster Carol shows him his secret scale-model of his version of a Utopian city. Carol carved numerous buildings, all complete with windows and doors, he built a functional canal system that flowed through the streets, and he also carved little sculptures of himself and his (hopeful) love K.W., enjoying all of the activities and fun times that he hoped to spend with her. When Carol realizes that Max can't make these things happen, he gets angry and destroys his lifelong project. When Max stumbles across the wreckage, you can tell that it effects Max almost more than it did Carol. Max understood how long it took Carol to complete his project, and he knew how it felt to spend a ridiculous amount of time on something that nobody will ever see. ( Like this blog and all the other things I do ) Max kneels down and makes a heart out of twigs with Carol's initials in it. Stricken by the guilt of not being able to solve everyone's problems, Max sails back home for good. The movie was actually really depressing.. but was it depressing because it was a sad movie? Or was it depressing because so many instances are so easily relatable to our own lives? If you're somewhat in the same age group as I am, there are some really small, subliminal things in this movie that will pull at your heartstrings, for no apparent reason. It gives you almost a sense of nostalgia, which is my favorite word in the dictionary.
I strongly recommend this movie to people of all ages, there is definitely something here that everybody should see.
Where The Wild Things Are: A wonderful film, almost like a timepiece dedicated to the children of the late-eighties. Thank you Spike Jonze.
8.5/10