Where the Wild Things Are
musicismylife78
Posts: 6,116
spoilers included:
What a brilliant film. I had been hyped for this thing ever since seeing the trailer and hearing Arcade Fire soundtrack it. Then to hear Dave Eggers wrote it, and Karen O did the soundtrack for the film, it kind of was a no brainer that this movie was a must see.
Just got back from seeing the film Utterly gorgeous and beautiful film. This is not a kids film.
Everything one could expect from a Dave Eggers penned movie is there. The line Carol gave about one day all your teeth are gone, or the sheer sadness in max's eyes and voice when he talks to Carol about the sun dying, are Eggers at his peak. Catherine Keener is brilliant as always, the kid who plays Max deserves a nod for Best Actor
Boiled down to its essence this is a film similar to Pan's Labyrinth but also applicable to anyone. How does a child, or an adult, navigate the scary thing called growing up and life, and death and war and all this? How does a kid deal with not being understood. Say a ten year old kid learns in class that global warming is killing the planet, and that we are headed for doomsday. All that may be accurate, but how does a ten year old process that? How does anyone, kid or adult process and deal with that?
The emotional complexity in this film is unrivaled in the last few years. The most beautiful and heartbreaking scenes involved no words at all, but glances, looks. Max's tear after his sisters friends kicked in his snow fort, his anger and sadness in his eyes after he bit his mom, his hoots of pure joy as Carol is introducing him to all the creatures. The last few scenes conveyed so much, but no words were spoken. The meanings of the scenes I just described. I was moved to tears by the scene where Max rows away and all the creatures are howling.
This movie is what I want when I buy my ticket for every movie. its the hope I will be taken to a different location, where I no longer view what is happening on screen as being just that, a movie, but real life. Its the hope that I will feel something...anything.
Stunning film. Run to the theater and see it, immediately.
What a brilliant film. I had been hyped for this thing ever since seeing the trailer and hearing Arcade Fire soundtrack it. Then to hear Dave Eggers wrote it, and Karen O did the soundtrack for the film, it kind of was a no brainer that this movie was a must see.
Just got back from seeing the film Utterly gorgeous and beautiful film. This is not a kids film.
Everything one could expect from a Dave Eggers penned movie is there. The line Carol gave about one day all your teeth are gone, or the sheer sadness in max's eyes and voice when he talks to Carol about the sun dying, are Eggers at his peak. Catherine Keener is brilliant as always, the kid who plays Max deserves a nod for Best Actor
Boiled down to its essence this is a film similar to Pan's Labyrinth but also applicable to anyone. How does a child, or an adult, navigate the scary thing called growing up and life, and death and war and all this? How does a kid deal with not being understood. Say a ten year old kid learns in class that global warming is killing the planet, and that we are headed for doomsday. All that may be accurate, but how does a ten year old process that? How does anyone, kid or adult process and deal with that?
The emotional complexity in this film is unrivaled in the last few years. The most beautiful and heartbreaking scenes involved no words at all, but glances, looks. Max's tear after his sisters friends kicked in his snow fort, his anger and sadness in his eyes after he bit his mom, his hoots of pure joy as Carol is introducing him to all the creatures. The last few scenes conveyed so much, but no words were spoken. The meanings of the scenes I just described. I was moved to tears by the scene where Max rows away and all the creatures are howling.
This movie is what I want when I buy my ticket for every movie. its the hope I will be taken to a different location, where I no longer view what is happening on screen as being just that, a movie, but real life. Its the hope that I will feel something...anything.
Stunning film. Run to the theater and see it, immediately.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
I thought Max was a spoiled ADD ridden brat, running away from his problems. If you don't want your snow fort to collapse, don't start a fight with 5 dudes, just sayin.
The best part of the movie was the Costumes for the Wild Things. They're exactly like the book.
I give it 3 out of 5 stars.
thats what I was hinting at in my review. This movie asks for a very intelligent and non commercial audience. The modern movie fan needs blood and gore and a dead body all the time in a horror film and a car chase and a fighting scene all the time in thrillers and action flicks.
this film doesnt hand you action. It makes you create it yourself. The movie demands that you make the connections I talked about in my review. I agree the visuals are stunning, but even that i dont think is the main point or the draw of the film.
Eggers and Jonze I think wanted to make a movie describing the pains and fears any child has as they grow up, and in doing that touch upon the larger truth of the matter, that even us adults are scared as hell, about life, death and everything in between.
And I felt, Jonze was brilliant in the ability to create a feeling, a moment, an emotion, merely by the look of max or a monster or Catherine Keener.
huh, scratches head. So you didnt pick up on the fact that Max felt picked on? And ignored? Whether those feelings are true to your own childhood, or to Max's are irrelevant. Its what he felt. They were his feelings and emotions. And I think anyone would feel sort of scared or angry or upset at having older kids ruin your snow fort. Didnt seem like that would even be a point of contention. I thought of a young Eddie Vedder, or a young Jeremy, a young Kurt Cobain as I saw the opening scenes of the film.
Running away from his problems? He was a young kid. Whats he supposed to do, man up and call a therapist, or call his mom in for a family meeting? The kid...was a...kid for christs sake!
lastly, so, how is a young kid supposed to react to all that? Jonze and Eggers included that scene with the teacher talking about the sun eventually dying. Max's repetition of that line later on, and the tears in his eyes when he said it, as well as the scene where the teacher talks about war, and global warming and how we are all doomed, all suggest that these are pivitol and important scenes. They wouldnt be in the film if Eggers and Jonze didnt think they were important. So obviously these scenes connect to the movie. The connection is self evident. These are scary scary times we live in. For kids and adults. And what do you do as a kid to deal with the chaos and violence and scariness and all that? What do you do, if you are a ten year old and a teacher tells you about the world being in peril, how do you possibly comprehend and process it? The answer as I said before lies in Pans Labyrinth as well as this movie. Kids devise a world in their own minds as a way to deal with a world that is off kilter, beyond broken and scary.
For me, the power of the film was the ability to describe just how utterly terrifying growing up is. And how terrifying and scary the world is. There really is no handbook for any of it. Just the other day I read a headline of a article, where it suggested that cell phones cause some sort of brain cancer. I read it. I know it now. What can I do about it? How can one, an adult, or especially a child, process this? How can our brains even wrap our head around this fact? Especially considering the fact that billions of people own cell phones. This film was about a way to deal with it. to create your own world.
Obviously he felt picked on, which is why he runs away. It's not normal for a kid to runaway. I never knew any kids that ran away. Actually talking to his Mom would be the right thing. Kids should look to their parents for guidance.
I was basically illustrating the point that Max has ADD-like symptoms which is a lot more common in today's society for whatever reason.
He was ignored, but it was a very small sample. What we see in the movie consists of an afternoon into the evening. Max didn't get the attention that he wanted, so he ran away.
It's a 48 page book with pictures ... I thought they unnecessarily drug it out a bit with no added benefit.
I'm not saying they should have added explosions or additional plot lines ... and I understand the point of building drama, but ... I'm think they could have cut it down a bit.
Visually, remembering my childhood, the book's colors popped , at least, there was a good amount of contrast, the pictures were stunning. I felt the color in the film was a bit drab. The monsters looked great, but, wish there was a tad more color, or contrast, between the characters and the scenery.
"I don't believe in damn curses. Wake up the damn Bambino and have me face him. Maybe I'll drill him in the ass." --- Pedro Martinez
Nice. I like the assumption that people that don't get this film are intrigued solely by big booms. Perhaps the next time I see this flick I should dress up like a "Williamsburg Hipster" while I suck down a couple Pabst and listen to the latest Bon Iver. Maybe then I'll "get it." :roll:
Anyways, I can respect the task that Eggers and Jonze had considering the source material was pretty minimal, but if you can't expand on that source material with conventional things, like a plot, maybe you should leave it alone.
As far as this film goes, the visuals are the only drawing point because if you take that away, you are stuck with a little brat surrounded by uncharismatic monsters, in my opinion. I mean really, this kids escape is an island full of monsters that bicker like a bunch of 40 year old married couples? The only thing missing from them was scene where they explained the difficulties of sleeping if they eat anything with onions after 8:00pm.
Don't forget to update your facebook page stating that you're at the movie while you're at the movie ... seriously, there were two or three 20-25 yr olds next to us were doing this the whole flick.
(your comment had me laughing, well done.)
"I don't believe in damn curses. Wake up the damn Bambino and have me face him. Maybe I'll drill him in the ass." --- Pedro Martinez
Haha... very true.
are you telling me theyve deviated from the book????
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
to me max was an emotionally troubled kid with a wildly vivid imagination. to some, the movie may look like its kind of jumping around, but you have to realize that all of this is max's imagination so even though he didn't tell the "wild things" what exactly a wild rumpus is, what he says goes cause its his dream.
the movie was a little slow in some points, but like an earlier post said, its not a michael bay explosion and noise fest.
i would give it 3-4 stars out of 5. the kid definitely has some acting talent. hopefully he doesn't disappear like the kid from E.T did=p
is that exactly what I thought I read."
You don't need a Michael Bay explosion and noise fest to have an interesting movie. There are plenty of movies that go outside the box that are wildly imaginative that do not consist of explosions and noise fests. Pans Labyrinth, Dark Crystal, these films consist of interesting creatures and characters and the story flows because there is a point, a plot to the story. The story Max tells his mom consisting of the vampire that is banished had more of a plot and point then his actual adventure with the mundane uncharismatic "wild things."
Someone, like yourself, who can connect this movie to Pan's Labyrinth, should be able to also say this movie is similar to Pan's Labyrinth. Wasnt Pan's about a girl, living in a time of war and horror and death, and that the way she dealt with that was through devising this world of her own? Doesnt that sound almost word for word the same as Wild Things?
The plot is the same in both movies. Both are excellent and unique, but the plot is the same. Kids, who a navigating a scary world, full of death, war and violence, and things they dont understand. To cope with all this, they retreat to a imaginary world, not only as a coping mechanism, but as a legitmate way of life. It was neccessary for them to create these worlds, to survive from one day to the next.
If you dont understand that, I dont know what to tell you
it will be geared towards kids. people have just got to stop thinking kids are not capable of 'getting' stuff. take your girls.. they may like it... they may not. but you wont know unless they actually see it.
im not even taking my kids.this is my film.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say