Wild Thing

tonight i saw Where The Wild Things Are on its opening night. Not knowing what to expect from a movie based on a short picture book, but placing my trust in Spike Jonze's hands, i went along for the ride. i will try to stay away from spoilers as much as possible. Max Records plays Max the main character with the imagination style that i remember having as a kid his age. It was actually a very personal movie for me because in a lot of the harder things i experienced in my childhood, i always had this make-believe land that i could run away to.

The film itself is visually stunning. the Wild Things are all amazingly done. the great part about it is that the book doesnt even name the wild things, yet here they all have names, personalities, and work as a dysfunctional family. the dialogue is hilarious and i was seriously not expecting it to be as funny as it actually was. the cinematography and camera angles are top-notch from a director who clearly knows what he's doing. i couldnt have been more impressed. the imagination that went into bringing this full legnth film out of a small picture book is unfathomable. There are a lot of callbacks between the real world and this place of where the wild things are. the movie is about imagination, so all of the Wild Things have a characteristic of Max that he is subconciously displaying and finally seeing the for what they really are. he learns a lot from hanging out with these wild things because of their similarities to him.

You grow to love every single one of the Wild Things (except the bull, he only speaks once) who are voiced by an all-star cast. James Gandolfini voices Carol the main Wild Thing form the posters, others include Paul Dano(There Will Be Blood, Little Miss Sunshine), Forrest Whitaker (Last King of Scotland), and Chris Cooper (Bourne Identity, Seabiscuit). A very emotional movie with a lot of heart and soul to accompany it. it brings out the inner-child and the inner-wild thing out of all of us. i was anticipating this film at first mainly because of the use of Arcade Fire in the trailer, but i was seriously impressed. also Max Records is astounding in it.

The music by Karen O (lead singer of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs), was also beautiful and very fitting in every area. it set the mood to each scene. after the movie was over i went home and bought the OST on iTunes.