The Wild Things Are Here!

I saw Where the Wild Things Are in IMAX today, anticipating something great. The main reason I was so enthusiastic about this film based on a children's book I loved when I was much younger was because of the director, Spike Jonze. Spike Jonze is the director of one of my favorite films, Being John Malkovich. ATTENTION: if you are going to this movie expecting to see a light-hearted feel good family films, you will be very disappointed. This is a very emotional, angry, and sometimes depressing film. To get to the point, I was hooked from the first scene of this film in which Max has a snowball fight with his sister's friends. He hides in his igloo to protect himself, when one of his sister's friend crushes his igloo. His sister doesn't do any thing about it and her and her friends drive away. Max goes up to her room and he finds this art project shaped like a heart that he made for her that says "To Claire, From Max" He destroys it. Then he looks down and immediately regrets his actions. The scene is heartbreaking in a way that is unexplainable. All I can say is that many of the more emotional parts of this movie work because of Max Records, a 12 year old actor who plays Max. I believe that Max Records gives one of the best performances of the year and should be nominated for an Oscar. He hits every emotion perfectly and doesn't over do the emotion or make it cheesy, it feels real every moment he's on screen. Another brilliant performance in this movie is by Catherine Keener who plays Max's mom. Now, these wild things are much different from the book, they are real characters and most of them are emotionally unstable. This movie is so damn good I really have to say that I believe this will become an instant classic. There is not a single aspect to the film that wasn't rewarding in some way. The only problem I had with the film was that two of the wild things looked exactly alike and I kept mixing them up. Every person should see this movie, it is really one of the best of the year.

Where the Wild Things Are - 4 out of 4

-Zach