Taking Woodstock is Ang Lee’s newest movie, starring Demetri Martin, Imelda Staunton, Emile Hirsch, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Liev Schreiber and Paul Dano.

Plot:
Taking Woodstock is based on the real life story of Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin), an out of luck interior designer who has to move back to his parents’ motel and of how he gets the Woodstock festival to be in his small town after Woodstock (and a neughbouring village) both pull the permits for it to be held there.

Taking Woodstock is a funny and heartfelt movie but most of all, a movie that manages to capture the spirit of the time (or at least it seems that way to someone who wasn’t alive then). It’s a captivating coming of age story set in slightly crazy but definitely special times that is told with a lot of humour and respect. Loved it.

Taking Woodstock had practically no marketing campaign. If I wasn’t an obsessive looker-at-cinema-posters, I probably would have missed it (even though I’m a huge Ang Lee fan). And I really don’t know why (though I have a theory – there’s plenty of nudity and some swearing and *gasp* gay loving). In any case, the movie didn’t deserve this silence – it really was wonderful.

The acting was amazing. And every ten minutes or so there seemed to be another cameo. (Oh look! It’s Jeffrey Dean Morgan! Oh look! It’s Liev Schreiber! Oh look! It’s Emile Hirsch! Oh look! It’s Paul Dano!) And they just kept on coming.
Imelda Staunton was her usual wonderful self and newcomer Demetri Martin convinced me fully. It just seemed like everybody was really enjoying the shoot and had a lot of fun.

The story has a beautiful lightness to it and yet covers a whole lot of ground – the story of the festival itself, Elliot’s coming of age, Elliot’s parents’ relationship, sex, drugs, morality – it’s actually quite dense when you think about it, but it never feels heavy.

The cinematography is beautiful, but the most beautiful part about it might well be when Elliot tries LSD for the first time – the way the high is shown to us… I never saw such a realistic portrayal of a LSD high. [Just to clarify: I have never taken LSD myself, but this felt amazingly real - not so over the top as many other stylised highs seem to be.]

So, summarising I’d say it was an amazing film that should be a must see for anyone who is even only slightly interested in the Woodstock festival. The only caveat: Don’t expect the Woodstock music: Elliot never really got to hear the bands playing and neither do we.

i was in the  fetal position

staring at the wall

i felt ‘ fucked’

i than got up really fast

i felt alert

i thought about flowers

i thought about korean churches

i thought about new orleans

i thought about wedding flowers

i thought about wild flowers

i thought about fake flowers

i thought about flowers

i thought about buying flowers

i felt happy

i felt like i was going to stay up all night

i am thinking about selling cocaine

so i could afford a minivan

and tell people it’s my mom’s minivan

cocaine money

i want to go to sears and buy a bed set

and also a flat screen tv

i will fill out a job  application at sears

under ‘ employment history’ i will write ‘ cocaine dealer’

Cuando uno era jovenzano estaba de moda la música de un fulano con bombachos y gafas que con una canción llamada U can’t touch this copaba las listas de éxitos del mercachifleo musical. Como es obvio, aclamado como precursor del rap y el hip-hop, el tipo en cuestión fue olvidado como siempre en estos casos justo al cuarto de hora de su éxito. Perplejo se quedó quien escribe cuando, todavía de joven y para más inri, en una de las millonésimas reposiciones de El equipo A que emitía (y sigue emitiendo) cierto canal televisivo español con cierta inclinación a lo cutre, descubrió este tema del ya fallecido (pero no creemos que por eso) Rick James, Super Freak, todo un homenaje a sí mismo (mucho ojito, que aunque el meloncio éste gaste semejante pinta en la foto, en sus inicios compartió grupo con todo un Neil Young), en un capítulo que contaba con el intérprete en un pequeño papel. Luego resultó evidente que M. C. Hammer había destrozado la (ya de por sí triste) canción de James para “rapear” (en esa asquerosa moda consistente en tomar una melodía de éxito y devaluarla poniéndole chumba chumbas varios, costumbre convertida en habitual ya y a la que se ha consagrado lo más vomitivo del espectro musical mundial, empezando por ese engendro llamado Madonna), despojándola, eso sí, de la guasa con que se la tomaba el autor original.

Avispados, los responsables de Pequeña Miss Sunshine, esa joya de la comedia dramática dirigida por Jonathan Dayton y Valerie Faris en 2006 recuperaron la versión original para la escena final, el número musical de la pequeña Olive (Abigail Breslin) en el certamen de belleza infantil con cuyo despliegue coreográfico ensayado durante horas en compañía de su abuelo, habitual de los bares de strip-tease, la niña escandaliza a la concurrencia y defeca virtualmente sobre semejante bochorno de concurso (lo cual es extensible a los de la misma especie protagonizados por mayores de edad).

Max, the hero of Where The Wild Things Are, is having fun early in the film in a snowball fight. It’s a freewheeling, wonderful action scene, where his sister’s friends attempt to pelt him back as hard as they can, and Max giggles with glee– this is what winter fun is about as a child. Then, one of his sister’s friends caves in his snowbase where he was hiding, and on a dime, Max is terrified, cold, and betrayed. What Spike Jonze gets about childhood throughout the film, and what makes Where The Wild Things Are such a beautiful, melancholy experience, is that while we remember it as this magical carefree time, the opposite is true– children care more strongly than we jaded adults do. We trust completely, we love completely, we give ourselves over to our feelings and our experiences with total abandon, and thus our strong emotions switch quickly.  My emotions weren’t switching while watching the film– I was enraptured the entire time.

The story, adapted from a book which contains only ten sentences, centers in on Max (Max Records), a kid who feels his sister and mom don’t pay him enough attention, and after a bratty confrontation with his mom where he bites her, he runs away, hops on a boat, and sails to the land of the Wild Things. He meets Carol (voiced by James Gandolfini), the leader of the pack, an impulsive frustrated monster. Along with him are his friends, Ira (Forest Whitaker), Judith (Catherine O’Hara), Alexander (Paul Dano), Douglas (Chris Cooper), and the silent Bull. Finally, there’s K.W. (Lauren Ambrose), a loner who takes long ventures out to meet other creatures, which angers Carol, who is focused on trying to keep the whole group together as best friends forever.

Roger Ebert said in his review of The Polar Express, “”The Polar Express” has the quality of a lot of lasting children’s entertainment: It’s a little creepy. Not creepy in an unpleasant way, but in that sneaky, teasing way that lets you know eerie things could happen. There’s a deeper, shivery tone…a world of its own, like “The Wizard of Oz” or “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” in which the wise child does not feel too complacent.” Spike Jonze achieves the exact same effect here. When Max first arrives, the monsters threaten to eat him. We as trained audience members feel this is an empty threat– after all, little boys don’t die in movies like this. A few minutes later, we see a pile of bones, unmistakably made up of their previous leaders who displeased them. Complacency is immediately tossed out the window. These monsters aren’t just nice friends, they’re real threats who could turn on Max if things go awry. The label of “wild thing” isn’t handled with kiddie gloves.

Yet the film never loses its realistic depiction of childishness. Max, like real children, can be a brat if he feels neglected or scorned. He bites his mother and stomps around– it’d be easy to judge this character at this point in the film if we totally lost the ability to look back at our own younger days, to the stories our parents told us about things we did as children that we would be horrified to see nowadays. When he encounters the monsters, all he wants to do with them are the same things he would do at home– run around, jump, dig holes, build makeshift “homes” outdoors. He wants everyone to sleep together in a real pile, because let’s be honest, if you saw a bunch of big fuzzy monsters like that, you’d darn sure want to hug them. The monsters exhibit this childishness as well. Carol is temperamental, Judith is pouty and doubtful, Ira is a pushover, Alexander seeks attention, and Douglas is trustworthy and reliable. When Carol introduces Max to Douglas and says, “I count on him for everything,” there was a simple beauty and childish honesty to the delivery that made my eyes well up.

Perhaps I’m the wrong person to review this, since I found the book so perfect as a kid, so there’s a sense of sentimentality that I immediately place on the material. However, I think this is the rare movie that should fully please fans of the book. Usually, fans of a book whine about things left out of the film adaptation, and I write a review insisting that we must remove our devotion to the core material’s particulars in order to see if the movie captured the essence of the book the best way that it could– simply put, is it a good movie, book be damned? Here is the exact opposite scenario: a book has had tons of material added to its ten-sentence story, and I think that every single bit added captures the essence flawlessly. The script, by Jonze and Dave Eggers, can also be interpreted to give the monsters various symbolic meanings and interpretations, though for me such additional scholarly endeavors are unnecessary; the characters stand on their own without any added symbolism.

Jonze’s effects work (a combination of real puppet bodies and some CGI face work) is a revelation in a time when CGI is thrown haphazardly around– here is a director who wanted the child actor to be able to touch, hug, and interact with real wild things, and the decision absolutely paid off. Max Records is a natural, lacking the put-on precociousness most child actors have. The production design and cinematography are easily among the best of the year. This is simply one of those films where every element is combined with such unity of vision that it does more than create a new world… it creates a new reality. There’s not a moment of the film that fails to ring true. And if when Max sets out to leave the Land of the Wild Things, you don’t tear up at his goodbyes with his magical wild friends, you need to thaw out your ice-cold heart. Instead of manipulating your emotions, this fantasy earns them. This is one of the best movies of the year.

16/10/09 – 07h19 – Atualizado em 16/10/09 – 08h23

Spike Jonze desperta emoções em ‘Where the wild things are’

Filme é baseado no livro ‘Onde vivem os monstros’, de Maurice Sendak.
Max Records, de 12 anos, é o protagonista; trilha é de Karen O.

Da EFE

Spike Jonze, um dos cineastas mais inovadores da atualidade de Hollywood, retorna à direção sete anos depois do último trabalho com “Where the wild things are”, uma fantasia sobre a infância que aflora emoções.

Cena de ”Where the wild things are”, filme de Spinke Jonze que estreia nos Estados Unidos (Foto: Divulgação)

O filme, que estreia nesta sexta-feira (16) nos Estados Unidos, é baseado no livro “Onde vivem os monstros”, um clássico da literatura infantil criado por Maurice Sendak em 1963 sobre Max, um menino perspicaz que se sente incompreendido e que, após uma discussão com sua mãe, foge em busca de um lugar mágico criado em sua imaginação.

“Ali é onde vivem os monstros referidos no título, que na realidade são umas criaturas que representam as emoções, selvagens e imprevisíveis, que todos temos em nosso interior”, segundo explicou Jonze em um encontro com a imprensa em Los Angeles, na Califórnia.

As criaturas buscam um líder que os guie e proclamam Max seu rei, que promete criar um ambiente para que todos sejam felizes, embora em breve descubra que seu trabalho não será fácil e que as relações com os demais habitantes tornam-se mais complicadas do que imaginava.

“Maurice (Sendak) me disse que não me preocupasse porque cada um pode opinar sobre a adaptação, me encorajou para que fizesse o filme que eu queria, minha visão sobre a história, e para isso só me pediu que fosse honesto com o livro”, lembrou Jonze, de 40 anos, co-roteirista do filme junto com Dave Eggers.

O universo literário de “Onde vivem os monstros” encerra ao fim de 50 páginas, mas a imaginação que despertam os desenhos de Sendak são as grandes vertentes do livro, que integra a lista dos mais vendidos de todos os tempos.

“Não quis acrescentar nada que não estivesse no livro, mas tentei descobrir quem é Max e quem são as criaturas selvagens, para mim são as emoções e isso cedeu espaço para que começasse a escrever os personagens”, manifestou Jonze, autor de títulos como “Being John Malkovich” (Quero ser John Malkovich, 1999) e “Adaptation” (Adaptação, 2002), seu longa-metragem anterior.

Divulgação

Filme estreia nesta sexta-feira nos cinemas dos Estados Unidos (Foto: Divulgação)

Elenco

Na versão original do filme é possível escutar as vozes de James Gandolfini, Catherine O’Hara, Paul Dano e Forest Whitaker, que dublaram as criaturas, feitas artesanalmente -”ficou rude, real”, apontou Jonze – com a incorporação de efeitos digitais para dar expressão aos rostos.

O estúdio Warner Bros que esperava um produto final mais conciso acabou atrasando a estreia do filme em mais de um ano para polir os detalhes da produção, cujo orçamento foi de US$ 80 milhões.

“No princípio, o estúdio se surpreendeu com o material recebido. Eles esperavam algo mais mágico e fantasioso, mas este não é um conto tradicional”, afirmou o cineasta, quem considera ter realizado um filme sobre a infância contada de forma realista.

Segundo Jonze não foi preciso mudar nada – “fiz o que eu queria” – e Warner Bros deu o sinal verde ao trabalho do diretor de célebres vídeos musicais protagonizados por R.E.M. e Chemical Brothers.

Uma das decisões mais complicadas foi a escolha do protagonista, papel dado a Max Records, de 12 anos. “Ele é o grande trunfo do filme”, disse Jonze, quem se mostrou orgulhoso também com a trilha sonora, obra de Karen O, líder da banda Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

“Ela é uma de minhas artistas favoritas”, admitiu o diretor americano. “É como uma menina que luta pela liberdade e expressa seus sentimentos e considero que sua música é o coração do filme”, acrescentou Jonze, um apaixonado da música pop desde criança.

“Queria uma música que lembrasse a de Brian Wilson, John Lennon, Paul McCartney e David Bowie”, comentou o cineasta. “Quando criança conectava intuitivamente com meus amigos e sentia que podia identificar-me 100% com suas canções”, acrescentou.

Catherine Keener, a única atriz protagonista de carne e osso no filme, certificou o duro trabalho que teve que enfrentar Jonze para adaptar a obra literária e defendeu suas decisões.

“Tem muitíssimas ideias e uma criatividade inesgotável, portanto leva tempo articular todo isso”, elogiou a intérprete. “O que faz com que este filme vá muito além do que o estúdio esperava”, concluiu.

http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/PopArte/0,,MUL1343286-7084,00-SPIKE+JONZE+DESPERTA+EMOCOES+EM+WHERE+THE+WILD+THINGS+ARE.html

Dirección: Matt Aselton.
País: USA.
Año: 2008.
Duración: 98 min.
Género: Comedia romántica.
Interpretación: Paul Dano (Brian Weathersby), Zooey Deschanel (Harriet Lolly), Ed Asner (Sr. Weathersby), Jane Alexander (Sra. Weathersby), John Goodman (Al Lolly), Sean Dugan (Gary Wynkoop), Brain Avers (Larry Arbogast), Louis Ozawa Chang Chien (Matsubara), Frank Harts (Kenyatta Folds), Tatsuo Ichikawa (Nagata), Ilana Levine (Ducky).
Guión: Adam Nagata y Matt Aselton.
Producción: Christine Vachon y Mindy Goldberg.
Música: Roddy Bottum.
Fotografía: Peter Donahue.
Montaje: Beatrice Sisul.
Diseño de producción: Rick Butler.
Vestuario: Paola Weintraub.
Estreno en USA: 3 Abril 2009.

El argumento de “Gigantic” se centra en un vendedor de colchones (Paul Dano) que conoce a una joven mujer en su tienda (Zooey Deschanel).

Y siguiendo el ciclo comentado en el post anterior de Zooey Deschanel me tope con esta “Gigantic” del año 2008, co-protagonizada junto a Paul Dano.

La película versa en un chico de 28 años, vendedor de colchones de lujos que quiere adoptar a un niño/a chino. Siempre ha sido su sueño, su padre dice que desde pequeño.

Por otra parte, un día vendiendo colchones, le vende uno a un pez gordo y este le comenta que posteriormente pasaría su hija a acordar los plazos de pago y mensualidades. Casualmente esa hija es Zooey Deschanel, la cual se queda dormida probando la cama. Y así, empieza una relación de amistad/amor donde él se convierte en un vasallo del padre de ella y el obtiene un beneficio amoroso por parte de ella.

Los dos completos desconocidos del amor, se enganchan el uno al otro, pero el tema del niño/a chino asusta mucho a la chica que se evade de la relación hasta que un día…. (y ahí lo dejo)

PD: Lo que no entiendo de la película, es el puto vagabundo, ¿Qué cojones es?, ¿Por qué sale?
PD2: El amigo de las ratas, ¿Qué pinta?, ¿es el enlace con la escena de la piscina o simple relleno?
PD3: Verla en V.O. como digo siempre es un punto a favor hasta de la película más mala, y las buenas, aunque raras, las hace mejores.

Daniel Day-Lewis is an actor who seems to pick his roles carefully, and everything he does usually gets lots of attention. So when I checked his IMDB page a few months ago, I was a little bit surprised to hear that he’d made a movie from just a few years ago that I had never heard of. Since I’m a fan of what I’ve seen from Day-Lewis, I tracked down The Ballad of Jack and Rose. It’s a very small, quiet film, and it’s not especially accessible, so the fact that it hasn’t found a large audience is understandable. But I do think that is a shame, because, as you would expect, Daniel Day-Lewis is exceptional here.

Day-Lewis plays Jack, while Camilla Belle plays his teenage daughter, Rose. Rose has had a very isolated, unconventional upbringing. She and Jack live on an old commune on a small island off the coast of the United States. Jack spends much of the film trying to prevent a housing development from ruining the island. Since he’s in poor health, he invites his girlfriend, Kathleen (played by Catherine Keener), and her two sons (Paul Dano and Ryan McDonald) to come live with him and Rose. Rose isn’t used to any kind of guests at her house, let alone the permanent kind, so things go predictably awry almost as soon as they arrive.

The film is odd, to say the least. The relationship between Jack and Rose is set up to challenge the audience from the start. That being said, I think their “unconventional” relationship is handled well, and the questionable aspects of it really take a backburner throughout much of the story. The environmental aspect of the story is surprisingly well done. It’s not preachy. I questioned a lot of Jack’s actions to “protect” the island from the housing developments, but I was still fascinated by his passion and willingness to fight. Kathleen and her sons also provide a nice contrast to Rose and Jack’s isolated life, though they turn out to be nearly as messed up as our protagonists.

The acting is superb, for the most part. For such a small film, it has a pretty well-known, reliable cast. Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the most magnetic actors to watch on screen, and he’s amazing here, as usual. Jack’s certainly not a black and white character, and Day-Lewis plays every shade of grey perfectly. There are a couple of big, emotional scenes for him to work with, and he always strikes the perfect chord. It never feels melodramatic, which this film could have easily been. Catherine Keener also does a really nice job with a character that while being predictable, still brings a lot to the film. Ryan McDonald was one of the few unfamiliar faces here for me, and I found his performance very captivating. He plays the older of Kathleen’s sons. Rodney. He wants to be a woman’s hair dresser, and he’s a really fascinating character. He’s also the only remotely likeable person in the Jack/Kathleen makeshift family (though he is not perfect, by any means), and McDonald brings a lot of warmth, humour, and heart to the role. Jason Lee (yes, from My Name is Earl) even pops up in a tiny role as a plant delivery man, and I thought he gave an unexpectedly great performance, as tiny as it may have been. Camilla Belle was my one question mark in the cast. She gets points just because she managed to pull of the role. It’s tough material, and she’s sharing virtually every scene with Daniel Day-Lewis. That cannot be easy. I don’t think her acting was as great as it could have been if they’d gotten someone more at Ellen Page’s level, but Belle did an okay job.

The Ballad of Jack and Rose is not a perfect film. At times it feels a bit over-the-top (a scene involving an acid pad gets a bit ridiculous), and I would’ve liked to know more about some of the supporting characters. For example, Paul Dano’s character is a pretty messed up guy. I was expecting to learn more about him, but we never really do. Also, as previously mentioned, the characters aren’t very likeable. I’m all for some crazy, despicable characters, but most of these characters just felt blandly unpleasant. But I thought director Rebecca Miller (wife of Daniel Day-Lewis) definitely averted disaster. The relationship between Jack and Rose is clearly abnormal, and it gets into some sensitive areas. Some people might find some of the material a little squirmy, but the film does manage to keep that to a minimum, and never seems to exploit it. This film is certainly worth watching, if not just for Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance. Also, it’s a very nice film to look at. The scenery is lovely, and Miller takes great advantage of it. She captures that dreamy kind of world that hippies would have chosen to build their commune in. It’s a controversial film, in a way, but I found enough to like, and I thought it ultimately made a poignant statement.

7/10

Substitute “wild” for “mild”…

Starring Max Records, Catherine Keener, Mark Ruffalo and the voices of James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Catherine O’Hara, Forest Whitaker, Chris Cooper, and Lauren Ambrose. Directed by Spike Jonze. Based on the childrens book by Maurice Sendak

Wow. They kinda sucked the fun out of this one.

It’s been forever since I’ve read Maurice Sendak’s book. My dad read it to me and my brother when we were younger and I vaguely remember enjoying it (as well as the “Reading Rainbow” segment on it). It’s this childhood fondness that drove my want to see Jonze’s movie adaptation of the 1963 classic.

No offense, but I’ll take my “childhood memory” over the movie.

Max is one lonely kid: his older sister Claire is more interested in her friends than paying any attention to him. His mother (Keener) is a stressed-out single mom trying to deal with her job and life as well as the lives of her kids. One night while having a dinner date (with Mark Ruffalo) Max acts up: he screams, climbs the table, stomps on it, fights and eventually bites his mom before running out the door, down the street, and disappearing from sight.

Max finds his way to the water and climbs into a small boat where he heads out into the water and ventures for parts unknown. From the ocean he spots a light in the forest. Might as well check it out…

Scaling up a cliff he wanders into the forest toward the light where he hides, watching the “Things.” One of them, Carol (Gandolfini), is walking around destroying all their huts. Max jumps out into the open and convinces them not to eat him and that he’s a king who conquered vikings. Lacking any real leadership they make him their king. He promises a new world, new adventures, etc., and they take him for his word.

And let me discuss the “Things” for a moment: they’re morose. It would be like a party of severely depressed people trying to “out Eeyore” Eeyore (the melancholic donkey from “Winnie the Pooh”). Yeah, that fun. There’s the headstrong Carol (Gandolfini), the whining Judith (O’Hara), her bore-holes-in-trees partner Ira (Whitaker), low-esteem goat Alexander(Dano), Douglas the chicken (Cooper), and K W (Ambrose) a woman who seeks advice from owls Bob and Terry.

Max proposes an idea to bring everyone together: build a fort that only they can get into. It’ll have a secret underground entrance and a machine that will scoop out the brains of anyone who dares to enter without their consent. Happily they all come together and begin working on fortress.

As a “team-building” exercise, Max declares dirt-clod war, dividing the group into two. They all begin to have fun until someone gets hurt and Max’s position comes into question and his power falters. Max must come to terms and grow up or face the threat of being eaten by Carol.

Maybe in hoping for something great I faulted myself on this one. I wanted something more uplifting, something to remember being a kid and enjoying the book. I didn’t get that from this movie. The
“Things” and Max were stunted in his age-mentality. Maybe that’s what Jonze was going for.

The movie isn’t entirely depressing. There were happy moments but for the most part it’s a depressing movie. Not bittersweet but humbly sad.

If I can say anything good about the film, it’s technically amazing. With CG blending in with animatronics from the Jim Henson company (creators of “The Muppets”), the “Things” are incredible to watch. Jonze went above and beyond in creating characters, nay, a world all to itself. Maybe he gave us all a bit more to chew on then we wanted.

I find this movie tough to suggest. It’s well-made but if you’re looking for sweet, charming, whimsical,
uplifting, and overall warm-fuzziness, it’s not to be had in this one. I’m just sayin’.

My grade: B- (with points for technical achievement)

Hoy en PRINCIPIO Y FIN, un maravilloso final de la mano de Paul Thomas Anderson, el hombre que nos regaló Boogie Nights o Magnolia (la única película en la que Tom Cruise ha estado bien en su vida, por cierto). En “There will be blood“, Anderson nos sorprende con un registro inesperado, construyendo una epopeya trágica alrededor del petróleo, la codicia y la familia, sin duda una explosiva combinación. En este final, el monstruo Daniel Day Lewis y un deslumbrante Paul Dano bailan un dueto interpretativo que es puro gozo. Así, cuando el simiesco Daniel Plainview se enfrenta al showman Eli Sunday, nos recorre un escalofrío de felicidad, esa descarga que ocurre cuando ves lo mucho que están disfrutando unos actores. En fin, una delicia, como el resto de esta opresiva e intensa película.

Por cierto, atención a la banda sonora, firmada por el cabeza de radio Jonny Greenwood. Aquí una perla.

originally published in the middlebury campus

Indie auteur Paul Thomas Anderson was a critical darling of the late 1990s, with his films Boogie Nights and Magnolia firmly cementing his reputation as one of the most prominent rising directorial stars. His films tend to be paradoxical. They are dramatic, but have a strain of absurdist comedy running them. They are intimate, but have an epic vision. They are simultaneously about one person and all people. His latest release, There Will Be Blood, is different, though. Anderson jettisons the tongue-in-cheek humor one usually finds in his films and instead focuses on crafting a sweeping epic.

Using Upton Sinclair’s muckraking 1927 novel Oil! as a jumping off point, Anderson tackles the California oil boom, which we see between the early 1890s to the mid 1930s. Daniel Day-Lewis plays Daniel Plainview, as the film follows his rise from one man mining crew to a ruthless oil baron. The key to his success is the dusty backwater town of Bakersfield, California, a town where Plainview finds an ocean of oil waiting for him just under the ground and settlers all to willing to sell their land. The thorn in Plainview’s side comes in the form of a 19 year old boy (played by Paul Dano), a self styled preacher who, like most people in the film, is looking for money so that he might expand his small country church.

P.T. Anderson has made a film that some might find difficult to like. The characters are selfish, greedy, and nearly impossible to connect with. Even the character of the preacher, who in most other films would be seen as a protagonist, comes off as shrill and irritating. But those characteristics that most would find off-putting makes the characters fascinating, and because the film is so long its easy to see how greed insinuates itself into the very fiber of their being. Anderson is less interested in the social history of the California oil boom, but is instead setting himself to work on showing the dark side of the American success story. He and Day-Lewis have made a modern day Charles Foster Kane, a man who has set out to better his living situation, and in so doing loses touch with the rest of mankind as greed overtakes his entire world view. Day-Lewis delivers a titanic performance as Plainview. He allows himself to become Plainview, and pays little mind to whether or not the audience can connect with the monster he has created. It is one of the gutsiest and best performances in recent memory, and further cements Mr. Day-Lewis as one of the screens greatest actors. Also impressive is young Paul Dano as the irritatingly self-righteous priest, Eli Sunday. It takes a lot to stand alongside to Day-Lewis’ amazing performance, but Dano more than holds his own. As much as I would like to go through and praise every performance in the film, but space prevents it so I will just say, all the performances are fantastic, from Day-Lewis to Kevin J O’Connor as an interloper claiming to be Plainview’s brother.

I would be remiss if I failed to mention the score, by Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood. His first foray into film scoring is fabulously successful. Drawing on influences from modern classical music he uses dissonant chords in the string section and unusual time signatures that, along with the stark cinematography of Roger Elswit, gives the film an unsettling feel.

I’m not sure if it would be correct to say that Anderson has grown as a film maker, he has always been a fantastically talented writer-director, but what is true is that this film has a drastically different feel from his other films. It is more mature, and he has a confidence in his images that some of his films seemed to lack at times. He allows his camera to linger on people as they work. Unlike his earlier films, he allows his characters’ actions to speak for them (in fact you have to wait for eleven and a half minutes before you hear a character speak), and it’s breathtaking. There Will Be Blood is a sensational film and one that marks the emergence of Paul Thomas Anderson as a mature filmmaker who is a force to be reckoned with.

Il faut reconnaître à Ang Lee sa grande habileté à savoir s’insinuer avec grâce dans les bonheurs et les affres de la passion amoureuse. Il peut y consacrer un film entier (Raisons et sentiments, son meilleur à ce jour) tout comme la traiter en toile de fond (Tigre et dragon, pas mal non plus). Débarqué de nulle part, Taking Woodstock sonne le début de la récré. Au placard les problèmes, on enlève les fringues et on va se baigner à poil dans l’étang le plus proche. Retour, donc, en 1969 sur les collines de Bethel dans l’état de New York, à l’endroit même où s’est déroulé le mythique festival de musique qui a rassemblé plus de 450 000 spectateurs. Plutôt que de se focaliser sur les concerts, Ang Lee décale son objectif à quelques mètres des lieux, sur le motel pouilleux de la famille Teichberg. On y retrouve Elliot, jeune décorateur new-yorkais venu prêter main forte à ses parents menacés de saisie. Animé par le désir de réveiller sa petite ville natale, il portera sur lui l’initiative de l’évènement : apprenant qu’une bourgade voisine a refusé d’accueillir un festival de musique hippie il décide d’inviter les organisateurs à venir s’installer dans le coin, du côté de Woodstock.

Le film n’est finalement rien de moins qu’une petite chose bien sympathique n’ayant pour autre ambition que de retranscrire une ambiance, et accessoirement de faire rire à deux ou trois reprises. Le réalisateur s’amuse comme un petit fou avec le personnage d’Elliot : il lui fait fumer des joints avant de l’envoyer en conférence de presse, le met face à sa condition d’homosexuel, lui fait rencontrer des vétérans du Vietnam devenus complètement cinglés. Puis quand il en a marre il passe aux parents, les gave de brownies au hasch, les fait nager dans des billets de banque, leur trouve des atomes crochus avec des transexuels, etc, etc… Bref, Ang Lee navigue en plein océan d’amour et de paix, s’appliquant à trouver une alternative à la tendance ‘crise économique’ qui sévit en cette année 2009. Tant mieux pour lui, et tant mieux pour nous !

Ceci dit, même en mode récré, Ang Lee reste un perfectionniste. Loin de lui l’idée de bâcler un film ! Par conséquent Taking Woodstock (dont la traduction française du titre est décidément bien ridicule) remplit son contrat en s’appliquant à recréer un décor et à toucher du doigt une ambiance, le tout sur un ton joyeux et dans un rythme effréné. Par moments il est vrai qu’on fait plus que froler la caricature (en témoigne le personnage d’Imelda Staunton, juive loufoque rongée par l’avarice), mais finalement qu’importe ! Le film aspire à la légèreté. Par conséquent il serait idiot de lui reprocher un quelconque manque de profondeur. En revanche, à bien y repenser, Taking Woodstock en compétition à Cannes, c’était bel et bien une erreur de casting !

v

TAKING WOODSTOCK (USA, 2009) R. : Ang Lee ; Sc. : Jake  Schamus d’après l’oeuvre d’Elliot Tiber et Tom Monte ; Ph. : Eric Gautier ; M. : Danny Elfman ; Int. : Demetri Martin (Elliot Teichberg), Imelda Staunton (Sonia Teichberg), Henry Goodman (Jake Teichberg), Emile Hirsch (Billy), Liev Schreiber (Vilma), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Dan), Paul Dano, Kelli Garner. Couleurs, 110mn.

Theophilus London at Santos, 10.23.09

Wednesday October 23rd belonged to Hype Machine/ Babelgum with their fantastic daytime showcase at Santos Party House with FREE Heineken and glow stick accessories. The line-up consisted of one of our favorite new bands Sleigh Bells, VEGA, Theophilus London and a closing set by Midnight Juggernauts and soundtracked by DJ Alan Wilkis. Spotted at the showcase: M.I.A., Spike Jonze and Paul Dano.

Sleigh Bells were first up on the bill, setting the bar for their predecessors. Sleigh Bells’ Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss are still finalizing their demos and polishing their set, but with their current minimalist iPod, bass and vocal stage dynamic are making some major noise throughout the blogosphere!

Sleigh Bells at Santos, 10.23.09

We saw Sleigh Bells in their true element a few days after their Santos gig at The Market Hotel in Bushwick, the duo really let loose in an awesome punk rock way. We interviewed the band for our exclusive CMJ wrap from Derek’s home/current studio last week, so be sure to check back soon for that insightful feature!

Theophilus London was another artist I’d never seen live or fully familiarized myself with before, but after seeing his animated live set complete with killer dance moves you can count me as one of his fans! We saw Theophilus L. onstage with Sam Sparro and Mark Ronson a few days later at the Fader CMJ party at the ACE Hotel as the super-group Chauffeur. It was the collective band’s debut performance and we’re anxious to see what’s next in store for their project!

The full gallery can be seen HERE.

MP3: Mimo – Running Out (VEGA Italo Dub Mix) or zShare

MP3: Theophilus London – Cold Pillow (Machinedrum Remix) or zShare

Sleigh Bells::

Theophilus London::

VEGA::

Midnight Juggernauts::

Un film del 2009, regia di Spike Jonze, con Catherine Keener / Paul Dano / Forest Whitaker / Lauren Ambrose. Prodotto da Warner Bros (101min)

Avventura / Drammatico / Fantastico / Ragazzi

Il piccolo e pestifero Max, spedito dalla madre a letto senza cena per punizione, si crea un mondo immaginario, una foresta popolata da creature selvagge che lo nominano loro regnante assoluto.

Even a Wild Thing needs a chilldown after a wild rumpus.

(Warner Brothers) Max Records, Catherine Keener, James Gandolfini (voice), Catherine O’Hara (voice), Forrest Whitaker (voice), Lauren Ambrose (voice), Chris Cooper (voice), Mark Ruffalo, Paul Dano (voice), Pepita Emmerichs. Directed by Spike Jonze

In all of us there is a wild side. It is the side that defies authority, the part of us that breaks the rules and the part of us that acts out when we don’t get what we want. It is the part in us that is closest to the child in us, so it is no surprise that children are more cognizant of their wild thing than we are.

Max (Records) is a young boy being raised by a single mother (Keener) who is too busy working to have the time for him he would like her to have. He doesn’t have many friends, and his sister (Emmerichs) is older, moving into teenager things and having even less time than his mom does.

He has a vivid imagination, turning a snowdrift into an igloo and old toilet paper dispensers into fantastic skyscrapers. However, he has had difficulty adjusting to a life without his dad and when his mom starts dating a new boyfriend (Ruffalo) he has a nuclear meltdown and runs away.

He finds a small boat and navigates it out to see. After a day and a night he arrives at a strange island with a rocky shoreline as dusk is falling. He is attracted by flickering torches and is startled to discover a group of strange, shaggy creatures, one of whom is in the process of destroying their huts. His name is Carol (Gandolfini) and he is distraught because one of their number has left the family. Max reveals himself and Carol takes to him immediately as a kindred spirit.

Not all the others are so welcoming. Judith (O’Hara) is described as a bit of a downer, and that’s accurate enough – she is suspicious of Max and wants to eat him. However, when Max reveals himself to be a king in his own country, the others (even Judith) relents and accept Max as their new king, the Wild Things being without a king at the time. Max declares a wild rumpus and the commotion attracts the attention of KW (Ambrose) who also instantly takes a liking to Max. Max, for his part, has found the family he’s always wanted.

That family also includes Ira (Whitaker), a gentle giant who is in love with Judith and is also nearly as fond of making holes in things; Douglas (Cooper), Carol’s best friend and right hand, Alexander (Dano) who is consistently ignored by the others and the Bull, who mostly communicates in grunts. Max decides to have them build a fort where only the things they want to have happen occur. He gets the idea when Carol shows him his secret spot on the island where he has built a model city out of twigs, complete with canals and figures of his family members.

At first building the fort gives them purpose but as time goes on Max begins to realize that being King of the Wild Things isn’t as easy as it first appeared and that his more aggressive nature was causing some of his new family pain.

There is no doubt that Spike Jonze has an incredible imagination, and he may well have been the perfect choice to bring the classic children’s story by Maurice Sendak to life. Visually, this is very imaginative, unlike any movie you’ve ever seen. The faces of the Wild Things are amazing, CGI representations of the actors who are voicing them given a Wild Thing treatment. These CGI faces are then digitally inserted onto actors wearing oversized costumes, creating a natural movement that no computer could have replicated.

Records is a pretty decent actor as children go in a part that is not a typical kids part. For one thing, Max doesn’t have all the answers – in fact, he has far more questions than answers. He isn’t smarter than the grown-ups around him and he doesn’t save the day. Basically, he’s an unruly boy with emotional issues.

Therein lies my problem with the movie. Max is never accountable for his actions; when he bites his mother, she screams at him that he’s out of control and he screams back that it isn’t his fault. Well, whose fault is it then?

More egregiously, the movie diverges from the book on some key points. Now, while I’m usually fine about movies being different from the books they’re based on, one of the key elements of Where the Wild Things Are (the book) is that it all takes place inside Max’s room, literally inside his head. Here, the Wild Thing Island is literally an island that Max travels to.

The ending of the movie isn’t terribly realistic either. When Max arrives home after (presumably) running away for several days, his mother greets him with dinner and chocolate cake for desert. I don’t know about your mom but mine would have hugged me and then killed me had I run away like that.

This is such a visually arresting movie that it’s worth seeing just on that basis. There are some terrific performances, particularly from Gandolfini who captures the blustery Carol’s mood swings and inner pain. I do have a problem with the movie’s message, which seems to be that it is okay to give in to the Wild Thing inside and there will be no consequences, no repercussions. Lots of kids will be seeing this and get the message that acting out is ok, whether that’s the message the filmmakers (and Sendak) wanted to send or not.

We all have wild things inside of us. It is a part of us, as is the part that is responsible and caring for each other. The Wild Things tend to be the side of us that is selfish and undisciplined, necessary for our creative sides to come out but at the end of the day, merely a component of our psyches. Sendak always meant the Wild Things of his book to be elements of Max’ personality, and they are here as well; the important thing is that the Wild Things are not the Only Things. As for the movie, it’s flawed but I applaud the effort, the imagination and the visual sense. It’s certainly worth your attention.

REASONS TO GO: Jonze amazing visual sense makes this a treat for the imagination. It is, after all, the filmed version of one of the most beloved children’s books of all time.

REASONS TO STAY: The movie veers away from the book in some significant ways. Max is so troubled that at times it’s hard to watch him act out. There are almost no lessons in accountability and the ending is far more of a fantasy than the rest of the movie.

FAMILY VALUES: A little bit of language and violence, as well as some kid-in-jeopardy scenes but all in all suitable for the entire family.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The original songs in the movie were written and performed by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who was dating Jonze at the time of the production. They’ve since broken up.

HOME OR THEATER: This should be seen on the big screen, no question.

FINAL RATING: 6/10

TOMORROW: Six Days of Darkness begins!

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Where the Wild Things Are es la última peli de Spike Jonze y la estrena este año. Está basada en la novela gráfica del mismo nombre de Maurice Sendak.

Cuando ví por primera vez el afiche me referí muy rápido a los cortos de la peli y sentí una extraña familiaridad, quise verla desde ese primer instante.

Ahora que escribo esta entrada para referir ese mismo corto, busqué el libro de Sendak y me parece que lo ojeé cuando niño pero no lo tengo muy claro lo cual me llena de una absurda ansiedad.

El reparto está de lujo y Jonze nunca decepciona. Recomendadísima.

Max Records (Max)

Pepita Emmerichs (Claire)

Catherine Keener (Mamá)

Mark Ruffalo (Novio de la mamá)

James Gandolfini (Carol)

Paul Dano (Alexander)

Catherine O’Hara (Judith)

Forest Whitaker (Ira)

Chris Cooper (Douglas)

Do you want to play a game?
The latest installment of the Saw movie franchise hits theaters. Frankly, I have no real idea of what it’s about, but it’s anything like its predecessors there will be people that will be playing more “games” and trying to escape the wrath of Jigsaw.

Astroboy

Astroboy also hits theaters today. I will be seeing that tomorrow. The movie is about a scientist who loses his son and makes a boy robot to replace him. It turns out that the robot is more then he really is and learns to cope with being a boy and being a robot. Kristen Bell, Freddie Highmore and Nicolas Cage star.

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant is about a boy who goes to the circus only to discover that the ringmaster is actually a vampire (played by John C. Reilly). The vampire asks the boy if he wishes to become his vampire assistant. It looks lame. Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine) and Salma Hayek (30 Rock) also star.

Amelia

Oscar film season is in full swing and it starts with Amelia. It is a biopic starring two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby) as the famed female pilot Amelia Earhart. The film depicts the rise and eventual disappearance of the flying ace. Richard Gere (Pretty Woman), Cherry Jones (24), Ewan McGregor (Star Wars) and Virginia Madsen (Sideways) also star.

Data
Title: Where the Wild Things Are
Year: 2009
Length: 101 minutes
Director: Spike Jonze
Writers: Spike Jonze & Dave Eggers, based on the book by Maurice Sendak
Starring: Max Records, James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Catherine O’Hara, Forest Whitaker, Chris Cooper, Lauren Ambrose
Music: Karen O., Carter Burwell

My reaction
Synopsis: a boy goes to an island of emotional monsters
How I saw it: in the theater, today
Concept: Great.
Story: Good. I hesitate to take points off here. The story is exactly what it should be. The movie’s about characters, not about What’s Going to Happen Next, and it does what it does perfectly.  It’s interesting that, apparently, the younger you are, the more you’ll like it.  Old people turned off by the idea a children’s movie that you need to engage with?
Characters: Great.
Dialog: Great.
Pacing: Great. I keep reading that it’s slow, even from people who like it. I don’t know what movie they were watching.
Cinematography: Great.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Great. Records gives one of the best performances I’ve seen in a long time.
Music: Great. Perfect fit for the movie, but the soundtrack also happens to be a future indie rock classic.
Subjective Rating: 10/10 (Favorite of my favorites). Beautiful and intense. Really f***ing intense.
Objective Rating: 10/10 (Great).

What a magical movie this is. Hardly a surprise, considering the pedigree of the people involved (the director of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation.), but it’s a rare things when a literary masterpiece the likes of this is adapted in such a way that nothing is dumbed down or cut through corners. Going above and beyond its source material, Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are is as fantastically entertaining as it is moody and emotionally draining, the results of the director’s unrelenting vision of a boy dealing with his inner demons in the company of some bigger ones.

I hardly need to relay the story, but I’ll do it anyway. Max is a precocious, imaginative and needy young boy growing up with a sister growing away from him and a single mother (Keener) trying to grow back into the dating world. One night, after feeling betrayed by both of the women in his life, Max flees the house, races through the neighborhood to a shoreline, finds a conveniently placed rowboat and sets off. This, however, is where the narrative comes into its own. Max finds one of the Wild Things, Carol (James Gandolfini), arguing with the rest and decimating his own village. Max seizes the opportunity (and saves himself from consumption) by proclaiming himself to be their king with magical powers that will restore harmony to the group and clear away all the “sadness”. He leads them in a “wild rumpus” and, inspired by Carol’s own miniature model of his ideal island, decides to build a giant fort capable of any project they want (“it will have a big swimming pool with a trampoline on the bottom”). For awhile it’s looking good and Max grows close to Carol, but when KW (Lauren Ambrose) tries to include her owl friends Bob and Terry into the group, Carol gets upset and brings everyone down. Max tries to organize a “dirt-clod fight” to unite everyone, but another of the Wild Things (Paul Dano) actually gets hurt, causing more arguments and eventually bringing about Max’s fall from the throne. His lack of powers severely hurts his relationship with Carol, who starts to get dangerous and scary (shouting the famous line, “I’ll eat you up!) and who even rips off the arm of his right-hand man (Chris Cooper) for talking back to him. Max then has to decide whether to stay and straighten things out, or sail back to his mother and his supper “still hot”.

"Block that sandstorm for me, alright?"

I found many parallels between this film and The Wizard of Oz, the greatest fantasy film of all-time. However, it was told as if from the point-of-view of the Wizard, not Dorothy. The rowboat carries Max to the island, much like the hot air balloon, where he is greeted in awe by characters largely in need of leadership. In this way the Wild Things become very dangerous Munchkins, and the way Carol doesn’t exactly get to say good-bye to Max is very reminiscent of Dorothy’s frantic pleadings for the Wizard to “come back! come back!” Also, they both feature characters in the new reality that resemble those of the previous one, although with Max’s friends they are more Freudian personifications of his own psyche than fun-loving versions of his friends. KW is an amalgamation of Max’s mother and sister (complete with friends that Max can’t understand but KW likes and wants them all to welcome), and Carol is Max’s more child-like facets (he can be alternately constructive or destructive, but is always very jealous and defiant of blame). The others must translate as well, but I feel it would take another article just for that.

For now, I’ll just say that the production value is so impressive. Spike Jonze knew exactly what he was doing every step of the way and refused to compromise, both in the script (the dialogue is full of absurdities and little kid logic: “what if cracks open up? then I have a re-cracker that goes right through it!”) and in his spellbinding direction. The use of CGI, live-action, suitmation and animatronics made it almost hard to tell whether the Wild Things were alive or not. There was such a bewitching power behind each element, from the very big and sudden (Max and Carol see a giant dog in the background) to the small and subtle (Carol’s wet nose sparkling in the firelight). The aptly-named Max Records plays the difficult role of the boy, seeming alternately playful and immature, but never bratty. Catherine Keener is moving as the patient mother trying to juggle her family and her new boyfriend (Mark Ruffalo, in a small part; interestingly enough, Records played the younger version of Ruffalo in The Brothers Bloom, so Max is basically jealous of his older self!). And of course, the voice cast is astounding. Catherine O’Hara (The Nightmare Before Christmas) is the only one with much experience in this style of acting, but the rest perform very admirably (particularly Gandolfini, using the more juvenile aspects of  his character on The Sopranos but still moving away from that genre).

A lot of critics have denounced the film as much too dark for most children, which I partially agree with (if only for Carol gnashing his teeth in his sleep). But both Jonze and Sendak have been unapologetic in their publicity statements, with Sendak telling those parents who dislike it to “go to hell”. Personally I’m proud of them and Warner Bros. (who delayed the film a year so that Jonze would have enough money to put his creative conception onto the screen perfectly) for sticking to their guns and not scrapping the project entirely, like many thought they would. I also think it’s even better than I expected it to be; as long as you don’t go into it thinking it’ll be another Who Framed Roger Rabbit or something, you’ll love it. I award Where the Wild Things Are a much-deserved 4 1/2 stars; by never knuckling under the pressure, Spike Jonze has created a sumptuous masterpiece for the ages, and a fantasy world I will never forget.

Posted on Blogcritics.org

This is going to be a hard review to write, because there are so many things to say about the new movie Where The Wild Things Are. A book could probably be written analyzing this film and the emotions it provokes. It is based on the children’s picture book written by Maurice Sendak, and for over 40 years it’s been one of the most famous and popular books for children.

Technically the book itself is only ten lines long, with the pictures offering a lot more of a story, so when Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers got their hands on it they really had their work cut out for them. How do you make a ten line book into a full length movie? In their case, with exceptional style.

Max (Max Records) is a typical little boy; he has too much energy, loves playing games, has a vivid imagination, and just wants some attention. It seems that his parents went through a divorce and he’s having some trouble coping with his emotions. In the beginning he tries to get his sister and her friends to have a snowball fight, but the fun goes sour when they destroy his igloo. Max cries and the audience cries for him, because it must be said that Records plays this role with perfect innocence and sincerity. He is not overly precocious or wise beyond his years; he is Max. While his tired single mother (Catherine Keener) tries her best to show her love for him, Max loses his temper when she brings home a date. He runs away and sets off on a journey like no other.

Off on a distant island, Max creeps into the home of the Wild Things. These giant monsters are having troubles of their own, as one of them has decided to leave the pack and the current leader Carol (James Gandolfini) is having trouble with it.

His feelings for the missing KW (Lauren Ambrose) are complicated, and he takes it out on the forest with violence and fury. The Wild Things plan to eat him at first, but Max stands up to them and tells wild stories about being the King of the Vikings. Carol is so delighted to have someone to fix everything for them that he promotes Max immediately to King. The other Wild Things include negative Judith (Catherine O’Hara), calm Ira (Forest Whitaker), loyal Douglas (Chris Cooper), silent Bull (Michael Berry Jr.), and attention-seeking Alexander (Paul Dano). At first everything is fun and exciting with the beasts, especially when KW comes back to meet Max, but it soon breaks apart and Max learns that his adventure may not be what he expected … or what he wanted.

This movie is beautifully crafted from beginning to end, and the visual scheme is very loyal to the original artwork from the book. It’s a dark and earthy place that Max finds, with the neverending forest and random sandy desert. The Wild Things are not fully CGI, which is probably the best thing about them; it’s a mix of CGI, live action, actual costumed actors, and animatronics. The actors say that they were often in a room together and forced to be very physical with one another, just like the characters they were voicing. It adds a certain authenticity to the way they talk and act with each other, and you can sense the genuine connection and emotion between the characters because of it.

In many ways I think this movie was made more for adults than for children. In fact, I can see where some parents might be nervous about bringing their kids to this film. Then again, there are plenty of movies that you might think are inappropriate, but children end up loving. Most of the scary parts go over their heads and they embrace the whimsical nature of fantasy stories.

I think each parent can decide if their child is ready or not for this, but honestly it might disturb the adult more than the child. It’s mentally engaging on a mature level; adults understand that the Wild Things are merely facets of Max’s personality, and his way of coping with the unexpressed rage and sorrow in his heart. Carol is his fury and his pain, KW is his independence, Alexander is his loneliness, Douglas is his loyalty, Judith is his negativity, Ira is his unconditional love, and the Bull is his silence. It is very unlikely that young children will pick up on the psychological complexity of this film, and they will likely just enjoy the forest romp and sand fight. In the end it will probably be more memorable to the adults in the audience, who remember being innocent children with so much conflicting emotion and no place to direct it.

Where the Wild Things Are haunts me in a way; there is a sorrow in seeing childhood from a distance, and missing it/pitying it all at once. Jonze brings us the bitter truth about the things that children do not say, and it’s tragic. And it’s beautiful. This is a wonderful movie with depth and excellent acting all around, but it might be a little tough for people to swallow. It’s not the happy-go-lucky children’s film everyone was probably expecting. It’s a step above the typical children’s film, not talking down to the young audience but rather embracing it … and still speaking directly to the parents at the same time.

You might not want to see the movie again and again, but it’s worth seeing at least once, if only to experience the vision. Where the Wild Things Are is rated PG for disturbing images and some violence, and it is out in theaters today.

In the spring of 2004, Spike Jonze spoke to a small group of people at Harvard-Westlake High School in North Hollywood. I was somehow included in that small group of people. I don’t remember the specific details, but I do remember that for some reason it was after school and most people either didn’t know about it or couldn’t make it. It was less of a speech and more of just a conversation with Mr. Walch, but I remember Spike talking about how he had been working in pre-production on this movie for a couple of years. Now, 5 years after this talk, the movie has finally come out. (Also, just to toss this in, I remember Spike Jonze looking at me a lot, kind of like he was thinking “wow I bet this kid is really cool.” No joke.) The movie has had a whole lot of hoopla built around it, and the entire time I’ve been very skeptical. Curious, but skeptical. All of my skepticism was cast away after the first 5 minutes of the film. As it turns out, the first 15 minutes ended up being by far my favorite, but we’ll get to that later. Stylistically, the opening to this movie is as perfect as anything I’ve ever seen. It communicates everything fluidly and stylishly. It really seems to capture what it’s like to be a little kid, with the guilt, temper, boredom, mood swings, and imagination. The good and bad, it is all there.  And everything, from the visuals to the color to the sound to the acting to the tone, communicate this youth.

Then Max runs off, and the movie loses some of its strength.  It didn’t get bad, so to speak, but just not as good and specific.  First off, kids are fucking annoying.  And this movie captures that well.  While impressive stylistically, it’s also just annoying to watch sometimes.  Like ok, I get it, kids are fickle and all over the place, but it can get frustrating to watch a group of characters consistently acting this way.  There were also a number of somewhat ambiguous moments, where I just wasn’t entirely sure as to what was going on and how I was supposed to respond.

The “Wild Things” themselves were pretty freakin’ impressive, I can’t lie.  Visually, they were stunningly real and expressive, and for the most part the actor’s did great jobs with the voices.  Particular props to James Gandolifini, who was far more subtle than I ever would’ve expected, and Paul Dano, who I hate to admit is pretty great.  The one glaring exception is the voice of KW.  It was just too young and angsty, and seemed to come less from this scary creature and more from an annoying high school girl.

The plot of the movie kept me mostly interested and engaged, and it was just short enough to be totally watchable.  Again, there were a few things I admittedly don’t fully understand, but I trust Spike Jonze had his reasons for adding them in.  Overall, the movie was good.  Not amazing and ground-breaking, but very interesting in a way that not many movie’s nowadays are.  Worth the wait, I’d say.

Image via cinemastore.it

This movie was so hyped up, especially in the hipster world, and I have to say I really wasn’t that into it.  I want to blame it on the fact that I was sick, and I was just dying to get out of the theater so I could cough and blow my nose.  I think that Spike Jonez did a great job directing the movie, the cinematography was amazing, and the wild things looked real.  The cast was great: Max Records, Catherine Keener, James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Catherine O’Hare, Forest Whitaker, and according to my friend Tio, Paul Giamatti.  I don’t really know what I was expecting from the movie, but I know I was expecting a lot, and I did not leave the theater filling fulfilled.  I thought that the kid, Max, was adorable.  I think that parts of the movie were just really drawn out, and it did not need to be as long as it was considering the book is only 12 sentences long!  I am, however, considering giving it another chance when I am no longer sick.

You can catch me talking about the movie and indie music I play on my radiosho on my friend’s podcast, blerghcast.  Available on http://blergh.com/ and itunes (search blerghcast) episode 8.  CHECK EM OUT

A funny thing happened during “Where the Wild Things Are.” The theater was largely adults, but directly behind our seats was a family with two children both around 5 or 6 years old. The father and mother were getting restless about halfway through, and the father was making comments about how bad the movie was. But the children were enamored. They were laughing, gripping their seats with fear, excited, and by the end, they were in tears. They understood. They felt what Max felt.

This is the essence of “WTWTA.” You can read into all of the Freudian subtexts (My, that’s a lot of metaphors for the womb!) you want, but writer-director Spike Jonze is more concerned with the emotions packed throughout his latest film. “WTWTA” is based on a little children’s book (Seriously little. It’s 8 sentences long.) by Maurice Sendak and has been adapted beautifully for the big screen. It focuses on Max (Max Records), clearly reeling from the effects of a divorce and a big sister that has newer, cooler, older friends and doesn’t have time for kid things. Max does what most children in this situation often do. He acts out.

He truly is a wild thing. He dresses like a wolf and chases the dog through the house and stands on the kitchen table and screams at and eventually bites his mother. From the beginning we’ve seen Max trying as hard as he can to get someone to pay attention to him. Should he be punished for his behavior? Should his mother ground him or send him to time out or spank him? The movie isn’t concerned with these trivial questions. His mother is doing what she can in a situation that has placed a heavy burden on her, as well as the rest of her family. Maybe the best thing to do is to let Max run around in a wolf costume. Where’s the harm in that? Eventually it takes its toll and she reacts. Max is frightened by her sudden burst of anger and runs away, and this is where the movie truly takes off.

Max flees to the woods and begins hacking away at unseen monsters with a stick and before you know it, he’s on a boat sailing in the sea to a far off land where the Wild Things are. We immediately see Carol (James Gandolfini) destroying the Wild Things’ huts (remember those wombs I mentioned earlier?) because his beloved friend, KW (Lauren Ambrose), has found newer and cooler and better friends in Bob and Terry (two characters that add some wonderful comic relief later in the movie). The other Wild Things let Carol wreak his havoc and we are slowly introduced to Douglas (Chris Cooper), Alexander (Paul Dano), Judith (Catherine O’Hara), Ira (Forest Whitaker), and The Bull (Michael Berry, Jr.), all of whom are obvious manifestations of Max’s conflicting internal emotions and thoughts (with the exception of KW, who represents his mother).

Upon his arrival Max declares himself King of the Wild Things, finally getting the attention he’s been seeking. Instead of helping the Wild Things, however, Max slowly unravels the many layers of his personality and begins to see the flaws in himself. Anger, back-talk, selfishness, and isolation all emerge for the first time to the forefront of Max’s mind and all in one big heaping pile of sleeping Wild Things (there’s that womb again). For a while Max realizes that he has control over these emotions and he wills them to do his work building a huge complex for them all to reside in. Before long, however, the Wild Things begin to rebel and separate to their respective sides and Max realizes that it’s not as easy to control them as he originally thought. Things begin to spiral out of control and he urgently needs to escape. Essentially, he needs his mom. And this is what the movie is all about.

Don’t let the lack of narrative structure or the lackadaisical plot throw you off. Jonze and co-writer David Eggers are not worried about plot. They are concerned with emotions and feelings and reminding us what it was like to be a child slowly beginning the process of self-revelation. I think kids will connect more with this movie than adults will, and I worry that some adults will read reviews and think it’s too heavy or subtle for children. Please, if you are reading this and you have children, take them to see this movie. It doesn’t matter if you don’t “get it.” They will. And plus, the movie is beautiful. The Wild Things are an amazing sight to behold. At one point, I’m fairly certain that I saw Alexander purse his lips. Was that computer generated or just the mastery of the costumes designed for the movie? Jonze undertook an ambitious project that has been in the works for over a decade, and he turned all expectations on their heads and gave us more than we had hoped for.

Max learned from the Wild Things that sometimes people behave badly and sometimes those people are yourself. Sometimes you don’t know how many of you are inside of you pulling you in all sorts of directions (Be mad! Be sad! Go hide under the covers! Don’t take that from her! Lash out!) and it’s all very confusing and you don’t understand and you just want to cry and be held. By the end of the movie, the little girl in the row behind me understood this and she just wanted her mommy to hold her and to let her cry. She was confused and scared, just like Max. But she knew the answer to it all existed inside of her mom’s arms and while she was there nothing could hurt her – not even herself.

Note: I mentioned very little about the performances, but they are rock solid. The voiceover work is well-done, and the performances by the actors in the Wild Thing suits are nothing short of amazing. But the stand-out here is Max Records as young Max. He, like the character he portrays, wears his emotions on his sleeve and you never doubt for an instant that he is Max, King of the Wild Things. And the soundtrack by Karen O is phenomenal. It adds perfectly to every single scene. Seriously, what are you waiting for? Go see this movie!

MPAA Rating: PG

Running Time: 94 minutes

Starring: Max Records (Max); Catherine Keener (Mom); Mark Ruffalo (Boyfriend); James Gandolfini (Carol); Lauren Ambrose (KW); Chris Cooper (Douglas); Paul Dano (Alexander); Catherine O’Hara (Judith); Forest Whitaker (Ira); Michael Berry, Jr. (The Bull)

Directed by: Spike Jonze; written by Jonze and Dave Eggers based on the book “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak; produced by Sendak, John Carls, Tom Hanks, Vincent Landay, and Gary Goetzman. A Warner Bros. Pictures release.

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak is one of the most loved children’s books of all time. Many in the fi lm industry considered it “unadaptable to the big screen” but the fi lm adaptation, directed by Spike Jonze, was a feast for my adult brain and a flashback to my childhood.

The text of the book is only nine sentences long so turning it into a movie was totally different than adapting something like the latest from Dan Brown or Harry Potter. Like the book, the movie is out of the ordinary, but in a different way. The movie is made for a more mature audience than the book, but it stays true to its roots.

Sendak, one of the producers of the film, personally chose Spike Jonze to direct the fi lm after watching Being John Malkovich. The author/producer felt that Jonze could “connect with his original vision for the fi lm adaptation”. Sendak was right to put his trust in Jonze. Sendak says his books are “all variations on the same theme: how children master various feelings”. Sitting in the theater felt like reconnecting with the experiences I had as a child (the book was one of personal favourites from back in the day). The movie discusses important issues of family, belonging, anger, and companionship. The balancing act of appealing to both young and old puts strain on the fi lm but in the end it was profoundly moving and thought provoking.

Although the movie feels like its for an older audience it stays true to its child at heart roots. The monsters are scary but real and the way they interact and learn is what puts a whole other layer on the movie. Book reviewer Francis Spufford described the book as “one of the very few picture books to make and entirely deliberate and beautiful, use of the psychoanalytic story of anger.” The movie encapsulates this use.

The most striking theme of the movie was family. In the book the focus is more on tribes but as one reads more about the original book one begins to understand Sendak’s familial theme. The original concept for the book featured horses instead of monsters. Sendak could not draw horses, so he used caricatures of his aunts and uncles, whom he had studied critically in his youth as an escape from their weekly visits to his family’s Brooklyn home. For the opera version Sendak gave the monsters the names of his relatives: Tzippy, Moishe, Aaron, Emile, and Bernard. In the movie their names are different.

The soundtrack was the one disappointing part for me. It felt intrusive on some moments where the feelings from the scenes didn’t match the jarring music playing in the background.

The movie was truly different and does deserve the unprecedented hype it has received. I highly recommend it, especially if you have read the book to a child or as a child.

Where the Wild Things Are stars Max Records as ‘Max’, Catherine Keener as his mother, while James Gandolfini, Lauren Ambrose, Chris Cooper, Catherine O’Hara, Paul Dano and Forest Whitaker provide the voices of the Wild Things. The screenplay was adapted by Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers.

-Kemp Edmonds (BCIT Alumni)