Sunday Oct. 18th, 2009 - Where The Wild Things Are (2009)


I've been informed that it would be hyperbolic of me to refer to this film as perfect, so I will refrain. Instead I will just say that I've just bared witness to the first great family film of this generation. This is the kind of movie that kids will see, and if they like it, will absolutely love it when they grow up. I've heard criticisms leveled at this film that it's too hip, too inaccessible, too artsy. Rubbish. While Spike Jonze has directed mind-benders like Being John Malcovich and Adaptation, this movie maintains his artistic aesthetic while making a populist kids movie. This movie treats kids with respect and doesn't pander to them with easy laughs and scatological humor. This is a movie that captures, more than any other family film I can recall, what it is like to be a frustrated, scared, imaginative nine-year-old boy. Sorry if that's too hip for some people, but maybe they prefer G-Force. This will definitely find a spot on my top ten of 2009.