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Title: Where the Wild Things Are (2009)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Max Records | ... | Max | |
 |
Pepita Emmerichs | ... | Claire |
|
|
Max Pfeifer | ... | Claire's Friend |
|
|
Madeleine Greaves | ... | Claire's Friend |
| Joshua Jay | ... | Claire's Friend | |
| Ryan Corr | ... | Claire's Friend | |
| Catherine Keener | ... | Mom | |
| Steve Mouzakis | ... | Teacher | |
| Mark Ruffalo | ... | The Boyfriend | |
| James Gandolfini | ... | Carol (voice) | |
| Vincent Crowley | ... | Carol Suit Performer | |
| Paul Dano | ... | Alexander (voice) | |
| Sonny Gerasimowicz | ... | Alexander Suit Performer | |
| Catherine O'Hara | ... | Judith (voice) | |
| Nick Farnell | ... | Judith Suit Performer | |
A young boy named Max has an active imagination, and he will throw fits if others don't go along with what he wants. Max - following an incident with Claire (his sister) and her friends, and following a tantrum which he throws as a result of his Mother paying more attention to her boyfriend than to him - runs away from home. Wearing his wolf costume at the time, Max not only runs away physically, but runs toward a world in his imagination. This world, an ocean away, is inhabited by large wild beasts, including one named Carol who is much like Max himself in temperament. Instead of eating Max like they normally would with creatures of his type, the wild things befriend Max after he proclaims himself a king who can magically solve all their problems. Written by Huggo
A beautiful, audacious, roughly-hewn motion picture (adjectives that are no doubt overused in describing the picture's modus operandi), Spike Jonze's adaptation Maurice Sendak's adored children's book "Where the Wild Things Are" taps into the innocent, volatile world of a 9 year old boy the way few mainstream feature films have. It is original, unique, melancholy, and because of this several mainstream critics (and even lucid critics like Salon's Stephanie Zacharek) have derided the film. "There's no story"; "kids won't like it"; "it's an adult film about children, not a children's film"; "it's boring"; "the pacing is slow"...
What? Why did it become such a crime to make an abstract art film within the spineless confines of the Hollywood system? Doesn't Spike Jonze get credit for personalizing, therefore, retaining a substantial amount of voracity while delving into one of the most revered children's books of the last fifty years? What the hell is wrong with that? I understand that some people just don't respond to the abstract, pseudo-verisimilitude of pretentious art films, but there's a stripped-down purity to this picture that cannot be denied. It's not pretentious, but emotional and honest.
It's bold, it takes chances...why is it being chastised in the media? How often do we get movies like "Where the Wild Things Are"? It should be celebrated, not snidely dismissed (Ex. Lou Lumenick, NY Post).