Film adaptations of much loved stories are fraught with danger, not least when a fanbase is quick to shout about any potential raping of childhood memories. So when it came to the screen interpretation of Where the Wild Things Are (perhaps the most loved of all children’s picture books) the stakes were extremely high. But rather than give it to a safe pair of hands the job of director fell to Spike Jonze, a director seemingly a million miles away from a multi-million dollar child friendly blockbuster. Yet, Jonze’s playful, anarchic style is exactly suited to the material and this surprising marriage has created something genuinely beautiful, bittersweet, charming and magical.

It is not a film for children but rather…

Jonze never ceases to amaze me...

I find this film to be a miraculous achievement considering the source material. I did not grow up with the picture book this film is based on as it is not well- known in my country. I stumbled on this picture book in my late twenties when I was working on my thesis on children's literature. I devoted an entire chapter to this book in order to illustrate the power of storytelling and effectiveness of powerful language. I loved this book and I wished I had been able to experience its full effects in my own childhood.

What Jonze has done with this tale of a disgruntled boy is pure magic. Not only does…

Film #8 of No Rewatch November

No way did I think this movie could match Being John Malkovich and Adaptation. Spike Jonze did it again for me.

The amazing thing about this movie is the sense of wonder and energy brimming and bursting at the seams of every scene. Lust for life as Iggy Pop himself would put it. What Spike Jonze does is put the viewer in the place of Max. Which makes it all the more frightening when something bad happens. I won't spoil anything but there was just this sense of dread hanging over certain parts of the movie. A much darker tone than I had expected. Jonze handles the shifts in tone perfectly, too, so it's…

Some films are about things; literal things, with characters you recognise and narratives you can retell to your friends. Some films get a little deeper; offer some profundity we can apply to our own emotions and experiences. And then there’s the exceptions, films that don’t rely on laborious streams of words and concepts, but are instead more akin to a leisurely drive through a consciousness long forgotten. They are those films that have visceral, human qualities that are hard to define and impossible to ever explain in retrospect - magnificent, lucid cinematic journeys that reach out from their restrictive frames and television screens to pull us in and wisp us away. Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s beloved children’s tale…

What a beautiful film and while I haven't seen Adaption yet this solidifies for me that Spike Jonze is one of the most interesting and versatile directors working today. Believe it or not, but I'm not actually familiar with the source material, so Where The Wild Things Are was to me a completely new world and one I am happy to have been invited to. I haven't been transformed into my inner child like this since My Neighbor Totoro and the experience was a magical and emotionally stirring one that left a great impression on me. Jonze's unique style, both in design and storytelling was seemingly meant for this and it's the most surprising thing considering the complexity of something…

¨It's going to be a place where only the things you want to happen, would happen. ¨

The only thing I wanted to happen while watching the highly appraised Where the Wild Things Are was for the movie to get over with. I found this film very boring and couldn`t identify with the characters. I understood the melancholic point the director was trying to get across, but I guess my childhood was nothing like that. I remember enjoying my childhood a lot and never feeling so philosophical and sad towards life like the main character felt. The first twenty minutes of the film you just feel so sorry for Max because he feels so ignored and misunderstood. I think this…