sooo...

i wrote a review of where the wild things are for my school newspaper, and i figured i should post it here too.

Where The Wild Things Are, Directed by Spike Jonze, Screenplay by Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers, Warner Bros. Pictures (Released 10/16/09)

Whether it was the quirky creativity of Being John Malkovich that captured us years ago, or any of the many music videos he directed that had us mesmerized for four and a half minutes, most have come to the conclusion that Spike Jonze can do no wrong. His latest endeavor, the motion picture adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s 1963 classic, Where The Wild Things Are can very much help vouch for that.
Many would wonder how such a simple story could be made into a full-length movie. Spike Jonze has practically accomplished the impossible by turning ten sentences from our childhood into an hour and a half of joy and wonder, stretching and molding it into a moody tale of love, and gloom, but most of all, pure exuberance.
Although the film deviated slightly from the original story, the essence of the book still remains, with its rare simplicity that captures the true elements of what it means to be a kid. This is no fairy tale, no rainbows or castles, bunnies, or baby deer frolicking through the forest, just the terrifyingly beautiful imagination of a child – Max. His journey to a fantasyland and encounters with some melancholy monsters show us that not all things are perfect and that sadness can plague everyone, even the biggest, and scariest of creatures.
With Max’s help as “king,” the monsters learn that the only way to truly be happy, is to love, and without love, we are eternally lonely. All seems well and good, but soon things take a turn for the worst. The newfound love between the monsters falls apart once again, when it is found out that Max is not actually a king, but a boy, pretending to be a wolf, pretending to be a king – a normal boy who had run away from home, in the hopes of finding the meaning of family and happiness.
This film is heartwarming, to say the least. Not necessarily your average children’s movie, but something more rare and more special than that. It will make you laugh and cry, then cry some more, but it will surely leave you with a smile when you leave the theater.