Where The Melancholy Things Are

Well it’s only a week late but here’s what the most important mind in film journalism has to say about Spike Jonze’s Where The Wild Things Are – “It’s Aces”.

I who was so sceptical and ready to be disappointed am now thoroughly shamefaced by this movie’s excellence. If I went in for such things I’d have to put it somewhere in the high 70%’s or low 80%’s. It’s not perfect but if more films were made with this kind of simple devotion then all trips to the cinema would be an unmitigated pleasure.

Ew. Need to pull that back a bit.

For a film about “Wild” things it’s a bit too downbeat at times. There are lots of parts that I loved and that I think kids would get a real kick out of, but there’s an air of sadness and loss hanging over the entire piece. It would’ve been less misleading to call it Where The Melancholy Things Are.

It captures what I remember about being  a kid really well. The half-glimpsed mystery that is adulthood, the crazy desire to build massive forts, all that running and fighting. But as a film about the end childhood and the loss of innocence it’s necessarily too sad.

The wild things spend so much of their time locked in some kind of obtuse disagreement you feel like consigning the whole furry lot of them to a few sessions of therapy. It’s a small quibble though for a film which is so touching and lovingly made. Especially when this melancholy is tempered by a few good doses of rumpus.

Also, check out this cast list: Catherine Keener, Mark Ruffalo, James Gandolfini, Chris Cooper, Paul Dano, Forest Whitaker, Catherine O’Hara. And it has a score by Karen O. And it was written by Jonze and Dave Eggers. This film couldn’t be more indie if it was knitted out of wool.