Movies are never just movies. For most of us there’s the poster first, then the trailer, finally the movie. Sometimes. if not most of the time, there will be multiple versions of the posters and trailers before we see the movie. The movie is what it is – or is it? The posters and trailers have [...]

PHILIP BARRETT: What’s ironic about Where the Wild Things Are happens to involve a conversation I had with fellow critic Anders Wright of San Diego’s City Beat before the film. I kindly asked him what his expectations for the film where. “You know, Philip,” he said, “I’ve learned not to set the bar too high [...]

Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are, a 90-minute adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s 43-year-old children’s book which barely spans a handful of pages, is a thing of absolute beauty. It is beautiful in cinematography, beautiful in performance and dialogue, and beautiful in silent moments between every wild thing that occurs onscreen. It’s a family film [...]

The first trailer for Where the Wild Things Are, Spike Jonze’s take on Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book, was a thing of transcendent beauty. Scored to Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up” and only sparsely peppered with dialogue, the trailer hinted at a film of kinetic, childish wonder.