This year I only posted movies I had personally seen on Reel Inspiration's Most Inspiring films poll. Unfortunately, because of the mixed reviews, I didn't watch, "Where the Wild Things Are" so it isn't on the list.
Reel Inspiration reviewer Josh Valentine wrote, " I would really like to be able to vote for "Where The Wild Things Are," it was the most transcendentally uplifting and inspirational film of the year for me!" Here is Josh's review - better late than never...
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
BY GUEST REVIEWER JOSH VALENTINE
Indiebum
A film that permeates the mind, and allows one to discover their inner child in a way you’d never expect. The attainment of innocence and one’s inner child is impossible to exact in a completely genuine way – but one single viewing of Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s book will transport its viewer (if not for a single night) to a place they’d wholly forgotten. The tragic loneliness of childhood – the inability to let out one’s deep emotional pains because you lack the education to iterate it through metaphor – is portrayed, something I’ve never seen in the medium. The innocent intelligence of a child’s mind which only exists within that mind is actually achieved in Jonze’s brilliant script and through the performance of Max Records. And that’s only the first fifteen minutes. Sendak’s original book was relatively thin in terms of characterization, but it spoke loudly in terms of the explosive potential of a child’s imagination. Jonze and screenwriter Dave Eggers name and explore the actual wild things, utilizing each beast’s personality as a reflection of the complexities of a child. The voice work is phenomenal (watch the film, then check IMDb and be amazed at who played certain characters) as is Karen O and Carter Burwell’s inspired score – the best in terms of cinematic relevance since Jon Brion’s score or “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” While the film has become something of a hipster’s wet dream, it should not be ignored as it is artistically important and singular in a new genre of film – the inner child’s film.
Just for fun:
Where the Wild Things," video adaptation of the Maurcie Sendak classic.
