Where the Wild Things Breathe
November 8th, 2009Where the Wild Things Are is a beautiful treat for anyone still nurturing their imagination; anyone who has (or had) imaginary friends; anyone who remembers what it was really like on the school yard.
The film is inspired and based on a short children’s book by Maurice Sendak. My lady friend and I snuck into the bookstore beside the cinema to read the book before watching movie. And I’m glad we did.
Despite how short the book is, and how few sentences there are. (I believe the book is nine sentences long.) The movie does a fantastic job of capturing, not only the imagery and style, but even some of the explicit moments drawn in the book.
The costumes and fx are delightful. I fell into the world, and very rarely did I pause to think about the mechanics of making such a film. (This is very rare for me.) My only slip up was watching the boy climb a rock cliff, where we very clearly only saw the back of his head. My inner-moron gleefully calls (silently) “Body double!” To which my inner bully gives the inner-moron an elbow, “Of course it is. You think they’d have a child climb that in a furry costume? Idiot.”
The photography did an excellent job of eavesdropping on this world and these characters. This is shaky cam well done. I felt like I was running through the trees. I felt like a dirt clod could explode into the camera at any moment. I felt like I was being told the story by the little boy, (who is an exceptional story teller, in his own rank.)
My one gripe with the movie was that I felt the soundscape suffered a distinct lack of imagination. In a story of enormous costumes and gorgeous landscapes, where anything can happen… I found the acoustic environment to be very lackluster. The most prominent sound of the movie (for me) was the breathing and wheezing of the monsters. Very cool. Very humanizing… but… I really would have liked to hear a bit more fantastical wilderness.
The soundtrack is great. Karen O and the Kids made some really playful, youthful songs. There were moments where the music gave me shivers. Still does, listening to the top of All Is Love (embedded below). I just would have liked a stronger acousmatic description of the world.
As an aside, I was realizing that I know very little about audio dynamic compression in the cinema (particularly relevant to my snobby ears bellowing for more sound art).
I typically find the cinema very LOUD, and the stereo field very narrow. Can anyone tell me if cinemas add additional dynamic compression? Is a DVD or Bluray more or less squashed than the film?
Tags: Cinema, Review, whimsy
Posted in Spotlight | Comments (2)
November 9th, 2009 at 1:35 am
Thank you for introducing me to this story Joel:) This movie has actually made my top 5 list and I must say walking into it I was doubtful that I would enjoy it.
I Love the title of your post, it made me giggle:)
November 18th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
I saw it this afternoon and really loved it. I totally agree that anyone who remembers what the school yard was really like would totally recognize those relationships and conversations. It was beautiful and emotionally stirring and heart-warming.