Not recommended for children under the age of 9.
Forget every sugary kid-stuff cliché Hollywood shoves at you. The defiantly untamed Where the Wild Things Are is a raw and exuberant mind-meld between Maurice Sendak’s classic book, and Spike Jonze, the Oscar-nominated director (Being John Malkovich) who honors the explosive feelings of childhood by creating a visual and emotional tour de force. The movie barrels out at you like a nine-year-old boy filled to bursting with joys, fears and furies he can't articulate. The boy is Max, played by Max Records, 12, in a vibrantly alive performance. Max is in a dark place called home, where his divorced mother (the superb Catherine Keener) is distracted by work and a new lover. Max yells at his mother, before bolting from home in search of an undiscovered island where wild creatures roam and play drives out pain. Or so Max thinks. --Rolling Stone“A WORK OF ART.” The New York Times