The Cinematheque

“A children’s art film … Gorgeously profound.”

Kim Morgan, Huffington Post

Let the wild rumpus start! Zeitgeist-bottling author Dave Eggers and American indie icon Spike Jonze proved to be a formidable writer-director duo with this artful adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s indelible children’s book. The film, magnifying themes present in Sendak’s spare, 10-sentence source story, centres on eight-year-old Max (Max Records), a lonely, frustrated kid of divorce. When his mom (Catherine Keener) brings a new beau home for dinner, Max huffs off to the land of the Wild Things, where he’s declared king. The island’s moody monsters, conceived as emotions made flesh—and fur, lots of it!—are brought to life through costumed actors, animatronics, and smart, subtle CG effects. Karen O, of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, wrote the whimsical soundtrack; Sendak, who died in 2012, gave the film his blessing.