[tps_title]3. Where the Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze, 2009)[/tps_title]
Spike Jonze’s massively underrated, sort-of-adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s beloved children’s book captures childhood as a state of poignantly escalating acknowledgements. Bratty entitlement gives way to longing and regret; loneliness and agitation become the catalysts for introspection; and hot-tempered frustration with family and the world turns out to be typical kid short-sightedness, ameliorated by the therapy of working out issues through imaginary means. Max Records, fittingly cast as Max, gives one of the truest and most heartrendingly realistic child performances I’ve seen, an uncanny embodiment of all the childhood fears, frustrations and revelations we come to look back upon later with bashful recognition.
See also: Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
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