Here’s this week’s Tablet column — like every other human who writes about parenting, I weighed in on Where the Wild Things Are. I hope I said some things that have not been said eight gazillion times. And hey, I quoted Ursula Nordstrom. Suck on that, illiterates.
We liked it. My children were not traumatized by it. It was very, very purty. Because I am so professional and impartial like Switzerland, I do not hold the achingly cool hipsterosity of the end credits against it. (“Special thanks to friends of the Wild Things”…who happen to comprise EVERY WINCINGLY GROOVOX CELEBRITY HUMAN EVER: Miranda July, Steven Soderbergh, Brad Pitt, Mike Mills, Arcade Fire, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Michelle Williams, David Fincher, David O. Russell and “Girl Skateboard Family,” God, kill me.)
I wish Lisa Schwarzbaum of EW, who I almost always agree with, had gotten some deets right. It wasn’t a WILDCAT COSTUME, jeez, it was a WOLF SUIT, and the line isn’t “I could eat you up,” it’s “I’ll eat you up.” But I think that’s an indication that people who aren’t crazy-passionate about the book may be more favorably disposed toward the movie. And hey, the movie should be allowed to stand on its own. Movie = not book. My passion for the book and annoyance at hipster-boy writers and filmmakers may have clouded my judgment; I own that.
I have no clue whether Jonze and Eggers wanted to make a movie for dewy hipsters or for kids. I only know that my kids’ response — the movie was fine; it wasn’t scary; it was a little too long; it was not as good as Wall-E — was pretty much my elderly non-dewy non-hipster response too.
This might be my favorite review so far! Most that I’ve read are written by people crazy for the book (given the children’s lit circles I run in), but yours seems more in tune with how I might respond to the movie, which I haven’t seen yet.
And thanks for the hipster-boy warning, which I hadn’t heard about yet: I can go into it knowing I’ll be slightly annoyed. Which, funnily enough, will help me enjoy the experience more fully.
I haven’t gone yet. I heard you needed a Brooklyn Public Library card to get in. That true?
Am I wrong to not want to see it? I think it will scare Willa and I have no great attachment to the book like you do and a far lower tolerance for hipster it-boys and their self-indulgent fabulosity.
Speaking of, saw a trailer for Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox and felt such annoyance. Willa loves Roald Dahl, but I don’t see her loving this movie. I think the Boy Hipsters are misunderstanding the Pixar ethos, building movies on two levels but making them ultimately for children (I think). These seem like movies by and for arrested development Gen-Xers.
Sigh. I should probably go before I judge, being an arrested development Gen Xer.