Saturday, October 17, 2009

Double Movie Review: Where The Wild Things Are and A Serious Man

I got to see not one, but two movies yesterday. First I went to see Where the Wild Things Are. Based no the beloved children's novel of the same name by Maurice Sendak and directed by Spike Jonze, the film stars Max Records, Catherine Keener and features a very brief appearance by Mark Ruffalo. Aside from Max (who is really great in this movie) the REAL stars of the movie are the Wild Things themselves. Voiced by James Gandolfini, Catherine O'Hara, Lauen Ambrose and Forest Whitaker, these marvels are part puppet and CGI. Their faces are completely computer generated, but you CANNOT TELL AT ALL!! It's amazing. Now, that all being said, this film is a little slow and doesn't really explain why everything is happening. Don't get me wrong, I did like it, but I think there just wasn't that much story. There were a couple of kids sitting behind me who absolutely loved it. Lots of yelling and running around and slapsticky type of falls. All in all I would say that this is a must see simply because of the amazy way it was filmed and for the performance of the young Max Records. The second film I watched yesterday was a new Coen Brothers movie called A Serious Man. Now THIS film is for grown-ups NOT kids. Set in 1960s Minnesota, the film focuses on a man name Larry Gopnik (Michael Stulhbarg) who is having a very rough time of it. His wife is leaving him for a man that is less than desirable, he is up for tenure as a professor at a university, but they don't seem to give it to him, his son is smoking marijuana, his daughter is very moody and possibly stealing money from him, and his brother Arthur is living with them, sleeping on the couch and has a gambling problem. It's one of those movies where this poor guy can't catch a break. The acting is super great in this film and, while you may not have seen or heard of some of these actors before, you probably will be hearing about them around awards season. This movie was enjoyable from (the very strange) start to the (equally odd) ending. I would say this is for shizzle a must see, especially if you're Jewish. That will make sense when you see it. So all around, both movies are worth seeing, but A Serious Man is more enjoyable for adults. Take your kiddoes to see Where the Wild Things Are. I'm always right, by the way, so you don't need to look up other opinions.

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