Where the Wild Things Are

by David Vicari

The raping of my childhood continues with Spike Jonze’s wrong-headed, bastardized adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s beloved children’s book, Where the Wild Things Are. Besides Jonze, I blame co-screenwriter and hero to emo kids everywhere, Dave Eggers, for taking the story into a dark and brooding place, which is not at all in the spirit of a book that is full of joy and wonder. I do realize that in adapting a 48-page picture book into a film, there has to be much more development of characters and situation, but portraying one of the Wild Things as mentally deranged isn’t the place to go.
The story, according to the film, is about a lonely little boy named Max (Max Records) who runs away from home when his mom (Catherine Keener) invites a new boyfriend over. Max discovers a small boat and sails it to a strange land where wild monsters created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop exist. A slick used car salesman in training, Max convinces these Wild Things that he is their new king. So, they crown Max king and frolic together in the forest.
What Max didn’t count on, though, is one of the monsters, named Carol (they didn’t have names in the book) and voiced by James Gandolfini, turning out to be psychotic, or another one, Judith (voice of Catherine O’Hara), being the master of playing mind games. And what I didn’t count on was this movie being such a downer. It’s actually kind of terrifying when Carol tears another Wild Thing’s arm from its socket.
Speaking of terrifying, there are three scenes that are not for the claustrophobic – Max getting trapped in a collapsed snow tunnel, Max at the bottom of a Wild Thing pile up, and Max winding up inside a Wild Thing’s slimy stomach. What is the point of those scenes other than to freak us out?
I know some people will say, “You are wrong, Mr. Vicari, for Maurice Sendak approves of this movie and hand-picked Jonze for the directing job himself.” I don’t care. Besides, just because the original author approves or disapproves of an adaptation of his or her work doesn’t mean it’s the last word on the subject. I mean, Stephen King doesn’t like Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of The Shining. I know a lot of people that don’t agree with that. And I think Sendak should have held out for a more suitable director and a better script. So there!

The Invention of Lying

by Fritz Esker

    Writer/director Ricky Gervais leaves the TV format (where he created BBC’s The Office and HBO’s Extras) for film with The Invention of Lying. The film may not be on the level of The Office (one of the greatest TV shows ever), but it’s a funny comedy with a subversive edge to it. Gervais plays a screenwriter in a world where everyone tells the truth. Movies consist solely of a person sitting in a chair reading aloud about historical events. While a world without deceit may seem like a good thing, this film’s world is actually a cruel, callous place where people say whatever is on their mind, no matter how hurtful, as long as it’s true. The movie is at its strongest when it pokes fun at the notion that honesty is always the best policy and gets a lot of laughs when it too briefly addresses the concept of religion in such a world. Eventually, the film’s romantic comedy subplot (between Gervais and Jennifer Garner) takes over. While it’s the weakest part of the film, it’s still amusing enough (thanks largely to Gervais’ willingness to poke fun at the fact that Garner is way out of his league) to keep the film from bogging down.

It Might Get Loud
by David Vicari

    Sitting through the documentary It Might Get Loud is like watching kids in a candy store, and the fun is infectious. Three great electric guitar virtuosos – Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), The Edge (U2), and Jack White (The White Stripes) – are simply put on a soundstage together. They trade stories, share some tricks, and, of course, jam with one another. It doesn’t matter if you are a fan of these guys or their music because all three of them come off as humble, genuine, and very passionate about their art. The Edge shows how his use of effects pedals can transform the simplest of chords, while White explains how he packaged himself and his “sister” as a kind of performance art to disguise the fact that they are simply playing old blues. In between, director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) gives us the background on the three musicians with lots of old clips; the most amazing is seeing Page as a child prodigy on a television variety show. And it’s heartening that iPods are nowhere to be found in this film. We see The Edge listening to old demos on cassette tape, and Page listening to selected tunes from his massive record collection. It’s really a joy to see Page rocking out to his 45 of Link Wray’s “Rumble.” I probably could have watched an entire movie of just him playing his records.

Whip It
by David Vicari

Sure, we have seen this kind of movie before, but Whip It is a lot of fun, primarily because it is so well directed (by actress Drew Barrymore in her directing debut), and so well acted by a game cast. Ellen Page plays Bliss Cavendar, a Texas teen with low self-esteem who is forced into beauty pageants by her controlling mother, Brooke (Marcia Gay Harden). On a lark, Bliss tries out for and gets accepted onto a woman’s roller derby team, and comes to realize she is completely in love with the sport. Sure, we get the understanding dad (Daniel Stern), the put upon coach (Andrew Wilson), the bland, garage band boyfriend (Landon Pigg), the awesome, caring teammates (Kristen Wigg, Barrymore), and the antagonistic leader of the rival team (Juliette Lewis), but the film has a lot of little details that make it stand out. Bliss’ family, for instance, is barely middle class, and her mom is a mail carrier. You can understand why Bliss’ mom would want something better for her daughter. Wigg’s character is a single mom and needs a babysitter on her derby nights. And the romantic subplot has an unexpected but nice payoff. As for the actual roller derby scenes, they are much more exciting than either version of Rollerball. Director Barrymore keeps the pace brisk and the mood light, and that’s exactly how it should be. Besides, you have got to love a movie with a character named Smashley Simpson.


Zombieland 
by Drew Platt

    At first I was hesitant to see Zombieland because I was scared it would kill two loves of mine; zombies and comedy. Zombie films are a touchy subject to most fans of the genre. You either create a no limits, balls to the wall zombie film, with gore and blood galore, or you just go back to film school. So needless to say when I did see Zombieland I was happily surprised. The story follows an OCD teen (Jesse Eisenberg) as he fights through a zombie-infested America to his hometown of Columbus, Ohio. As he follows his set of rules of playing it safe and staying alive, he meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), who is a hard-drinking, zombie-killing machine, on the road looking for the last Twinkies known to exist. They eventually run across the path of two sisters (the absolutely gorgeous Emma Stone, and Little Miss Sunshine star Abigail Breslin) and chaos soon ensues. Now, the thing that makes this film good is definitely the casting. I could have seen several of these jokes falling flat if Jessie Eisenberg hadn’t been playing the lead role. The nervous, deadpan delivery that he applies to most his lines only amplifies the hilarity of his character having to beat brains in to survive. Woody Harrelson’s performance is also nothing to be overlooked. With hilarious one-liners, he definitely keeps the dialogue moving when he’s not beating the shit out of the undead. The only warning I would give is don’t take the squeamish to this one; even though it is a comedy, you’d be surprise with how much gore they got away with.