Topic: Where the Wild Things Are

[W7RE]

On the surface, this movie seemed sort of dumb and boring. However, I saw it 2 days ago and I'm still thinking about it. It is one of the most disturbing movies I've seen in a while (for me, at least).


There's random spoilers in this rant

(click to show/hide)

I say disturbing, because I actually felt the anger and emotion physically while watching it. I did not "enjoy" watching it. The constant roughhousing, often with at least 1 character not enjoying the experience, reminded me of middle school when I used to get bullied a lot. Someone might just be goofing off and having fun, but it's at someone else's expense.

Then the fighting and arguing reminded me of my family. My parents have never gotten along, as far back as I can remember. I'm sure to most, it was amusing when Carol yelled, "You stepped on my head! You even stepped on the face part of my head!" I didn't. I couldn't get past how easily they went from "fun" to an argument, and the whole movie reminded me of the tension that I still feel to this day anytime I'm in the presence of both of my parents at the same time.

Near the beginning of the movie, Carol was the first to believe in Max and offer him friendship. When things went sour though, he was the angriest, and most violent of them all. Yes, he was angry about Max's lie, but he lied out of fear of being eaten. But did Carol sympathize with him at all? No. Just like people in real life, it takes very little for someone to turn on a so called friend.

Then, the one person who tried to comfort and protect Max was KW. As this was happening, my anger and uneasiness turned to sadness. Life is not like that. There's no one to comfort or protect you. It would be great if there were, but that's just not the world we live in.

I'm sure this rant says a hell of a lot more about me than it does about the movie itself. I just wanted to say it somewhere, to someone, and I didn't know where else to say it.

[bullshark]

I empathize with your assessment of this movie.  It's one of the few movies that captures all the frustrations and sadness of an imperfect childhood.  Truly an amazingly underrated movie because I think most people expected something much different?  As brilliant as it is, I don't think I'll watch it again.  I don't want to linger in that space for long for fear of being trapped there.  This is not self denial, quite the opposite.  I recognize what it is and where it leads but choose another path.  For some this may make no sense, for others I may as well be a voice in their own head.

[W7RE]

Yea normally when a movie is successful at what it's trying to convey, you love it and want to experience it again. Not this time. I don't like feeling those things.