Howdy y'all, JA from MNPP poppin' my head in for a sec to celebrate a little something making me happy today - that being Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are making 32.5 million dollars this weekend.
I never pay attention to box office numbers anymore, they always depress me, but I'd convinced myself that Jonze's film was gonna be a flop. How could it not be? What I am about to tell you is a well-documented fact: every film I am ever excited about sinks faster than an experimental balloon-craft in the Colorado skies (hooray for timely yet instantly dated metaphors!).
So this news hits me as distinctly pleasurable today. It's even sweeter since I saw the film last night and was completely bowled over by it. I even had one of those moments that I dread - when your significant other turns to you in a movie theater and sees you biting your lip, tears streaming down your face... humiliating. Is it just me or do you always get stared down in these moments too? Leave me to my humiliating tears! Gah!
Ahem. So did y'all make the trip to where the wild things live? Did it effect you like it did me or leave you cold? I've heard plenty of opinions swinging towards the latter the past few days, and I won't think you a heartless monster if you admit it. Well not much, at least. And when was the last time you found yourself in my prediciment, sobbing like a wreck in a movie theater, the shame, the shame...?
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I never pay attention to box office numbers anymore, they always depress me, but I'd convinced myself that Jonze's film was gonna be a flop. How could it not be? What I am about to tell you is a well-documented fact: every film I am ever excited about sinks faster than an experimental balloon-craft in the Colorado skies (hooray for timely yet instantly dated metaphors!).
So this news hits me as distinctly pleasurable today. It's even sweeter since I saw the film last night and was completely bowled over by it. I even had one of those moments that I dread - when your significant other turns to you in a movie theater and sees you biting your lip, tears streaming down your face... humiliating. Is it just me or do you always get stared down in these moments too? Leave me to my humiliating tears! Gah!
Ahem. So did y'all make the trip to where the wild things live? Did it effect you like it did me or leave you cold? I've heard plenty of opinions swinging towards the latter the past few days, and I won't think you a heartless monster if you admit it. Well not much, at least. And when was the last time you found yourself in my prediciment, sobbing like a wreck in a movie theater, the shame, the shame...?
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20 comments:
I haven't *sobbed* for a good long while at the movies. maybe DANCER IN THE DARK... but as far as wet eyes go, I definitely went there during Wild Things and Precious and both were recent, so my eyes are well lubricated!
so funny that you posted this because if i had had any time today at all i was going to post about the box office and how it usually depresses me but YAY.
p.s. wasn't the ending fab? So confident and quietly moving.
absolutely adored it as well. surprisingly heavy-handed.
BIG HIP HOORAY for timely yet instantly dated metaphors!!!!! awesomeness.
I'm a pretty easy crier (if my boyfriend were interjecting here he'd make a smart-ass comment about what an understatement that was, and he'd be right, but still he should shut up, especially inside my head like this!) but it'd been awhile since I full-on balled like I did here. This film just hit really close to home. I loved the book when I was a kid for one, it was my favorite, but I had a single mom and was a loud-mouthed brat myself (hard to believe, I know) that ran over her half the time, and Spike just nailed everything there so perfectly for me. So the film really felt like an elegy for my childhood to me - it really captured the spirit of what it felt like, being an impetuous often angry and confused little boy, for good and for bad, and so when Max was leaving the island and saying goodbye I'd gotten so into it all on an almost primal, instinctual, emotional level, well it felt like I was losing my childhood all over again. It really struck a chord, anyway.
I was about to start silently crying, when suddenly I noticed my friend put her hands around her nose and mouth as she gasped for breath. She was convulsing she was crying so hard.
So I avoided being the one-who-cried. But I did end up as the dude-who-was-unsure-of-what-to-do.
While I thought Wild Things was emotionally potent, I found it a little too long winded for my taste. Overall, it was a good film but nothing I would rave about. Anyway, I started getting a little misty-eyed towards the end of my first viewing of Return of the King - and I may have cried the first time I saw The Lion King - but other than that, I've never come close to crying during a film.
Can't wait to see it, but this weekend I finally saw "PA." I did what you and every other blogger told me NOT to do and that is 'don't get caught up in the hype.' And you were right, the trailer totally shows way too much. Other thoughts while watching "PA": They sleep with only a sheet, no comforter? I don't like watching people perform their 'getting ready for bed' rituals. Micah is hot.
Oh, and I sobbed in "Into the Wild" and "Milk." I stumbled out of the theater and just let it all go in the car. My partner was a bit concerned for me.
Wet eyes, with what I can only imagine was a sad smile on my face damn near the entire time. I managed to hold it pretty well, but I almost lost it when they asked, "Will you keep all of the sadness out?" I LOVED this movie, and I think it will hit a lot of people close to home as well.
-VAL
While I was deeply moved while watching WTWTA, I was just so happy that a movie like this existed that I sat there with a deranged smile on my face the whole time. I'm sure I would at least tear up next time.
I spontaneously burst into tears during the "Falling Slowly" scene in "Once." Just so beautiful and unexpected.
They aren't releasing this movie until December in Australia.
I'M SO ANGRY ABOUT THIS!!!!
I found my mind wandering too often during the film, meaning that it just didn't grab me. I was with it up until he got to the island with the monsters, and then it just dragged and dragged and dragged. Good first 15-20 minutes though. Good acting all around as well. But honestly, Dave Eggers just needs to give up on film scripts, it's just not his thing...especially after the atrocious "Away We Go".
Kyle. i kind of agree that it could have been tighter but then i also liked how leisurely it felt so basically i argue with myself ;)
My problem with dissenters describing the middle section as "unfocused" is that the imagination of a child, by its nature, is "unfocused." Max is solving his problems through his imagination, and solving problems, especially as a kid, is always messy and scattered. Maybe I'm rationalizing because of my love for the film, but I think a more focused narrative would have crushed the film's exploration of emotion and tainted its more unique qualities.
Catherine Keener brought me to tears in this movie, but the last time I *sobbed* in the movie theaters was literally a month ago, when I saw Bright Star. It was indescribable. The movie left my heart broken and my senses aroused (not like that, you dirty thing), an incredible mixture of ecstasy, awareness, and grief. Also, Abbie Cornish did the best crying scene in movie history.
stella -- senses aroused is a great way to describe Bright Star. It's almost like you can smell and touch the movie in some spots and you can seriously see it.
loved it.
john great point.
Far From Heaven, for sure. Milk too.
The Hours. (I've never sobbed like that in my life, before or after.) Capote. Finding Nemo, even if my sweetie laughs at me for crying at fish.
I totally agree with Stella and Nathaniel R re Bright Star. a film many will miss out on because it looks on the outside like yet another British period movie. Only this one is very very alive, and Australian actor Abbie Cornish is phenomenal in it. Can't wait for Wild Things, it ain't hitting us down under for another month at least.
Actually Nat, that's a good question....WHAT WAS THE LAST MOVIE THAT MADE YOU SOB LIKE A BABY?
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