Where the Wild Things Are
(Starring Max Record, Catherine Keener; Voices of James Gandolfini, Catherine O’Hara, Paul Dano, Chris Cooper, Forest Whitaker)
Two characters will rip out your heart in the wondrous and strange flick Where the Wild Things Are. One is a bratty young boy (Max Record) who hasn’t yet learned to control himself, and the other is a monster (Jamies Gandolfini) with the same wild, animal instincts. Neither boy nor beast does this with many words; they just give you a look, and your heart leaves your body.
Max is a deeply lonely mess of a kid filled to the brim with the destructive urges. Like so many of us when we were younger —and some of us as adults—Max is a reckless animal desperately searching for a crazy tribe to belong to. After a colossal tantrum is leashed upon his mom (the luminous Catherine Keener), Max escapes to a mystical land filled with fantastic monsters. These very dangerous creatures seem to know exactly how Max feels. They’re also scary enough that they may accidentally eat Max up in their run-away exuberance.
Wild Things perfectly captures the look and spirit of the famous children’s book by gay artist Maurice Sendak. It can also be frustrating for some audiences. Much of the movie is just too emotionally fraught for smaller kids. The camera work is hand-held, purposefully looking homespun. People might also get frustrated that the film is short on narrative and dialogue, blithely skipping around on the random whims of the boy and his monsters.
However, these are also the strengths of this unusual film. Boys do think they can fix depression with a dirt clod fight, leaping from one crazy idea to the next. Kids can’t always articulate their fury and fear. Director Spike Jonze (who also directed the fantastic and weird films Being John Malkovich and Adaptation) trusts strange visuals and pure emotion to tell his tale. Even the monsters—brilliantly created utilizing Jim Henson’s Creature Shop and computer graphics—are visceral miracles of suspicion and sadness, joy and rage. Throughout the experience, there is a certain do-it-yourself feel that is pure and elemental.
Just as Sendak’s book relied on elaborate and rough-hewn visuals, so does Jonze’s movie. So, yes, there isn’t much plot. However, just look into that rambunctious boy’s face and you will witness the complete understanding of an energetic, destructive young soul looking for a clan of likeminded ogres to be loved by.
Good Hair
(Documentary by Chris Rock)
It must have been heart-breaking. One day gifted comedian Chris Rock’s older daughter asked him a question. She looked up at her dad and asked him why she didn’t have good hair. In that one moment, Rock realized his consuming love for his daughter was being overwhelmed by a culture that would tell the girl she was basically ugly and flawed.
This is because the African-American community spends billions of dollars to deny their own genetics. Why? Did someone say that all curly hair is hideous, that a natural-born style was abhorrent, that all tresses must be silky and long and smooth and…well, more like white people’s hair?
Rock points the camera on this world, using its biggest hair convention and a goofy competition as a framework for his exploration of beauty, self-modification, longing and veiled oppression. Good Hair succeeds in part because Rock gently applies humor throughout. He’s also congenial. More importantly, Rock secretly knows how to make a good documentary—adding tension and asking the right questions, letting the audience come to their own conclusions.
In an effort to find the truth, Rock interviews a variety of people including young actress Raven-Simone and uber-lawyer Al Sharpton.
It at first seems monumentally silly. We’re talking about hair here: ornamentation, protection from the elements, a bodily excretion of dead proteins, mostly keratin. Soon Rock uncovers the dangers of the chemical used to relax the curl in this hair. He talks to four-year-olds getting the acid smeared on their scalp, proclaiming that it’s the thing every girl does. Rock even goes to India to explore how the hair sacrificed by Hindus for free ends up being a billion dollar market proudly displayed in American weaves.
“You need to modify yourself.” is something that gets said to a lot of African-American women. Actually, we all hear it at some point. Looks matter. Fashion supposedly matters, and if you don’t think so and adjust accordingly, you’re lacking something.
Rock is a great entertainer, though, and he knew he could battle this cultural blitzkrieg with empathy and humour.
