If there’s one movie that Max subscribers are going to watch this month, it’s probably going to be Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. After bombing in theaters, George Miller’s prequel to Max Max: Fury Road is now streaming. But if action isn’t what you need, perhaps the romance of Amelie and the comedy of Beetlejuice are what you’re looking for this month. But for us, the one (HBO) Max movie that you need to watch in August 2024 is Where the Wild Things Are.
Maurice Sendak’s children’s book Where the Wild Things Are is such a perennial hit that chances are very good that you read it while growing up. And if you remember it at all, you should recall that it’s very short. Director Spike Jonze, the man behind Being John Malkovich, co-wrote and helmed this adaptation, while also expanding and modernizing the story. There were definitely some detractors when Jonze signed on to this project, but he proved he was up to the task. Where the Wild Things Are is a wonderful movie for kids of all ages, and we’re sharing the reasons why you should stream it this month.
Max is presented as a real child
A lot of movies and TV shows fall into the trap of presenting children as tiny adults who are mature beyond their years and quick with a witty comment. Max is none of those things in Where the Wild Things Are. As portrayed by newcomer Max Records (yes, that’s his real name), the character who shares his first name is anything but mature. At the beginning of the movie, Max is more angry and afraid than anything else. He feels threatened by his mom’s new boyfriend, Adrian, as played by Poor Things actor Mark Ruffalo. And it’s not because of anything Adrian did; it’s because he’s there with Connie (Catherine Keener) instead of Max’s father, and that makes Max mad.
Similarly, Max acts out after getting upset with his sister, Claire (Pepita Emmerichs), before having an intense confrontation with his mother that spirals out of control. Not even Max knows how to control himself, and he acts like a beast almost exactly like the Wild Things of his imagination. Most of the movie takes place in Max’s fantasyland, but in these early scenes, the film grounds us in Max’s reality.
The creature effects and performances are amazing
One of the smartest decisions that Jonze made in this movie was the choice to avoid going full CGI with the Wild Things. Instead, the film brings these creatures to life with a mixture of puppetry, CGI, and suit performers, which gives them an added sense of reality when they share the screen with Max. That may have also been the best way to capture the strange proportions of the creatures from the book.
The late James Gandolfini lent his voice to Carol, the leader of the Wild Things, and you can kind of hear the Tony Soprano in him when he gets angry. But in his own way, Carol is just as much a child as Max is, with even less impulse control. The other Wild Thing voices include Paul Dano, Lauren Ambrose, Chris Cooper, Forest Whitaker, and Catherine O’Hara (The Last of Us season 2).
All of the performers captured the essence of the characters. But the performers in the suits also deserve their due. They were the ones who had to interact with Records on set and create the on-screen relationship between Max and the creatures.
It captures the spirit of Maurice Sendak’s illustrations
If you’ve ever read Where the Wild Things Are, then you probably know that Sendak’s art style is very much his own and not a traditional look. Getting that visual aspect right was probably one of the most difficult parts of this film. Luckily, Jonze had a $100 million budget, the creative vision, and the right collaborators to bring this project to life.
The scenes in reality are good, but this movie really comes to life when Max is on the island of the Wild Things and he declares himself king. From that point on, it’s a visual feast, and a storybook come to life. There’s a very surreal sensation seeing the creatures in their habitat, and that makes it easier to accept them as completely realized characters.
The ending is emotionally cathartic
As much as Max enjoys spending time with the Wild Things, he makes some mistakes when he’s among them as well. Conversely, a handful of the Wild Things are even more immature than Max is, which may make him reconsider how he’s behaved in the real world. When the time comes for Max to leave the island, he’s mentally in a place where he knows what he has to do in reality in order to reconcile with his family. But first, he has to make things right with the Wild Things.
Jonze elicits all of these emotions on screen, and Max’s return brings him full circle with a chance to make better choices in the future. That gives the film a little more weight as it wraps things up, and it also tugs at the heartstrings as well.
Watch Where the Wild Things Are on Max.
