Last week, I saw the new movie Where the Wild Things Are. This is a movie for adults who remember Sendak's book from their childhood; it is not for their children. It's a terrifying, sad, wonderful movie.
At first, it had me thinking of Fight Club -- not because of any particular similarity in story or storytelling between the two films, but because each tells a kind of coming-of-age story about a powerless male in a world without masculine role models. But while Tyler/The Narrator of Fight Club descends into nihilism, Max among his Wild Things seems to achieve a degree of understanding, at least subconsciously, of how he fits into his family.
Update: Terry Gross has a retrospective of some very interesting past interviews with Maurice Sendak. He comes across as a wise and interesting man, and the new film feels very aligned with the vision he describes for the book.
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