DISQUS

ward · 2 months ago

You've nearly struck gold in this review, but narrowly missed it. The problem with the Jonze/Eggers "Wild Things" is that it feels like it was made to be critiqued, rather than watched.

It's full of a-ha moments when an educated viewer witnesses yet another literary trope. We move from allegory to foreshadowing to . . . , well, to all the things that make a story complex. But, during the trip, there is no rising action, no climax, no denouement, all the things that make a story a story. It's episodic without learning. Picaresque without achievement. Bildungsroman without development. Even the densest moviegoer understands that he isn't watching a boy on a quest: he's watching therapy, or worse.

Instead of spending so much time anthropomorphizing Freud and Jung, and trying to impress us with their take on Campbell, they should have made an entertaining movie, and part of that is simply knowing what it means to tell a story.

Marty · 2 months ago

Mario, I like your very cogent review! My main criticism was one tempered out of emotion, or lack thereof. As lame as it sounds, I hoped to cry, be emotionally moved, and the original trailer gave me such an emotional 'kick' and brought back fond memories of childhood, plus it came out of the blue (at least for me), so when I watched the movie in its entirety, I was disappointed that it didn't move me as expected. Of course, it was brilliantly acted, directed, etc. and I don't expect every movie I see to provoke an emotional response in me, but this one, I hoped, truly would, and I was a little disappointed that it didn't. Perhaps the problem is with our expectations, or perhaps the movie really did fail to move not just me, but it would seem my girlfriend too, and many in the audience at the screening I attended.

mario · 2 months ago

Thanks, Marty.

I think this is a fair criticism of the film. I have to attest, the trailer nails a sense of nostalgia that the film doesn't necessarily encapsulate. For the kids (at least my daughter's experience), she identified with his behavior because she is in the thick of that now. As an adult, it had an air of nostalgia, but not the universal sentimentalized sauce that the trailer exhibited. For me, I was the kid that built forts, made up stories, lived inside of worlds I'd created, and said brutal things when angry, hurt, or sad. The nostalgia was there, but not in the form of a pretty picture.

Ultimately, I think the majority of folks entered the theater expecting an emotional roller coaster joy ride through memory lane ("I laughed, I cried"), or perhaps an adventure. Being met with a film more about being human, and the experiences that come along with it, can be off-putting with expectations such as these.

I'll admit it. I cried throughout at times. The emotional punches are definitely more subtle. They exist in connections, perhaps a little too subdued at times. Nonetheless, I was pretty moved.

Thanks for reading!