I love when my mind can’t comprehend how a movie works so well. I felt this recently with both Gravity and All is Lost. Movies like this continually surprise, offering unexpected but perfectly reasonable developments throughout, while building to a finish that leaves behind a sense of sheer wonder at how they were able to pull off such a feat. Where The Wild Things Are is like this, but it is also a different creature.
It places the viewer squarely in the mind of a child, assuming that the director, like a parent, is in complete control, to the point that this is taken entirely for granted as events unfold. It does this through its use of language, images and Spike Jonze’s entire bag of cinematic tricks. I just can’t see inside that bag. Which is totally fine with me.
Movies like this have a way of reducing us to a childlike state, sitting in a dark room, staring up at a screen of moving light and shadows. We’re transfixed by shiny things. It’s why guys like Steven Spielberg connect with audiences so deeply by capturing that inner child’s appreciation for explaining the world through stories and presenting imagery that astounds us.
Movies that show us something we’ve never seen before put us back in the position of innocence, experiencing things for the first time. Employing child protagonists compounds this sensation when it’s executed successfully. When it’s unsuccessful, surely there are a series of other psychological effects that make the resentment stronger than it would be otherwise.
In films where children are depicted onscreen, emotions tend to take over. But that’s one of the things movies are made for, right?
Do you recall any child protagonists that you think belong on this list? Feel free to add them in the comments section below.