I know this post is about a month late, but I wanted to take the time to digest the films I saw at the end of December.  Naw… just kidding.  I just kept putting it off, but that did allow me to see three more films from last year.  In total I saw 31 moviess that were released last year.  Here they are ordered from my least to most favorite, with a few words of wisdom about each.

#31: BRUNO

It’s a shame I have to rank this film at the bottom because there are some great laughs in it, including Bruno getting stuck to the curtains at a fashion show he snuck into while wearing a Velcro suit and Bruno awkward conversing with Alabama hunters about which “Sex & the City” characters they are most similar to.  But the film falls well below its obvious comparison, Borat.  This is due to two main factors: lack of a plot and an unlikable main character.  I know that the film is ultimately about exposing and mocking peoples’ homophobia, and it does accomplish that fairly well.  But the story meanders all over the place (including physical locations), following Bruno’s quest to be famous.  Borat was loosely structured as well but at least it followed his journey to Los Angeles to claim Pamela Anderson as his wife.  And Borat the character was lovably naive, making him much easier to root for than the fame-hungry Bruno.

Also, my aversion to depictions of non-adult human things talking like adults (animals, babies, etc.) reached new heights with that creepy, unfunny, talking penis.

#30: DEAD SNOW

You have to be a certain type of person to even see a film that features Nazi zombies, much less be excited about it.  I’m that type of person.  But this film really didn’t do it for me.  It wasn’t campy enough for me to ignore how ridiculous it was.  And they didn’t even have that much fun with the fact that the zombies were Nazis, aside from a guy who was half-Jewish wondering if they would really want to kill him.  Add to this the fact that there were no creative deaths, and I’d call it a big missed opportunity.

However, I must give it credit for something I’d never seen before:  a human biting a zombie.

#29: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

It made a ton of money by virtue of having a teeny-tiny budget and benefiting from a marketing campaign that described it as being terrifying.  I was impressed with the seamless effects but not frightened at all.  All of the potential scares are telegraphed since they all occur when the camera is static.  It’s a shame they didn’t focus more on the creepy stuff (like the possessed woman staring at her sleeping boyfriend for hours without moving) instead of trying to get the audience to jump with the big scares.  While her performance was good, I found the guy totally annoying and, as I dubbed him, the “whitest white guy in a horror movie ever,” as he refused to believe the supernatural stuff that was happening despite experiencing it first-hand and having video evidence.

And while the marketing people effectively did their job by getting butts in seats, the trailer also gave away the end of the movie.

#28: TERMINATOR SALVATION

The action was pretty decent, and I found a lot to like in Sam Worthington’s performance.  But this movie made even less sense than the previously existing Terminator timeline.  Why bother capturing Kyle Reese and using him as bait to lure in John Conner when just killing Reese would erase Conner’s very existence?  The bigger problem though is that, while the film did a good job of depicting a bleak, CGI-heavy future, it wasn’t as enjoyable as the films set in present day.  Future meeting past is more intriguing than two different sides fighting each other.  And seeing the human-like Terminators interact with regular humans, either by killing them or bonding with them, was an element I really missed.

Finally, the CGI’d young Arnold Terminator looked pretty stupid.  It’s not as if every single Terminator they made looked like him, right?  Wouldn’t the good guys quickly figure out that when you see that guy, you should blow him up?

#27: COLD SOULS

Paul Giamatti is fun to watch in just about anything, and the idea of the film is very Charlie Kaufmanesque.  But while the character’s adventure to retrieve his soul takes him to some wacky places, the director never plays with the narrative, structure, or look of the film, which would have aided the bizarre concept.  It earned a few laughs but never connected with me on a deeper level.

But I do love the idea that souls could possibly look like chickpeas.

#26: THE INVENTION OF LYING

I’d had very high hopes for this film ever since I first heard of it.  It’s a great idea with an amazing cast and is written and directed by Ricky Gervais.  How could it go wrong?  Well for starters, it’s a lot more serious than any of the trailers hinted at.  And it spends a great deal of time promoting the idea that God and religion are lies and wouldn’t exist in a society that only told the truth.  Gervais is an atheist, but the film seems to say that, even if religion is made up, it’s ultimately a good thing.  So my problem was not how it portrayed religion but that it devoted too much time to this idea and wasn’t very funny while doing so.

But the biggest problem is that Gervais’ character continues to puruse Garner’s character even after she tells him point blank that she likes him but won’t marry him because their children wouldn’t be beautiful.  We’re supposed to excuse her behavior because she’s not allowed to lie.  But the truth is, she’s a bitch.  I didn’t like her at all and therefore had no reason to hope that he would end up with her.

#25: ZOMBIELAND

The performances by the four leads (especially Woody Harrelson) were great, and they played very well off each other.  But despite the humor, I had a lot of problems with this movie.  (Again, I’m inclined to like zombie films, so it’s not the content.)  I didn’t like the voice-over or the text on the screen or the random cuts to people not involved in the story.  In fact, story was one of the biggest problems with the film, because there wasn’t one.  They had no purpose and no real goal (getting to the amusement park barely counts.)  Strangely enough, this might have worked in a straight zombie film, highlighting the pointlessness of having a “mission” when all is lost.  But in a comedy, I found it to be a problem.

The only real plot begins in the third act when the two female characters, who up to this point have been resourceful enough to survive on their own, become idiots and have to be rescued.

I also had a problem with the tonal shifts.  While I appreciate trying to insert some drama into the comedy, the situation is so traumatic that you either have to take it completely seriously or mock it; there’s no middle ground.  For instance, I would have liked it much more if Woody really was missing a puppy.

This film would have been a lot lower on this list were it not for one of the greatest cameos where an actor plays himself.  Seriously, it’s worth seeing just for that.

#24: OBSERVE & REPORT

There have been many years when two films about a similar topic hit theaters (Armageddon/Deep Impact, Volcano/Dante’s Peak, A Bug’s Life/Antz), but never have they been so different.  I’m referring to Paul Blart: Mall Cop which I did not see but sadly many people did.  I suppose since I didn’t view it I could be wrong, but unless it involves sex perverts, drug use, drunken sex, and violence against skateboarding teenagers, this film is much, much darker.

That was the biggest surprise, just how dark it was.  I realized read somewhere that it was an homage to Taxi Driver, and I can totally see that.  A man of simple means wants to make a big difference.  At first he does it in a bad way but eventually he uses them for good (sort of).

If you’re not a fan of humor so dark that it’s uncomfortable at times, this is not the film for you.  But I got a lot more than I expected and was pleasantly surprised.

#23: A SERIOUS MAN

Hopefully I’ll appreciate it more after a second viewing, but this movie just didn’t do it for me.  It was really funny at times, but the situations veered too quickly from somewhat believable to crazy insane.  And there were WAY too many dream sequences, including one that went on for so long and ended so abruptly that it felt like a huge cop-out.  I also was not a fan of the ending, which came from seemingly nowhere.  I suppose that was sort of the point of the film, but that doesn’t mean it works.

There were very dynamic characters, as there always are with the Coens, and that’s what led to me enjoying it so much despite the problems I had with it.

#22: GRACE

Since this was an independent horror film, let me briefly explain the plot (though I think the picture does a fairly decent job).  A woman is involved in an accident that kills her husband and unborn child.  She decides to carry it to term anyway (which apparently a number of women in real life actually do).  When it’s born, it comes back to life.  But then strange things start to happen, and she discovers that it needs blood, HUMAN blood, to survive.

In other words: zombie baby.  Or a really messed up remake of Little Shop of Horrors.  Though it goes a bit far at times, the film does a great job in setting up the main character as skeptical of modern medicine (which plays out in a number of ways) and vegan (which, aside from adding some humor, shows the length a mother is willing to go for her child).

There are some laughs in here, but they come from being uncomfortable, not from gags.  The movie plays perfectly straight, and while it has some flaws, it would have fallen flat on its face if not for the actress’ stellar performance.

Unfortunately, it suffers from what many horror films do: having a bad climax where characters do stupid things.

#21: FUNNY PEOPLE

This could have been a much better film if Judd Apatow had figured out what story he was trying to tell.  A super-rich, lonely comedian coming to terms with the fact that he’s dying is compelling.  So is a super-rich, lonely comedian trying to win back his old flame who’s now married and has kids.  And so is a struggling comedian suddenly finding himself working for a super successful comedian only to learn that, despite his own lack of money, his life might actually be better than his mentor’s.

But this film is all of those stories, and never at the same time.  However, the ultimate goal of a comedy is to make the audience laugh, and this one was hilarious.  It just could have been a lot better if it had been streamlined.

Apatow does know how to mix comedy and drama though.  Just watch the scene where Rogen’s character makes Sandler’s a mix CD.

#20: HARRY POTTER & THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE

I’m going to be totally honest here; I don’t remember much about this movie other than the fact that I liked it.  And considering I’ve only read the first book in the series, I’d probably sound like a fool if I tried to say too much about the story.  It was wonderfully dark, engaging, and thrilling.  And those things in the cave near the end were really, really terrifying.

The reveal, or the fact that it was even a mystery in the first place, or the half-blood prince is a real let down though.

#19: WATCHMEN

This was a case where reading the source material ahead of time both helped and hurt this film.  Had I not read it, I don’t think I’d have gotten the point of the film and would not have enjoyed it as much.  But having read it, there was no way the film was going to measure up.  It was also hurt by the fact that a script I helped write was essentially a comical take on the villain’s idea in this film: that attacking people and blaming it on someone else would help create peace.

There are some great visuals and a lot of depth for a film featuring people dressing up in costumes to fight crime.  But overall, it didn’t resonate with me on a deeper level.

#18: I LOVE YOU, MAN

Sure, there are some story problems.  But there are also TONS of laughs, most coming from the great “bromantic” chemistry between Rudd and Segel.  And that’s what ultimately endeared the film to me; it did such an amazing job of taking all the tropes from romantic comedies and flipping them to be about two guys.  There’s the pining over wanting a relationship.  The meet-cute.  The misunderstanding.  The break-up.  The reconcilation.

Paul Rudd deserves much of the credit though.  I don’t even know if I would have liked this movie were it not for him.

#17: THE BLIND SIDE

I’ll listen to specific complaints, but anyone who straight up hates this film is simply a, well, hater.  The biggest criticism I heard prior to seeing it was that the character of Michael Oher was a “big silent ox.”  This critique was so widespread that I went in expecting him to talk about a third as much as he actually did.  He’s not big and dumb; he’s just not talkative most of the time.  I can empathize.

Yes, it’s the type of story that, were it not based on real life, would seem preachy and perhaps even slightly racist in a way.  But guess what; it did happen.  And though I’m sure some of the details were changed, the core of the story is an emotional tale of a woman (and eventually a family) who can’t ignore someone in need.

Bullock’s performance has already been awarded a Golden Globe.  Some will point to the fact that it’s a weak year for women’s roles, and I won’t argue with that.  But I will argue with those that say she has no business being nominated for an Oscar.  She played a tough, sensitive, feisty, loving Southern woman about as well as anyone could.

I also thought the film did a good job of creating sympathy for the “bad guys,” namely Oher’s drug addicted mother and his college drop-out friends who carried guns.  No, we didn’t feel for them as much as we do the “villains” on The Wire, but in a film that could have easily depicted the situation as (to use a poor choice of words) black and white, I was pleased to see some gray.

#16: THE DAMNED UNITED

I didn’t see this one until this month.  Not important except that I watched it on the Friday that the rumors about Pete Carroll going to the NFL started to have some reality to them.  And this film is about a (European) football manager who ditches a good thing for bigger challenges, only to ultimately fail because he’s nothing like the guy they had before and the players won’t play for him.  Obviously it’s not EXACTLY like the Carroll situation, but it was hard to ignore, especially since a prominent character was named Pete.  (And as a side note, Sheen looks a lot like Urban Meyer, at least in this film.)

The beauty of this film, as with most others starring Sheen, is in his compelling performance.  He’s lovable and incredibly cocky all at once.  And while at first he backs it up with results, when he later fails, you still honestly believe he’s the best there is.  (Except I really don’t know what he DID for the team, since he didn’t coach and another guy found the talent.)

#15: AVATAR

Should this be judged on the “theater-going experience” or on its quality as a film?  It will surely lose most of the magic without the benefit of a 3D IMAX screen, but then again, James Cameron did not set out to make a TV movie.  It does a fantastic job of transporting you to a world entirely of his creation and immersing you in it for 2 hours and 40 minutes that (most of the time) do not seem that long.  It didn’t take long to forget that I was watching something in 3D, which is a good thing.  The technology was used to aid the storytelling, not to blatantly stand out.  And you’re able to connect with the alien creatures enough that you soon forget how different they look; they become just other characters.

The problem though, is that they are generic characters, like everyone in the film.  When based solely on its story, it feels generic, predictable, and heavy-handed.

What would have helped it a lot is if it had dealt a little more with the fact that the main character, who as a human needs a wheelchair, can walk, run, and jump in his avatar body.  They do deal with this as soon as he’s uploaded, but I was surprised and disappointed that he never mentioned this to the female Nav’i, or at least that it wasn’t a revelation to her when she discovered it.  That would have been a real human emotion to relate to.

Ultimately, I saw other films that awed me with their effects and totally transported me to another world while giving me a deeper emotional connection to the characters, including the next one on my list.

#14: FANTASTIC MR. FOX

Somehow, giving the weird quirks and personality traits that Wes Anderson loves to bestow on his characters to animals instead of human beings made it a lot more believable.  The film was a short jaunt with very little story.  (He decides to steal again why exactly?  Who cares?  It’s fun!)  Seeing all the different animals and there personalities is what made the film so funny, and the stop-motion animation was a marvel to behold.

And I loved the signature “thhk-thhk.”  (That’s my best attempt at spelling the sound he made.)

#13: TAKEN

The first act is tedious and unbelievable (and that’s saying something considering the rest of the story), and the very end is cheesy.  But everything between?  Totally kick-ass.  Neeson is a force to be reckoned with.  Or rather, he’s a force you want to stay out of the way of.  The pure badassery of the film was summed up in a scene where I thought he was scoping a place out to plan a secret attack later but instead he just decided to kill everybody right then and there.

It’s also the ultimate “I told you so” film for a parent to show their kid.

#12: STAR TREK

J. J. Abrams sure knows how to open a movie.  Which was a brilliant move to capture the attention of any non-Trekkies (like myself) who had decided to give it a try.  I was hooked from the get-go.  And by meeting Spock as a child and making Kirk a punk kid, it was much easier to get invested in them as characters and their rivalry.  Throw in some time-travel, and you’ve got a recipe for a really fun time.

#11: THE ROAD

Having just recently re-read the book and decided that it might be my favorite of all-time, I knew the film wasn’t going to measure up.  But Hillcoat (the director) did a commendable job of putting the bleak, desolate, dark future on celluloid.  The most harrowing image from the book was left out of the film, and at first I was disappointed that it wasn’t willing to go to that extreme.  But after reading a comment where someone said it wouldn’t have worked on-screen, I have to agree.  In the book, it’s your own conjuring of the horror that makes it so hard to stomach.  Shown on film, it would lose much of the shock and just seem gratuitous.

Another particularly grim part of the book was expanded on, perhaps to make up for the omission.  The point is, the film still managed to get to those dark places, which is important because you need that in order to see the beauty of the child’s innocence, how he’s still willing to love and help others despite everything he’s seen.

My book club had varying opinions over how old the boy in the story is supposed to be.  While the film never says directly, there’s an obvious age range by virtue of having a person to look at.  And while I still prefer to view the book’s character as much younger, a younger actor wouldn’t have been able to pull off what this kid did.  There were times where I didn’t like his performance, but the movie wouldn’t have worked if he wasn’t as good as it was.

One major quibble: lots of voice-over that WASN’T directly from the book.  The book is so well written that if you’re going to have voice-over, it should ALL be from the text.

#10: THE HANGOVER

Not to get too technical on you, but this film had one of the best “beginning of Act Twos” I’ve ever seen in a comedy.  That would be the morning they wake up and start to see all the results of the night they don’t remember.  Yes, most of these jokes were shown in the trailer, but it’s not the script’s fault that the film was advertised that way.  It’s really a mystery film in a way except the characters are trying to solve things from their own life; sort of a Memento if the main character had just been wasted instead of having memory problems.

You’ve given a trashed room, a baby, a tiger, a hospital bracelet, a police car, and a guy locked in your trunk.  How do all of these things piece together to help you find your missing friend?  Though the third act (or at least the second half of it) is a bit of a let-down, it’s fun to see them solve the mystery.

The three leads work well together, and Zach’s humor is what really delivers most of the jokes, of which there are plenty.  And that’s really the biggest measuring stick for a comedy.

#9: UP IN THE AIR

It deserves a lot of credit for strong characters, especially the two female leads.  Their beliefs about life and love couldn’t be more different, one seeming resigned and jaded, the other overly optimistic to the point of being naive.  (Of course, as it turns out, one if a hypocrite.)  But you believe them both.

Likewise, Clooney’s character is full of depths that I won’t really be able to process until a second viewing.  It would be easy to say that he embraces his lonely, unattached lifestyle only because he’s afraid of really being connected to anybody.  But that just did not seem to be the case to me.  He seemed like a guy who could just not fit in with the “normal” way of living, as evidenced by his awkward interactions with his family.  He definitely has his faults, but it’s not as if he doesn’t care about other people.  The scene that best displays this is when he fires Simmons’ character and convinces him to follow his long given up dreams of being a chef.  He could have easily stuck with the company line or at least avoided getting so personal.  But I felt that he genuinely wanted the guy to be happy.

So I didn’t view his “backpack” speech about not being weighed down by the people around you as a defense mechanism.  He’d never been encountered with something to defend.  Then shortly after he is, he realizes, if not the error of his ways, that they at least deserve a little wiggle room.

My friend and I disagree about what happens at the end of the film, but we both agree that, sooner or later, he’ll make the right choice.

#8: PAPER HEART

It’s hard to say what this film is about, exactly.  It’s a quasi-documentary following the idea that the protagonist, Charlyne Yi, doesn’t believe in love.  (Or, at the least, doesn’t believe that she herself is capable of falling in love.)  Part of the story involves her interviewing couples who share stories from important events in their lives, all centered around their love for each other finally emerging or displaying itself.  These memories are acted out with puppet creations that Yi made herself.  It sounds pretty ridiculous when I write that out, but it is both incredibly funny and truly endearing at the same time.

Meanwhile, there is a fictional storyline centered around Yi dating Michael Cera, her first boyfriend.  While I’d always assumed the scenes themselves were fictional, it was rumored for awhile that they were actually dating in real life.  Turns out that was not the case, but their relationship is very sweet just the same.  And for someone like me who loves Cera, watching him play himself is a delight.

#7: HUMPDAY

Another independent film, so let me give you a brief synopsis.  Two straight guys decide to film themselves having sex in order to win an amateur porn contest, the idea being that, if they can convince the audience that they are indeed straight, it will be something no one has ever seen before.  The film centers around the “will they or won’t they” build up to the big day.

One has a steady job (though I can’t recall what), a wife, and is now trying for children.  The other is, depending on how you look at it, either carefree or immature, still venturing around the world on a whim and taking opportunities and jobs whenever available and necessary.  He’s in town for a brief visit, and the two reconnect.  It’s clear that the “grown-up” one used to be just the same as the other guy and in some ways envies him.  While at a party, he partakes in some drugs, and upon hearing about the porn contest, comes up with the idea and agrees to it, even going so far as to make a hotel reservation.

From there, it becomes a sort of stand-off.  The roving friend appreciates the idea but understands that his friend can’t actually go through with it because of his life situation.  Wanting to prove that he can still be “adventurous,” the family man states that he can do whatever he wants.  It’s quite humorous to see this male posturing, the idea that neither wants to back down and look like a wuss, when the ultimate result would be having sex with each other.

Despite the somewhat outlandish premise, the film is neither vulgar (much less than an Apatow film) nor unrealistic.  And I must praise the filmmakers for making the wife character caring, loving, forgiving, and understanding.  In other words, a great wife.  Though she has her frustrations with her husband’s friend, she isn’t a huge jerk about it.

I won’t say how the film ends.  (And in case you think the picture has given something away, it’s still of them talking about whether or not they should do it.)

#6: INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

This one grew on me after time.  Tarantino does whatever he wants, but it mostly all works.  While some of the scenes seem to go on forever, it’s sort of a testament to how well he can keep the suspense going.  But I do think he’s a little self-indulgent at times in ways that hurt the film.  For instance, the opening scene when the villain pulls out the giant pipe.  It’s a bizarre, comical oddity that almost ruins the beautifully tense scene, and it doesn’t seem to fit with the character at all.

As if the two big scenes weren’t enough suspense, it’s all building up to the question of whether or not he’ll change history, and if, how it will happen.  Along the way we get to meet a lot of fun characters, though one gets such a long introduction and is killed so soon after that I could have done without it.

Finally, Eli Roth is not a good actor.

#5: DISTRICT 9

These days, it’s almost impossible to keep secrets.  This is especially true if you’re a movie opening in thousands of theaters with tons of built-in hype.  So you can image my surprise when, while watching this film, I was genuinely surprised.  It’s not a twist, exactly, but it does change the motivations and abilities of the main character.  It also did a great job of making me care about all the characters, including the aliens, who after a short while didn’t seem alien at all, just a little different.

And to think it did all of this on such a cheap budget.  It makes me sad that Hollywood films spend so much money with hardly anything to show for it.

#4: THE HURT LOCKER

Most people would expect a movie about soldiers who defuse bombs to be intense, but this exceeds all of those expectations.  After awhile it does feel a bit repetitive, what with it being mostly scenes of working with bombs, with an extended sniper battle thrown in for good measure.  But that’s ultimate the point.  It IS repetitive, and the people who do this for a living do it over and over again, to the point that putting their live on the line becomes routine (the same goes for most any soldier).

Some live by the routine (quite literally), while our main character seems to have a death wish, or rather, a desire to push his luck in order to derive the best thrill out of his work.  It’s only later, when we see how inadequate he feels in his family life, that we truly understand his behavior.  Whether he was always like that or the military made him that way, we aren’t told.  But his job has become his life.  Whether he acts the way he does because he wants it all to end or because it’s the only way he truly feels alive remains up for debate.

#3: UP

There have been times when I’ve tried to rank the Pixar films in order from my most to least favorite, but I’ve decided that this is a pointless exercise.  It’s like trying to rate individual bites of a delicious steak.  A steak that I hope I can keep eating for the rest of my life.

Regardless of whether people enjoyed the film as much as I did, I’ve found no one that can do anything less than acknowledge that the montage near the beginning of the film is anything less than genius.  Nevermind that it does such an eloquent job of quickly showing us a character’s life; it’s also got a lot of guts.  Between the subject matter it covers and WALL*E’s nearly dialogue-less first act, it’s starting to seem like the Pixar staff is accepting challenges about what they can and can’t get away with in animated films.  And not only do they get away with it, they do it beautifully.

I’ll admit that, of all the Pixar films, this one is the zaniest.  But I feel that it’s also the most adult.  It’s not just because of the subject matter covered in the montage; it’s the very nature of the movie.  It’s a film about not letting your memories take the place of your life.  How sometimes nostalgia can be a bad thing, whether because the people you idolized as children turn out to be not so great or because you long so much for what was good about the past that you neglect what’s great about the present.

It’s a theme that will go over the heads of almost all the children who see the movie.  And while I recognize it, I can’t truly appreciate it after having only lived 26 years.

This is a film that will mean something different each time I see it, and I love that about it.

#2: (500) DAYS OF SUMMER

This is an appropriate picture not just because it’s an important location in the film but because it gives a view of Los Angeles that most of us don’t see.  To be completely honest, I had no idea the film was even SET in Los Angeles (I thought New York) until, during a dream/musical sequence, the ucla band showed up.  (Which was of course the worst part of the film.)  While it was interesting to see another side of the city I live in, I think depicting the city in an entirely new way served an even bigger purpose, one that was essentially the point of the whole film: sometimes you can’t see what’s really there until someone shows it to you.

The film is a romantic comedy with very little romance.  Yes, there are plenty of cute moments, but love never really comes into play, at least not in the sense where it’s shared by both characters.  But this doesn’t mean the movie doesn’t do a great job accurately portraying a relationship.  It’s just that this isn’t a healthy relationship built to last.  It’s the classic case of one person being way more into the other person (here, the guy into the girl).  It might be his obviously strong affections for her that drive her to act the way she does, or she might just not be a very nice person.  Regardless, his devotion to her causes him to ignore and rationalize her behavior.  I’ve been there.  A lot of you probably have too.  And only after it’s over and can look back on the situation without the personal attachment can you finally realize the truth.

So it’s funny and heartbreaking all at once.  And ultimately, optimistic.  Kind of how I feel about life.

#1: WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

There seems to be a very divise split over people who loved this movie and those who literally hated it.  I think the latter camp wanted a fun-filled romp that celebrated all of the fun of being a kid.  Well, that movie would have been pretty boring and possibly terrible.  This one acknowledges something some of us would rather soon forget: no matter what your life situation, being a kid has its problems too.

Sometimes adults don’t care to understand you.  Even when they do, you’re not always capable of explaining what you feel.  Hell, most of the time you don’t even know why you feel that way.  Lots of emotions come out as anger because that’s the easiest way to get them out.

Unlike Max, I was an only child, lacking an older sister to ignore me.  But I did escape from my life by creating elaborate stories.  It’s not that I needed to escape from anything in particular.  I had all of my needs provided for and a mother who loved me.  But sometimes the only one who could understand what I was feeling was myself, and even then, I needed to create characters in order to figure it out.

That’s the most fascinating part of this film, that all of the characters represent a part of Max’s personality: his loneliness, his feeling of being ignored, his feeling of being helpless, his pessimism, his joy, his hope, and, most prominently, his anger.  (Also, I think there were hints at the type of relationship his parents had before their divorce, judging from some of the dialogue between the creatures.)

Never have figments of the imagination, both on the part of the filmmaker and the main character, felt so real and vulnerable.

And a big shout out to the soundtrack, which I immediately bought.  I’m transported back to the world of the film each and every time I listen to it, which is a testament to how great both of them truly are.

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