Box Office

Raves for Where the Wild Things Are

Critics call new Spike Jonze film "profoundly beautiful."

The much-hyped Spike Jonze film adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s beloved Where the Wild Things Are hit theaters nationwide on Friday night to mostly positive reviews. Where The Wild Things Are is Spike Jonze’s third feature film and the project—over a decade in the making—boasts a screenplay by Dave Eggers, Tom Hanks as a producer, young Max Records as the hero, and Catherine Keener and James Gandolfini as characters’ voices. “Profoundly beautiful and affecting,” Entertainment Weekly's review read, calling the film “a breath-taking act of transubstantiation.” The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Chicago Tribune also give favorable reviews. The New York Post and Los Angeles Times were a little more harsh (the Post calls it “overly earnest” and “a noble failure”), but the L.A. Times still considers the film a shoo-in as an Oscar contender, which has recently expanded the Best Picture category to 10 nominations. The film scored 71 at MetaCritic and 67 at Rotten Tomatoes.