Still trying to find the perfect holiday gift? Why not give Wholphin #9 to that special someone in your life? The latest issue of McSweeney’s always-impressive DVD magazine has something for everyone! Highlights include an electrifying Elmore Leonard adaptation directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (featuring amazing papercraft set design by Cat Solen), a scene from the most awkward acting class of all time, and a French animation about the bizarre side effects of getting hit by an asteroid.
But wait, I’m burying the lede: Wholphin #9 includes not one but three never-released short films directed by Spike! Marcel Dzama animates a glimpse at what really went on behind the scenes of Where the Wild Things Are, Sonny Gerasimowicz portrays Maurice Sendak’s viciously self-doubting inner demon, and Catherine Keener aides Spike in the dramatic reenactment of a distinctly Sendakian childhood memory from the 1939 World’s Fair. These tiny treasures will whet your appetite for the sumptuous special features that are sure to supplement the impending home video release of Where the Wild Things Are!
If you happen to be in Tokyo today, you’re in luck! Internationally rad fashion boutique Opening Ceremony is hosting a Q&A and signing with Spike at 7:00pm (doors open at 6:00). Stop by the Shibuya-based store and say hello! Here are the details from the Opening Ceremony blog:
Come to POTLUCK at Opening Ceremony Tokyo for our Q and A with Spike Jonze! All week long we’ll be showing Spike’s films ranging from legendary skate videos, music videos and movies. Stop in to check out all of the WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE merchandise we’ve created, ranging from faux furs, tee’s, books and shoes, to Pamela Love’s jewelry collection, and more. The best part about it is that you can get all that stuff signed by Spike on December 16th at 7pm (or 19:00)!
Doors open at 6pm so make sure to secure your spot!!!!! Tokyo here we come!!! Please rsvp to email hidden; JavaScript is required.
Opening Ceremony Tokyo
Shibuya Seibu Movida
21-1, Udawaga-Cho, Shibuya-Ku, Tokyo
Today is Where the Wild Things Are takeover day on the website of UK lifestyle magazine Huck! They’ve temporarily transformed the whole site to celebrate the British release of the movie, and it includes videos, exclusive interviews, rare Maurice Sendak art, a tribute to Spike’s seminal skate film, Video Days, a Wild Things drawing contest and much more! Go check it out before the wild rumpus ends.
To celebrate the DVD release of Aaron Rose’s epic art documentary, Beautiful Losers, approximately a million rad people and entities including Amoeba Music and Oscilloscope Laboritories are coming together to host an all-out bash at Cinefamily in Los Angeles. Spike, Harmony Korine, Geoff McFetridge, and Mike Mills are just a few of the contributors to the special event, screening rare short films and exclusive interviews. Tickets are available here.
That’s right this Sunday our favorite bookstore Family plays host to the release of the fantastic making of WTWTA book Heads On And We Shoot. Spike’s going to be signing copies, shaking hands and kissing babies. Promises to be a blast. Family is a wonderful, but petite place so early arrival is suggested.
Sunday Nov. 15th
Family Books
436 N Fairfax Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036-1717
(323) 782-9221
Where do you draw the line between what’s an appropriate horror film for children and what’s “too scary”? Blanket statements can’t be taken seriously– every kid is different, after all. Maybe Maurice Sendak hit it on the head in the titular laissez-faire sentiment of Spike and Lance’s documentary: “You can tell them anything you want.” People are free to raise their kids however they see fit– and sheltering children from the macabre, gory, violent side of cinema is certainly an acceptable interpretation of parental protection. But let’s be real: your kids will probably jump at a chance to revel in an R-rated scarefest at their next sleepover. Wouldn’t you?
There are at least a handful of great horror films specifically geared towards a more family-friendly audience. The interdimensional mind trip of Disney’s Watcher in the Woods remains a classic of the genre. Lady in White is a less famous though equally bizarre kiddie fright flick that attempts to emulate Spielbergian grandiosity, sporting stunning visuals and a meandering plot that centers around one boy’s traumatic night locked inside a coat closet. Paperhouse is an atmospheric, psychological tale of terror staged within the tortured dreams of a highly imaginative British girl.
Then there are more mature horror films about kid heroes battling a world of terrifying adults, like The People Under the Stairs, Pan’s Labyrinth and Phantasm. Though the young actors starring in these movies would be barred from seeing them by the MPAA, they still operate within a world of childlike wonder. Yes, somehow these are still children’s horror films. Which horror movies for or about kids do you love?
So, as you may or may not know “We Once Were Once a Fairytale” Spike’s short film video collab with Kanye hit the internets last week a little bit shy of its official release via itunes. In honor of the event we thought we’d add a bit of unseen footage to the pile – Enjoy!
Last weekend’s press junket for Where the Wild Things Are was like an extended debutante ball– a strangely rigid and somewhat superfluous ceremony by which a crowd of adult strangers decide when a girl has become a woman. To help shepherd their baby into the world, Spike and his band of cohorts fielded questions from a deluge of revolving journalists for three days in a dimly lit nook of the Beverly Hilton.
With many of these interviews lasting no longer than 3-4 minutes, it’s unsurprising that variation was scarce. “What was it like working with Spike?” became a nauseating refrain in the endless hours of Max Records’ interrogations. Sometimes there’d be curveballs, like when a bald Scotsman posed pseudo-esoteric questions dancing around the periphery of awkwardness, like this one: “Where does Spike end and Adam begin?” On the other end of the odd question spectrum, we scratched our heads as a spaced out Japanese lady muttered almost (but not quite) poetic non sequiturs about Spike being a 39-year-old man in a 9-year-old boy’s wolf suit. Spike, I have to say– you handled it all with admirable charm.
At least the set-up was comfortable– Warner Brothers hired the fantastic crew behind Space 1520’s pop-up shop to construct a fantasy haven of barren branches and dry leaves for the occasion. Led by Stephen Hill (seen above, sticking his face in a Wild Things comic foreground), the pop-up boys whipped together a glorious woodsy environment that magically obscured the sterile conference rooms playing host to this unique set of alien interactions.
When I swung by on the press event’s final afternoon, lunch was a fancy buffet (a contradiction that Shawn Records reveled in) where Spike’s dad, Arthur, told us how he’d posed as a studio executive during several interviews, until his cover was blown by an intrepid journalist who recognized him as the elder Jonze. Max loaded up on exotic desserts before heading over to Catherine Keener’s place for a sleepover with her son, Clyde, and everyone parted ways as the ceremony finally came to an end. Where the Wild Things Are had undergone the media’s rigorous rite of passage and was finally on her way to the world at large.
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