I wrote a couple of movie reviews in college that I was really proud of, but I've never written one outside an academic setting, or one that didn't relate to some other book or article I read or should have read. Is this my first?
(what makes a good movie review? should it be limited to how great - or lousy - it is, or is it better if you analyze other aspects like themes and relevance and stuff? is it ok to throw in a bunch of "I feel"s? who even reads this shit?)
I was talking with a friend - I'll call her "Mary" - who recommended the movie to me. She told me she watched it with a kid, and we were talking about what movies are appropriate for kids. I'm really not sure about this one, but I don't have any kids of my own, so I guess I don't have to worry about it much. Maybe it's just because I'm sleep deprived or something, but it felt really heavy, especially for claymation. I cried a couple times - which is not to say that it's a constant downer; it's got some hilarious and cute scenes, but it wasn't a movie like Bio-Dome or Plan 9 From Outer Space where you can just laugh it off and go about your day. On the other hand, I have a friend whose ex was bored by Todd Solondz's Happiness (spoiler alert: Happiness was an amazing movie, but it probably won't put a smile on your face - at least not a smile you'd feel good about.)
So - was Mary and Max uplifting? Kinda, although it was full of drab colors - a lot of grays and browns. It also had a lot of deaths in it, so that might be a reason to keep it away from kids. But "Mary" told me the kid she watched it with wanted to watch it again several times, so who knows? Other deep or adult themes: drug addiction, religion, fate, sex - some of these things are spelled out in print, so maybe it's safer for babies or illiterate people. Maybe especially babies, although even babies might get scared. But babies are always crying for no obvious reason, right? Babies are crazy ;)
I found the plot refreshingly unpredictable - there really wasn't an Act I, II, and III. It was also full of weirdness and non-sequiturs, which I'm a big fan of. There's a lot of lines I want to quote, but I'm not going to because I'm feeling spent, and I can't decide what to quote and what to leave out. Hysterically funny stuff, profound stuff...
Overall, I'd recommend it to wierdos and people who struggle to fit in and work out what to do with their lives - which is a lot of people!
