Ten years ago David Gordon Green was one of the most promising independent filmmakers. Last year he made two studio comedies: Your Highness and The Sitter. Both of which bombed at the box office. It’s likely this isn’t the final chapter of Green’s career, but perhaps he will move on to non-comedies at for a while. The Sitter stars Jonah Hill as a college dropout who takes a babysitting gig, only for everything to go crazy when his girlfriend wants him to stop by a party so they can have sex for the first time. It’s got just enough weirdness and transgression not to be painful, but The Sitter isn’t that funny. Our review of the film follows after the jump.

Sam Rockwell (Iron Man 2) is in final negotiations to join the R-rated childcare comedy The Sitter; now seems like a good time to catch up with the casting of the project, which has added a few members since our last update.  Jonah Hill stars as “a college dropout who agrees to look after three mischievous children as a favor to his mother.”  According to TheWrap, Rockwell and J.B. Smoove (Curb Your Enthusiasm) play drug dealers whom Hill must deal with when he tries to score drugs for a girl (Ari Graynor).  Naturally the deal goes bad,  and Hill must lead Max Records (Where the Wild Things Are) and newcomers Kevin Hernandez and Landry Bender on the lam through New York City.

David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) will direct The Sitter, which Hill calls “an R-rated, fucked-up Adventures in Babysitting-type of movie.”  The film hits theaters July 15, 2011.

Take a classic work of children’s fiction, as famous for its art as it is it’s story.  Add an idiosyncratic director with a distinct visual style.  Recipe for success, right?  Wrong.  Unfortunately, Spike Jonze’s highly-anticipated adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Caldecott Medal award-winning Where the Wild Things Are falls strangely flat.  Why after the jump…

The joy of list-making continues today as I’m running down who I thought gave the best performances of the year plus what I thought were the best quotes and kills of 2009.  Please keep in mind that regarding the performances, I haven’t seen a few key films that could have very well changed the winners and runners-up: Crazy Heart (Best Actor), The Last Station and Bright Star (Best Actress), and a few others.  If you think there was someone who clearly should’ve won or been nominated, shout out in the comments section and I’ll let you know whether I saw the film or not.

With this disclaimer out of the way, I present to you my picks for the best performers, directors, quotes, and kills of 2009.  Hit the jump to check them all out.

“What do you do with the mad that you feel?
When you feel so mad you could bite.
When the whole wide world seems oh so wrong, and nothing you do seems very right.”

- Fred Rogers

It’s okay for kids to have emotions.  They don’t know how to control them and there will be times when they get out of hand.  And while it’s a parent’s instinct to protect their child from harm, to protect them from their own emotions is a tragedy.  Contrary to its unofficial tagline of “It’s not a kids movie; it’s a movie about being a kid”, “Where the Wild Things Are” is a kids’ movie and it’s a movie about being a kid.  Those who say it’s too much for kids to handle can’t say, “It’s a movie about being a kid” since the film is about the emotions that kids feel every day.  Kids can get scared, they can get confused, but they can also identify with those emotions when they see them.  You can identify with these emotions too if you allow this film to tap into that sense memory of childhood; not through nostalgia or regression but remembering an innocence untarnished by irony, ego, cynicism, and all the baggage we take on as we mature.  But healthy maturity, bittersweet as it is, can not be forced nor restrained.  It must have the freedom to run wild and that means feeling a range of emotions including fear and sadness.

Rather than just take the plot of the children’s book and stuff it with filler, director Spike Jonze and co-writer Dave Eggers understood the feelings and emotions author Maurice Sendak conveyed in his writing and illustrations.  Their understanding is what makes “Where the Wild Things Are” honest, courageous, heartfelt, and the best film of 2009.

As most of you already know, opening tomorrow is director Spike Jonze “Where the Wild Things Are”. By now you’ve all seen the trailers/commercials and have heard the positive rumbling on the interweb. I’m hoping all this chatter has gotten you motivated to see it this weekend. If it hasn’t, let me say one more time….”Where the Wild Things Are” is a film worth seeing. Spike Jonze has crafted a beautiful movie that’s an artistic achievement. If you want more movies that take chances and are original, you’ve got to support them opening weekend. Trust me, it matters.

So to help promote the film, I recently got to speak with Catherine Keener and Max Records. They talked about promoting the film, working together on set, and a lot more. Take a look:

I love Spike Jonze.  I not only love his work, but I also just like seeing the guy be himself.  He’s earned a reputation as being a quirky guy and it’s hard to say that he isn’t when you see him in a clip like this.  I don’t know what exactly the story behind this short film is, but it looks like Jonze just having some fun on the set with his lead actor.  You know you want to see Spike Jonze play a vampire, so just hit the jump to watch it.

On Friday afternoon I participated in a roundtable interview with director Spike Jonze and Max Records for “Where the Wild Things Are”. As I said when I posted the clips, I’ve thought the movie was an honest look at what it’s like being a kid and not being able to express how you feel. The film isn’t a fantasy, and it isn’t trying to sugar coat what you do when you’re upset at the world. While some are clearly going to have issues with the way Spike chose to make “Where the Wild Things Are”, I was spellbound and loving his universe. Also, I loved the way he had characters not say things when other movies would have tons of exposition. Many of his choices are unorthodox, and as an avid moviegoer and a fan of his work, I think he made a great film. Anyway, after the jump you can read what the star of the film and his director had to say about the movie. Also, I did video interviews with the cast, and those will be online the week of release.

I dread video games based off movies.  They’re cheap cash-ins on major movies so that when kids like the movie, parents are in for some pleading and whining until they shell out the $30 – $60 for a crappy game that the studio wanted to hit shelves as fast as possible so it could coincide with the movie’s release date.  I can only think of two good videogames based off movies: “Goldeneye007″ and “The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay” so for all of the movie-based video games ever released, there have been two worth buying.  There’s a ratio that inspires confidence.

Below you’ll find the trailer for the video game of “Where the Wild Things Are”.  I don’t know if this will be the third good video game movie-adaptation but I do know that my excitement for the film is so far ahead of the game that the distance could circle the globe a few hundred times.   The trailer may convince you different and I’m not saying it will be a bad game but it does have the advantage of my ridiculously low expectations. However, it does not raise those expectations as much as it confirms them.  See where your expectations land after seeing the trailer after the jump.

I’m going to lose all perspective when it finally comes time for me to see “Where the Wild Things Are”.  It’s my most anticipated movie of the year and I’m afraid I’m setting myself up to the point where I’m about to do a story with a headline, “I’m still excited for WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE”.

But we’re not quite there yet as this is a real story showing off four more character banners for the film.  The previous four looked great.  These look great too.  So does the entire film.  We’re gonna have to wait a few more weeks for that last one so you’ll just have to hit the jump and enjoy these posters for now.  “Where the Wild Things Are” hits theaters on October 16th.

Like most of you, I cannot wait to see director Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are”. Every bit of footage and every image released gets me more excited to see the final product. And with the October 16th release date a month away, the long wait for this movie is almost over. Anyway, five new images have been released and they’re after the jump. They’re cool as hell so take a look:

The first single from the upcoming “Where the Wild Things Are” soundtrack is now online and available to hear.  The song, “All is Love”, is by Karen O and The Kids and will be featured on the soundtrack that will be released on September 29th. You can get an idea of what we might expect to see and hear on October 16th when the film hits theaters by listening to the full song after the jump.

Warner Bros. has released a preview of their upcoming 2009 movies. In the preview, they’ve got updated synopsis’ along with new images from “Whiteout”, “Ninja Assassin”, “The Invention of Lying”, “The Informant!” and a few others. So if you’d like to see the new images and read what’s coming later this year (it’s a lot of great stuff), it’s all after the jump:

As I noted in my piece about the “Where the Wild Things Are” Comic-Con presentation, I was brought to tearing-up.  I would have probably gone to tears except I wasn’t comfortable bawling with over 6,000 people around.  When Comic-Con was finished, this remained my favorite presentation of the whole Con.  There is no other film this year that I want to see more.

This trailer has some great new stuff.  It’s similar to the trailer they showed during the presentation but it also offers new introductions that we at SDCC didn’t even see (so now the presentation is ruined and it’s the worst one I saw at Comic-Con; I’m mercurial — UPDATE: There are those who thought I meant this comment and that couldn’t be further from the truth; let me be clear: there is no other film this year that I want to see more than Where the Wild Things Are).  Hit the jump to check it out and keep wishing that it was the film’s release date, October 16th.

At this year’s Comic-Con, Warner Bros. premiered a great featurette on the man who created “Where the Wild Things Are”, Maurice Sendak. Apparently WB let Apple host it shortly after their panel, but due to my crazy schedule, I never saw the featurette or knew it was online. But thanks to WB sending me a link, I’m posting the video after the jump as it’s really great and if you’re a fan of “Where the Wild Things Are”, you’ll like seeing Maurice talk about his work and the upcoming Spike Jonze movie. Take a look: