Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s classic picture book is a very faithful one: Max (played with heated fury by Max Records) is adventurous and angry, not Ritalin-ized into docile submission. The monsters Max comes to rule are all id, beautiful blends of puppetry and CGI. It’s Jonze who’s been tamed, his vision subsumed to someone else’s. It’s not what he’s taught us to demand of him. (MJ)