ROALD DAHL’S MATILDA THE MUSICAL MOVIE REVIEW

Musicals are a film genre that never truly vanishes. Rather, it booms and wanes in popularity. We’ve had the Rodgers and Hammerstein films of classic Broadway shows, the 50’s road movies, the Disney’s animated Renaissance era that tricked two generations into watching and loving musicals, Heck, Chicago even snuck on in and won the Oscar for best picture in 2002, and lest we forget the god awful jukebox musicals being crapped out every couple of years. Last year gave us some real gems with West Side Story, tick,tick… Boom, and Encanto, and this year is kicking off with a little magical girl who might as well be blasting Twisted Sister and Pink Floyd, because she’s ready to destroy a fascist regime with spectacular choreography and toe-tapping musical numbers. Netflix’s Matilda the Musical is based on the Tony and Oliver winning Broadway show, which was adapted from the 1988 Roald Dahl book. It tells the tale of Matilda Wormwood (Alisha Weir), a little girl with a huge imagination and utterly terrible parents. She and Harry Potter could trade stories. On meeting her inspirational teacher, Miss Honey (Lashana Lynch), Matilda is motivated to conjure her own fantastical tales and unlock her true powers. At Crunchem Hall, Matilda faces off against the villainous Miss Trunchbull (Emma Thompson). Harmoni, Michael, Mindy, and T.C. agree on a lot of the wonderful things this movie offers, while disagreeing on how much scenery should or should not have been chewed by Ms. Thompson in this extraordinary musical tale about blazing your own path and writing your own destiny.

WATCH HERE

DIRECTED BY: Matthew Warchus

STARRING: Alisha Weir, Emma Thompson, Lashana Lynch, Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough, Sindhu Vee, Carl Spencer, Lauren Alexandra, Winter Jarrett-Glasspool, Andrei Shen, Ashton Robertson, Meesha Garbett, Charlie Hodson-Prior, Rei Yamauchi Fulker, Katherine Kingsley, Amber Adeyinka, Matt Henry

 

YOUR REVIEWERS

 

Harmoni Anderson (Screener Squad, Highly Suspect Reviews, Unstabletop Gaming)

Harmoni is a mermaid-haired, millennial, rum drinking, Section 31, Slytherin (who’s divorced J.K. Rowling) preschool/nursery teacher and multi genre geek who also loves all things film, tv, fashion, makeup, and an embarrassingly huge BTS stan. Like really embarrassing. As in, mention them and then sit back and watch the insanity. Harmoni likes being able to game and talk movies/TV with people that aren’t 3 feet tall or all that demanding of her. Plus she can curse at us and not get fired….so bonus!

 

 

Michael Van Slyke (Screener Squad)

Michael is a second-generation Air Force brat born in Tucson, raised in San Antonio, and living in Austin since the mid ’80s. Since being introduced to Star Trek as a child by his mother Michael has had an obsessive love of all things sci-fi. He is a cartoonist, illustrator, costumer, leatherworker, amateur luthier, singer, aspiring voice actor, and a motion graphics artist. With all these interests and skills, he thinks the term “Renaissance Man” sounds better than “artsy guy with ADHD”. He lives with his lovely and nerdy wife Harmoni Anderson and their two cats. When not watching and discussing sci-fi and fantasy movies and TV he looks for new hobbies and skills to try. He also listens to Harmoni try and teach him things about K-pop band BTS. Like… all the things about BTS.

 

 

Mindy Rast-Keenan (Screener Squad, Highly Suspect Reviews)

Having grown up in Nairobi, Kenya, and being very disappointed at the lack of riding elephants her cartoons had promised her, Mindy spends the majority of her time as a film, theater, and voice over actress in the Austin, Texas area.