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Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical

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Watch Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical with a subscription on Netflix.

What to Know

Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical brings the classic story back to the screen with a delightful Emma Thompson, dazzling dancing, and a suitably irascible take on the source material.

Some viewers will still prefer the first film adaptation, but with catchy songs and impressive choreography, Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical is plenty of fun in its own right.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Matthew Warchus

Alisha Weir

Matilda Wormwood

Emma Thompson

Miss Trunchbull

Lashana Lynch

Stephen Graham

Mr. Wormwood

Andrea Riseborough

Mrs. Wormwood

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‘Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical’ Review: Youth in Revolt

This musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s novel is a jolt of sour candy guaranteed to make you grin.

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By Amy Nicholson

Bitterness never tasted so sweet as it does in “Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical,” a jolt of sour candy guaranteed to make you grin. Roald Dahl was 72 when he published his tale of a telekinetic girl genius avenging herself upon on a school headmaster who shot-puts kids out of the classroom window. The novel was Dahl’s righteous payback for his own British boarding school education where the instructors freely beat the students and slipped slivers of soap into boys’ mouths at night if they snored.

His writing forever burned with a youthful sense of injustice, and among the many smart decisions the director Matthew Warchus and the writer Dennis Kelly have made in adapting “Matilda” for the stage, and now screen, is reimagining their title character, played with empathetic ferocity by Alisha Weir, as a bit of a proto-Dahl herself, a bright child bursting with stories that take aim at the adults who try to trod on her intelligence. When Weir, just 11 when she filmed the movie, narrows her blue eyes and sings, “Sometimes, you have to be a little bit naughty,” you believe she’s capable of conquering anyone who blocks her path.

Matilda’s parents (Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough) are dimwits and cheats. Her school’s motto is “Bambinatum est magitum” — “Children are maggots” — and its headmistress, Agatha Trunchbull (a go-for-broke Emma Thompson), is the type of monster who gets introduced chin hair first, the camera then tiptoeing backward to gawk at her broken capillaries and drab olive dress, padded at the shoulders and bosom until she resembles a tank. “Discipline! Discipline! For children who aren’t listening!” Trunchbull croons into a bullhorn while forcing her charges through a muddy obstacle course littered with barbed wire and explosives. The only moments of cross-generational kindness come from one teacher (Lashana Lynch), who is too tremulous to stand up to her boss, and from a traveling librarian (Sindhu Vee), who allows Matilda to spin fictions instead of entrusting her with her fears.

The songs, written by Tim Minchin, are marvelously witty, and Warchus directs them at a clip. The seven-time Tony nominee, who also serves as the artistic director of the Old Vic theater in London, is clearly overjoyed to be able to send his cinematographer, Tat Radcliffe, sprinting down school hallways in pursuit of his ensemble of skilled young actors as they skulk through Ellen Kane’s sharp-elbowed choreography, which seems influenced by movements as varied as zombie hordes and dressage.

For a film that takes this much glee in cruelty — Matilda is called “a brat,” “a bore,” “a lousy little worm” and “a nasty, little troublemaking goblin” in her first three minutes onscreen — it also includes scenes of genuine loveliness: a hushed number set in a hot-air balloon above the clouds, a jazzy sequined show of support for a tortured fellow classmate, and even a soft focus fantasy sequence where Trunchbull imagines a better life for herself. The children disappear, a herd of white horses gallop into frame, and for one moment, our villain is no longer the tyke tyrant, but a woman who wishes she could let her hair down and smile.

Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical Rated PG. Running time: 1 hour 57 minutes. Watch on Netflix.

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‘Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical’ Review: Kids Win the Day in This Perky Adaptation, but Emma Thompson’s Trunchbull Is the Real Triumph

The stage hit makes it to screen on a buoyant cloud of high spirits and witty songcraft, though it hasn't quite enough movie musical dynamism to be a classic.

By Guy Lodge

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Cutting the long, episodic setup of Dahl’s story and hewing close to his own Tony-winning stage book, screenwriter Dennis Kelly skips right past Matilda’s life-changing discovery of literature, instead taking her advanced genius as, well, read. Also getting short shrift here are her gleefully vulgar, anti-intellectual parents, to the extent that all their numbers have been excised from Tim Minchin’s fizzy song score — a shame, really, given how riotously they’re played by an ideally cast Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough, who at least luridly make off with the few scenes they’re given.

But there’s little time to waste in this restless two-hour movie, with Matilda soon bundled off to school (years overdue, not that her parents care) at the appropriately named Crunchem Hall. There, her extraordinary smarts immediately attract the admiration of nurturing teacher Miss Honey (a lovely Lashana Lynch, suitably sweet but never cloying) and the hostile ire of child-loathing, athletics-loving principal Miss Trunchbull (Thompson, perma-clad in a tank-shaped wax jacket that represents the peak of Rob Howell’s playful costuming). Those familiar with the stage show aren’t in for any great surprises from here on, as Matilda’s overly foreshadowed discovery of telekinetic powers upends the Trunchbull’s reign of terror, while Kelly’s ornate story-within-a-story exposition framework — one of the show’s wobblier innovations — makes a somewhat clunky return. Only the gaudily elaborate CGI of the climax veers from expectations.

That’s no complaint, since Warchus’ film mostly thrives on what already worked on stage: the speedy lyrical wordplay and energetically shouty delivery of Minchin’s songs, the deliberately heavy-footed stompiness of the choreography — deftly reimagined for the film by Ellen Kane — and the booming pantomime presence of its villain and, let’s be honest, star attraction. Relishing a role conventionally played in drag on stage, hulking into each of her scenes with enhanced arms akimbo, Thompson is entirely a scream, whether throwing herself into grand-scale slapstick or putting a snide, venomous spin on kid-targeted putdowns like, “He should have thought of that before he made a pact with Satan.” 

If that sounds less funny written down, Thompson’s eccentric physical and verbal tics provide the bulk of the laughs in an adaptation that goes light on Dahl’s more raucous humor. Irish-born Weir’s Matilda is an appealingly serious, watchful presence, though the film stresses the character’s earnestness over her more wry impulses. Indeed, even as large collective numbers like “Naughty” and “Revolting Children” espouse the virtues of stepping out of line, the enthusiastic, exactingly on-their-marks young ensemble could have been directed to be a little more unruly.

Still, it feels churlish to carp too much about a lively, likable film that sincerely celebrates youthful imagination and joy, and is surely to spark those qualities in a large proportion of its audience — even if it’s most fun when it’s least inspirational. Title notwithstanding, “Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical” isn’t really Dahl’s at all, but a good-humored, humane and appropriately accommodating update of a story that, now to a few generations of readers and viewers, feels very much like their own. If it leaves some feeling that, multiple adaptations later, the book still tells it best, Matilda Wormwood would surely agree.

Reviewed at London Film Festival (opener), Oct. 5, 2022. MPA Rating: PG. Running time: 117 MIN.

• Production: (U.K.) A Netflix, Sony Pictures (in U.K.) release of a TriStar Pictures, Netflix presentation of a Working Title Films, Roald Dahl Story Co. production. Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Jon Finn, Luke Kelly.
• Crew: Director: Matthew Warchus. Screenplay: Dennis Kelly, based on his musical book, based on the book 'Matilda' by Roald Dahl. Camera: Tat Radcliffe. Editor: Melanie Ann Oliver. Music: Tim Minchin.
• With: Alisha Weir, Emma Thompson, Lashana Lynch, Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough, Sindhu Vee, Carl Spencer, Charlie Hodson-Prior, Rei Yamauchi Fulker, Meesha Garbett, Lauren Alexandra.

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Matilda: The Musical

An adaptation of the Tony and Olivier award-winning musical. Matilda tells the story of an extraordinary girl who, armed with a sharp mind and a vivid imagination, dares to take a stand to c... Read all An adaptation of the Tony and Olivier award-winning musical. Matilda tells the story of an extraordinary girl who, armed with a sharp mind and a vivid imagination, dares to take a stand to change her story with miraculous results. An adaptation of the Tony and Olivier award-winning musical. Matilda tells the story of an extraordinary girl who, armed with a sharp mind and a vivid imagination, dares to take a stand to change her story with miraculous results.

• Matthew Warchus
• Dennis Kelly
• Tim Minchin
• Alisha Weir
• Emma Thompson
• Lashana Lynch
• 198 User reviews
• 87 Critic reviews
• 72 Metascore
• 5 wins & 9 nominations total

• Matilda Wormwood

• Agatha Trunchbull

• Mr. Wormwood

• Mrs. Wormwood

• Mrs. Phelps

• Escapologist

• Amanda Thripp
• (as Winter Jarrett Glasspool)

• Bruce Bogtrotter

• The Acrobat's Stepsister
• Young Miss Honey

• Elderly Teacher
• (as Annie Firbank)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Mara Wilson , who played the title character in Matilda (1996) , turned down a cameo role, saying she didn't want to fly to England just for one day of filming. Similarly, Pam Ferris (Miss Trunchbull in the original) was also offered a cameo but supposedly turned it down as it clashed with rehearsals for a stage play.
• Goofs Early in the movie, Miss Trunchbull is referenced as having competed at the Olympics after having also been the 1959 English champion in Women's hammer throw. This was not an Olympic event until 2000, making it unlikely Agatha Trunchbull competed at that level. Given the character, however, it might be presumed that it was all fabricated.

Mrs. Phelps : Is it a bully? Because you know, the best way to deal with bullies, is tell someone. Straight away. They thrive on... silence.

• Crazy credits The Roald Dahl Story Company logo appears in the form of a golden ticket inside a Wonka candy bar (from Dahl's novel "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory").
• Alternate versions In the French and Thai dubs, the reprise for "When I Grow Up" is left in instrumental. Likewise, the Turkish dub leaves it in English.
• Connections Featured in EE BAFTA Film Awards (2023)
• Soundtracks Miracle Written by Tim Minchin Performed by Matt Henry , Alisha Weir , Stephen Graham , and Andrea Riseborough

User reviews 198

• Dec 3, 2022
• How long is Matilda: The Musical? Powered by Alexa
• December 25, 2022 (United States)
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Official Netflix
• Roald Dahl's Matilda: The Musical
• Bramshill House, Bramshill, Hampshire, England, UK (Crunchem Hall School exterior scenes)
• Working Title Films
• TriStar Pictures
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $25,000,000 (estimated)
• $35,617,120

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 57 minutes
• Dolby Atmos
• Dolby Digital

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• <i>Matilda the Musical</i> Is a Lively Reimagining of Roald Dahl’s Spiky Classic

Matilda the Musical Is a Lively Reimagining of Roald Dahl’s Spiky Classic

T he pleasures of Roald Dahl’s work have survived several generations of children, numerous adaptations good and bad, and more than a few troubling charges of racism and antisemitism . The Welsh-born novelist didn’t even work very hard to hide the latter, admitting to it in an interview conducted shortly before his death in 1990, at age 74. Dahl’s personal views complicate the question of whether, or how much, his heirs should benefit financially from his work. At the same time, his books—in addition to being wickedly delightful—also champion misfits and decry bullies. In other words, they often make kids, and sometimes adults, feel better about things they can’t control. The best approach, maybe, is to trust new interpreters of Dahl’s work to stress its inventiveness and intelligence and downplay, or excise, any questionable viewpoints.

That’s pretty much what director Matthew Warchus does with Matilda the Musical, the fleet and entertaining film version of the 2011 stage show by Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin, which in turn was based on Dahl’s 1988 novel about a little girl, unloved by her parents, who discovers she has special mental powers. Alisha Weir plays the precocious young heroine Matilda Wormwood, born to crass, idiotic parents who make it a practice to berate her for her intelligence and love of books. (They’re played, in a riot of shiny Spandex and loud plaid, by Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough.) Matilda tries to hide the troubles she faces at home, finding the kindness she needs elsewhere: she spends as much time as she can at the local bookmobile, where she thrills the kindly librarian, Mrs. Phelps (Sindhu Vee), with inventive, romantic stories.

Read more: What to Know About Children’s Author Roald Dahl’s Controversial Legacy

The Wormwoods are so preoccupied with their own lives that they’ve neglected to send Matilda to school. When their neglect comes to light, they pack her off to a grim institution known as Crunchem Hall, run by former world-class hammer thrower and all-around miserable person Agatha Trunchbull ( Emma Thompson , wearing extra chin hairs and clearly having a blast playing a baddie). Miss Trunchbull hates all children, viewing them as “maggots,” and takes sadistic pleasure in sentencing them to time in her personally designed prison known as the chokey. And naturally, she takes an immediate dislike to the fearless, freethinking Matilda, though the girl does have one teacher who sees what’s special about her. The perceptive and gentle Miss Honey (played by the wonderful Lashana Lynch , recently seen as a take-no-prisoners warrior in The Woman King ) takes Matilda under her wing, though even she’s dismayed when she learns that her student’s gifts go beyond mere braininess: Matilda can actually move objects just by staring at them, a gift one of her classmates refers to as “telekinipsis.”

At this point you may be asking, Do we really need another Matilda, even a musical one? Danny DeVito’s delightful version, starring Mara Wilson, is only 26 years old—that’s either an eternity or the blink of an eye, depending on how old you were when you first saw it. But Warchus’ version is more lavish and fanciful than the earlier movie, even as it preserves the spirit of the original story. Warchus—director of the lively and sweet 2014 picture Pride , based on the true story of gay activists in the U.K. who stepped up to help miners during the National Union of Mineworkers strike in 1984—keeps this new rendering moving at a clip. The songs are jaunty and hummable, at least in the moment. (The movie’s closing number is a clever riff on the idea of “revolting children.”) And as loathsome as some of Dahl’s personal views may have been, he did understand that children often have fears and anxieties they can’t easily admit to. Many feel, at one time or another, that they’ve been born into the wrong family, that they truly belong somewhere else. The triumph of Matilda, both as Dahl wrote it and as it’s interpreted here, is that one little girl finally finds her place among people who understand her. This is a story about the family you choose, versus the one you were born into. And for some people, the chosen family is the one that makes all the difference.

Correction, January 3

The original version of this story misstated who starred in the 1996 adaptation of Matilda . It was Mara Wilson, not Mara Hoffman.

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Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical review – immensely enjoyable reworking of the stage hit

Newcomer Alisha Weir and a game Emma Thompson as Miss Trunchbull excel in Matthew Warchus’s highly stylised screen adaptation

M atthew Warchus adapts his hugely successful stage musical adaptation (music and lyrics by Tim Minchin, book by Dennis Kelly) of Roald Dahl’s Matilda for the big screen. And he uses the full eye-popping scope of cinema to ensure that the film entirely escapes its theatrical origins. With its peppy colour palette and cartoonish quality, there’s a kinship with the appealingly stylised, hyperreal quality of the Paddington films in this version of Matilda , which follows a previous (1996) non-musical film version of the book, directed by Danny DeVito.

Production design aside, highlights include the very assured Alisha Weir in the title role and a game Emma Thompson sporting tombstone dentures and military fatigues as a monstrous version of Miss Trunchbull. At nearly two hours in length, it’s slightly overstretched and could probably have lost a musical number or two. Still, this is immensely enjoyable stuff.

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Review: Never a dull moment (but many Dahl moments) in the charming ‘Matilda the Musical’

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“Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical” — an unwieldy title but a better one, surely, than “Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical: The Movie” — is an enjoyably bright and chipper adaptation of a moving, melancholy story I’ve loved since childhood. I wasn’t alone; I imagine “Matilda” was catnip for a lot of bookish kids with latent Anglophile tendencies and dreams of overthrowing their bullies and escaping humdrum reality.

More grounded and less outlandish than some of the author’s other juvenile fiction, Dahl’s 1988 novel tells of a child genius in a small English village who’s blessed with the kind of extraordinary brainpower that can change the world. It’s spawned a few adaptations already, including an entertaining if bluntly Americanized 1996 film and a justly popular Olivier- and Tony-winning musical that has now directly inspired this new movie.

All that aside, there may be something inherently contradictory about any filmed version of “Matilda,” since the novel itself is something of a children’s cautionary tale about the perils of too much TV watching. (The same logic surely applies to too much Netflix, where this bouncy, bright-colored adaptation will begin streaming Dec. 25, after a brief theatrical run.)

Sit around watching the idiot box night after night and you might become as crooked, ignorant and unrepentantly vulgar as Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood (Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough, both garishly amusing), the most unworthy parents of a young girl of astounding intelligence and imagination named Matilda (the winning Alisha Weir).

For your safety

The Times is committed to reviewing theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic . Because moviegoing carries risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the CDC and local health officials .

Given the fairy-tale extremes and cruel ironies that tend to govern Dahl’s storybook universe, the Wormwoods’ exceptional stupidity may be precisely what gave Matilda her prodigiously gifted mind.

And for a young reader, her gifts inspire pride, protectiveness and no small amount of wistful envy. To read “Matilda” is to wish your brain could multiply triple-digit numbers as swiftly as any calculator and to feel freshly inspired to plunge headlong into “Nicholas Nickleby,” “Crime and Punishment” and the many other classics that Matilda has managed to plow through by age 6.

The new movie, for all its charms, doesn’t achieve or encourage anywhere near the same buzzing pro-literacy excitement. Neither, to be sure, did the stage show, but it was also sufficiently fresh and transporting that it scarcely mattered. A lot of its pleasures have happily made it to the screen intact, doubtless because its central creative trio — director Matthew Warchus, book writer Dennis Kelly and composer-lyricist Tim Minchin — have retained their equivalent roles behind the camera.

And beneath those pleasures is a potent underlay of feeling: As pastel hues fill the screen and perky melodies and wicked-smart lyrics flood the soundtrack, a tale of a child’s tragic neglect and deep longing comes into focus. At the same time, one of Matilda’s most appealing qualities is her allergy to self-pity, her calm insistence that every kid deserves, and can exact, a measure of justice.

“Just because you find that life’s not fair, it / doesn’t mean that you just have to grin and bear it,” Matilda sings in “Naughty,” brilliantly advancing an airtight case for a child’s revenge. But her parents, however in need of discipline, are too-easy targets.

Once she starts attending school, Matilda has a much bigger fish to fry in the form of Miss Trunchbull, the towering, terrifying headmistress who rules with an iron fist and the credo “Bambinatum est maggitum” (Children are maggots). Played by a sneering, barking Emma Thompson, who donned a fat suit and fascist military garb for the role, the Trunchbull is a memorably exaggerated monster. She’s also prone to extreme acts of child abuse — solitary confinement, pigtail assault — that seem even more outlandish, for better or worse, in this movie’s cheery, effervescent presentation.

Fortunately, even before the story’s clever swerve into Stephen King territory, Matilda has two benevolent adult counterweights to the meanness and indifference that her parents and the Trunchbull represent. One is Matilda’s kind-hearted teacher, the aptly named Miss Honey (a moving Lashana Lynch), who does her best to protect her students from the headmistress’ psychotic wrath. The other is Mrs. Phelps (Sindhu Vee), the traveling bookshop proprietor who enables Matilda’s passion for literature, even as she encourages the child to concoct madly inventive stories of her own.

That leads to one of the movie’s more strained conceits, borrowed but not improved from the stage show, in which Matilda cooks up a romantic tall tale — a circus-set love story — that holds up a fictional mirror to the main action. Onstage, the device had a deft, gossamer-light magic; onscreen, it’s leaden and obvious, one of those strange cases where seeing isn’t quite believing.

And it’s not the only instance in which this “Matilda the Musical” loses something in the transition from magically inspired stagecraft to solid, proficient screen craft. Even some of the more riotous song-and-dance numbers feel more mechanical here, more artificially polished and hemmed in, especially when Matilda and her classmates seize the day with a joyous anthem of liberation called “Revolting Children.”

For a movie that bristles with more revolutionary fervor than Dahl’s quieter, more inward-focused story, “Matilda the Musical” could use a little messier, more rambunctious energy.

The focus and discipline of Warchus’ direction is undeniable, perhaps to a fault: It’s hard not to feel that a 2½-hour show has been whittled down to within an inch of its upbeat, family-friendly life. The surges of emotion are still there, the final comeuppances still rousing, even if the climax itself smothers its most electrifying twist with some predictably ostentatious visual effects. It all can’t help but reinforce Dahl’s point — as well as Matilda’s own steadfast conviction — that the screen really has nothing on the printed word.

‘Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical’

Rated: PG, for thematic elements, exaggerated bullying and some language Running time: 1 hour, 57 minutes Playing: Starts Dec. 9 at Regal L.A. Live; IPIC Theaters, Los Angeles; available Dec. 25 on Netflix

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Roald dahl's matilda the musical, common sense media reviewers.

Musical adaptation has positive messages, some scares.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Kids may be inspired to seek out the original kids

Showing courage in standing up to bullies and thos

Matilda is a highly intelligent girl who loves to

An impressively diverse cast with multiple (and pr

Fantasy, unrealistic violence. A child is grabbed

"Brat," "flaming flip," "idiot," "pig," "maggots,"

Brands of cereal, sweets, pop, and chips are clear

A couple are seen making and drinking cocktails at

Parents need to know that Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical is a wonderful adaptation with plenty of positive messages, but it also has scary scenes. It's based on a stage musical, which in turn was based on the same classic kids' book that inspired the well-known 1996 film adaptation. Matilda (Alisha Weir) is…

Educational Value

Kids may be inspired to seek out the original kids' book as well as other stories by Roald Dahl.

Positive Messages

Showing courage in standing up to bullies and those that misuse power. Creating your own future and refusing to settle. Knowing what's right from wrong. Helping others and defending them from injustices. The power of reading and how it can help both inform and provide escapism.

Positive Role Models

Matilda is a highly intelligent girl who loves to read and use her imagination. She's courageous and loyal, and she stands up to bullies. She does have a mischievous side, but those at the receiving end are all deserving. Her parents, and especially her headteacher, Miss Trunchbull, are all mean people who treat Matilda badly. Miss Trunchbull terrifies the children and punishes them for things they haven't even done. She refers to all kids as "maggots" and has no interest in their welfare or education. But Miss Honey is a kind teacher who makes her lessons fun and has the kids' best interests.

Diverse Representations

An impressively diverse cast with multiple (and prominent) roles given to people of color. It's also a movie that is helmed by females of differing generations.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Fantasy, unrealistic violence. A child is grabbed by the pigtails and swung around before being thrown through the sky. Parents verbally bully their child and treat her roughly. A headteacher is a mean bully who treats children appallingly. She punishes them by sending them to "chokey," a dark closet with protruding spikes that they are locked inside. She also stretches a child's ears by continuously pulling on them, and another is forced to eat an entire cake. An assault course incudes small explosions. A dangerous circus act involving sharks, dynamite, and chains goes wrong, leading to someone falling from a great height (off-camera). They are later shown dying in a hospital bed. A child discovers they have the power of telekinesis. This leads to a metal cup hitting someone on the back of the head, metal chains forming a giant-like figure that smashes various objects, and a character being flung out of a roof.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

"Brat," "flaming flip," "idiot," "pig," "maggots," "creep," "snot nose," and "hell" are all used. Jokes around farts and burps.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Brands of cereal, sweets, pop, and chips are clearly identifiable but are for the purpose of scene setting rather than for commercial reasons. A couple who are obsessed with money are shown celebrating a business deal with a large amount of cash.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

A couple are seen making and drinking cocktails at home on more than one occasion.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical is a wonderful adaptation with plenty of positive messages, but it also has scary scenes. It's based on a stage musical, which in turn was based on the same classic kids' book that inspired the well-known 1996 film adaptation . Matilda (Alisha Weir) is a gifted young girl who starts at a school run by the evil Miss Trunchbull ( Emma Thompson ). Trunchbull runs her school through fear, punishing the students for things they haven't even done. Her methods include force-feeding a child with cake, locking them in a spiked closet, and grabbing one by the hair and throwing them out of the school grounds. Matilda's parents ( Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough ) also treat Matilda appallingly. Yet despite this cruelness, Matilda shows great courage in standing up to them all and defending her schoolmates -- even if this does sometimes include playing mischievous pranks. She also finds comfort in kindhearted teacher Miss Honey ( Lashana Lynch ) and librarian Mrs. Phelps (Sindhu Vee). Expect some potty humor and language like "brat," "maggot," and "snot nose." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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• Parents say (38)
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Based on 38 parent reviews

Redemption for a character doesn’t redeem this as a kids movie.

Mean and angry adults get their comeuppance, but it's not cute, what's the story.

ROALD DAHL'S MATILDA THE MUSICAL tells the story of a brilliant little girl who loves to read and tell stories. Matilda Wormwood (Alisha Weir) spends most of her time losing herself in books and trying to stay out of the way of her ghastly parents. When she's given the chance to attend school for the first time, her excitement is diminished when she discovers it's run by an evil headmistress called Miss Trunchbull ( Emma Thompson ). But Matilda is an extraordinary girl, unlike any Miss Trunchbull has ever met.

Is It Any Good?

Adapted from a hit stage musical of the popular kids' book , this magical movie had some excellent source material to work from. Nevertheless, after a successful run on Broadway, Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical 's transition to big screen is seamless and deserves all the plaudits. Dahl's tale about a girl with extraordinary gifts who uses them to stand up to bullies and defend her friends is timeless. As with most of Dahl's kids stories, a dark undercurrent runs through it -- like Harry Potter , Matilda comes from an unloving and abusive home. But it's never fully allowed to come to the surface. That's largely due to the film's playful humor, beautifully penned songs, and expertly choreographed dance routines.

Relative newcomer Weir navigates the lead role with ease and is ably supported by her fellow talented child actors. Elsewhere, Lashana Lynch gives a charming performance as Miss Honey, one of the few caring adults in Matilda's life. Yet it's Thompson as the cruel Miss Trunchbull who steals the show. Almost unrecognizable, Thompson provides most of the film's laugh-out-loud moments, despite her character being a truly terrible human being. Charming, joyful, and with a big dose of good triumphing over evil, the film gives even viewers who aren't usually fans of musicals much to enjoy.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the central character in Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical . What character strengths did Matilda show? Why are these such important traits to have? Would you describe her as a positive role model ? Why, or why not?

Discuss some of the fantasy violence . Did it feel appropriate for a movie like this? Why, or why not? What's the impact of media violence on kids?

Talk about Miss Trunchbull. Did you find her scary? Was she too scary for a movie like this? How much scary stuff can young kids handle?

Have you read the original book the film was based on? How did this compare? What did you think of the music and dancing? What did it add to the story?

Movie Details

• In theaters : December 9, 2022
• On DVD or streaming : December 25, 2022
• Cast : Alisha Weir , Emma Thompson , Lashana Lynch
• Director : Matthew Warchus
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Black actors
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Musical
• Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Book Characters , Great Girl Role Models , Middle School , Music and Sing-Along
• Character Strengths : Courage , Curiosity , Integrity
• Run time : 117 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : thematic elements, exaggerated bullying and some language
• Award : Common Sense Selection
• Last updated : June 8, 2023

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Matilda the musical review: a magical movie that does the stage show justice.

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Roald Dahl's Matilda will be familiar to many who may have grown up on the 1996 film starring Mara Wilson, an enchanting film that adapted the English author's story. That film (and the novel itself) were seemingly overshadowed by the debut of the musical adaptation that first premiered in 2010 before making its debut in London's West End in 2011. The first film that is a part of Netflix's overall deal with the Roald Dahl Story Company, Matilda the Musical is a strong start to what could prove to be a fruitful collaboration. The adaptation isn't perfect (what stage-to-screen adaptation is?), but Matilda the Musical comes with a game cast, expertly staged musical numbers, and just a touch of magic that all the best musicals have.

Matilda the Musical follows its eponymous character, a precocious young girl with the worst parents in the world (played by Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough). Matilda Wormwood prefers to lose herself in books, something Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood can't be bothered to care about. When Matilda is forced to attend school against her parent's will, she meets teacher Miss Honey (Lashana Lynch) and the menacing Miss Trunchbull (Emma Thompson). When her school turns out to be a less-than-desirable place, Matilda must use her passion, imagination, and newfound friends and mentors to overcome all the obstacles in her life.

Related: Wild Stephen King Theory Connects Carrie To… Roald Dahl's Matilda?!

Matilda the Musical 's stage iteration has received nothing short of critical acclaim during its various runs, including a high-profile stint on Broadway. Like the best musical adaptations, Netflix's Matilda the Musical manages to keep the charm and delight of its stage production while expanding its scope only in the way a feature film could. Dahl's original novel has gone through numerous forms, including the original film adaptation that Americanized much of the original story's peculiar Britishness. Matilda the Musical meets both in the middle, retaining some of the changes it made to the novel (including removing characters like Matilda's brother), and it largely works thanks to a few key components.

Thompson is excellent as Miss Trunchbull while nearly unrecognizable underneath all the prosthetics and militarized garb that makes her as terrifying as she is domineering. Lynch projects warmth as Miss Honey and gets a standout solo moment with "My House" that may come as a surprise to anyone more familiar with her steely performances in last year's No Time to Die and this year's The Woman King . It seems that no one is having more fun than Riseborough, though, who relishes every moment she's onscreen as Mrs. Wormwood, dolled up brilliantly by the hair and makeup team. She opens the film with a scene where she refuses to acknowledge she's pregnant with Matilda, setting a particularly high bar.

The true standouts, though, are Weir herself and the ensemble of children that back her up. Numbers like "Revolting Children" show off the cast of youngsters as they traipse around the grounds of the school with exacting choreography. Like Lynch, Weir projects warmth, but also confidence as she stands up to the adults in her life, most of which treat her (and the other children around them) with disregard at best and with pure contempt otherwise.

Matilda the Musical toes the line between this darkness and its charm and whimsy finely thanks to director Matthew Warchus and screenwriter Dennis Kelly. Warchus' camerawork during some of the more kinetic numbers feels like the perfect example of the ways in which a movie musical can do what a stage show can not. Matilda the Musical feels like a worthy addition to the library of live-action Dahl adaptations and is a promising start to the collaboration between Netflix and the author's Story Company. Its holiday release is also perfect timing as the film feels like the perfect comfort viewing for those who will be at home for the festivities.

More: Emma Thompson's Matilda Casting Controversy Explained (Is It Fair?)

Matilda the Musical will begin streaming on Netflix Sunday, December 25. The film is 122 minutes long and rated PG for thematic elements, exaggerated bullying and some language.

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Matilda the Musical review: A frothy, whimsical delight

The musical of roald dahl’s classic book is so intrinsically british it will soon be absorbed into the paddington cinematic universe, article bookmarked.

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Miss Honey makes millennials wistful. She was, for many of us, our formative film crush. Embeth Davidtz’s performance, in Danny DeVito’s big-hearted 1996 Matilda adaptation, made us wonder why we couldn’t all be respected as child geniuses by a kindly teacher. As I watched Lashana Lynch play the part for a new generation, I imagined Gen Alpha in 20 years’ time, reflecting fondly on how she – and her wardrobe of sundresses and cardigans – marked the very first time they fell in love.

Lynch’s performance best embodies, in a way, what this latest Matilda is and strives to be: something warm and familiar. Based on the Royal Shakespeare Company’s hit musical, it has no desire to surpass DeVito’s version; it’s content to sit beside it. There’s no attempt to improve on the Tony-winning stage adaptation’s source material, written by Tim Minchin and Dennis Kelly; it only wants to translate its spirit faithfully. Realistically, I can’t imagine any other way it could work. There’s too much history and too much childhood nostalgia from the book, film, and subsequent musical weighted onto each beat of the story. The Matilda we get here, then – formally titled Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical – is a frothy, whimsical delight that encompasses every expectation we were bound to have already placed on it. It’s intrinsically British enough that I half expect it to be soon absorbed into the Paddington cinematic universe.

For anyone who didn’t grow up on a bedtime diet of Dahl books, Matilda tells the story of a pint-sized genius (Alisha Weir’s Matilda Wormwood) despised by her own parents (Andrea Riseborough and Stephen Graham). Her mother calls her a “good case for population control”; her father calls her “a troublemaking goblin”. They simply can’t conceive of a girl who wants to spend her days reading books and writing stories, instead of languishing in front of a television set like them. When they finally, reluctantly, enrol her into a school, she’s met with the best and worst of adulthood: her sweet-natured teacher Miss Honey and the tyrannical head Miss Trunchbull (Emma Thompson). She is nurtured by one, terrorised by the other – both of which help Matilda grow in courage, intellect, and (as she discovers) telekinetic superpowers.

Director Matthew Warchus , who is the Old Vic’s artistic director and led the original stage production, has a welcome confidence in his young cast. This is the rare musical that actually allows its performances room to breathe. There’s an inherent theatricality in the staging and a complexity in the choreography: lunch tables are dramatically pulled away so that the students have room to leap, pirouette, and stomp with wild abandon. There are disco-inflected choirs and Busby Berkeley-style top shots of circling dancers. And, boy, are these kids talented – to the degree that they retroactively made me feel ashamed of my own useless childhood. Weir, who’s perfectly cast, invests equally in Matilda’s mischief as she does her loneliness.

As might be expected from what is essentially a family musical, the film does not interrogate Dahl’s novel, despite the fact that there are grounds for questions. As Matilda’s mean parents, Riseborough and Graham are a farcical delight to watch - but they’re the only characters coded as working class, and the only characters represented as having an active disdain towards literature and education. Thompson has many of the film’s best lines (“he should have thought of that before he made a pact with Satan and stole my cake”, for example), even if her performance is occasionally lost beneath all the prosthetics. But the fact the evil Miss Trunchbull is represented as masculine and athletic, while the good Miss Honey is feminine and maternal, hardly feels like the right message to send to young girls.

• ‘I wouldn’t stand in a room with someone misogynistic, racist, or homophobic’: Stephen Graham on prejudice, social realism, and Matilda
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But these are Dahl’s views, littered throughout his work, and are so embedded into Matilda that it’s fairly impossible to extricate them and still be left with the same, recognisable story. It’s a question of what we’re willing to put up with in order to appreciate the very best of his legacy – the trust he always had in his young audience’s intelligence, agency, and emotional maturity, and the liberating concept that parents don’t always know best. When the film’s catchiest, bounciest track, “Revolting Children” kicks off, that youthful spirit of rebellion starts to feel awfully infectious.

Dir: Matthew Warchus. Starring: Alisha Weir, Emma Thompson, Lashana Lynch, Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough. Cert PG, 117 minutes

‘Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical’ is in cinemas from 25 November

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Matilda The Musical Review

02 Dec 2022

Roald Dahl&#8217;s Matilda The Musical

Roald Dahl’s 1988 novel  Matilda  was a late-career highlight, an empowering story about a girl with extraordinary mental gifts caught in the clutches of very ordinary monsters: uncaring parents and a cruel head teacher. In 2010 it became a hilarious and magical musical by Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin , and now the director of that show, Matthew Warchus, has brought it to the big screen. There are still traces of the stage hanging about this adaptation, but it hits more high notes than bum ones.

The key is Alisha Weir as Matilda, singing, dancing and convincing as a little girl who discovers strange mind-powers even beyond her extraordinary intellect. Weir plays the steely gaze and reserve of a girl who has been kicked around by life since she was born, and avoids too much stage-school cutesiness. But one of the nice things about both book and show is that Matilda is not quite a one-girl army. She has a loyal best friend in Lavender (Rei Yamauchi Fulker) and a brave — if greedy — classmate in Bruce Bogtrotter (Charlie Hodson-Prior). They lead a whole mob of funny, weird kids to bring down their school’s terrifying principal, Miss Trunchbull.

Lashana Lynch is lovely, and an impressive singer as Miss Honey, playing against her usual action heroine type.

In that role, Emma Thompson goes big. On stage, Trunchbull was played by a man in drag, the better to communicate the vast size of the former Olympic hammer-thrower, but Thompson manages the same trick with an American football team’s worth of padding and some iron-soled platform shoes. She’s widened her jaw, scraped back her hair and disappeared into a genuinely threatening grotesque — the sort of teacher who considers it a life goal to break as many spirits as possible. A baddie who is almost entirely without redeeming features, Trunchbull’s backstory includes murder and mayhem as well as mass child abuse, and it’s utterly delightful to see her comeuppance.

The rest of the adult cast have less to do, but do it well. Lashana Lynch is lovely, and an impressive singer as Miss Honey, playing against her usual action heroine type. Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough are also worlds away from their usual highbrow drama and clearly relishing the change of pace. And Sindhu Vee is warm and kind as librarian Mrs Phelps. It takes a village, in the end, to save a child.

Despite extensive use of real locations and exterior scenes, the film cannot always escape its staginess, mostly because the pacing is theatrical rather than cinematic; just under two hours would be brief for a stage show but it’s lengthy for a family film. There are too many establishing scenes of Matilda’s life, and the fable she tells Mrs Phelps, largely created for the stage, drags on a bit before hitting its emotionally effective crescendo. Some of Minchin’s witty lyrics get lost in the sound mix as well, which is a shame. But overall it’s hard to argue with a girl this bright and brave. Matilda remains a superb role model, for all that she’s a little bit naughty.

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‘Matilda the Musical’ Review: This Flattened Adaptation Is Strictly for Theater Fans

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Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 London Film Festival. Netflix releases the film in select theaters on Friday, December 9.

It’s been a widely accepted fact since 1988 that Matilda Wormwood is not a normal girl. She is clever — stupidly clever — and kind, and can also make use of psychokinetic powers whenever she needs to. Her world is a fantasy and a horror at once, trapped by cruel parents and misunderstood by a tyrannical headmistress at her school (Crunchem Hall) and buoyed by her freakishly powerful brain. It is wonderful, but also quite weird .

This was the world written by Road Dahl, the unsentimental and exceptional children’s author who always placed greater trust in young minds to handle dark humor than most other storytellers. It was exciting — and it felt true, in the same way that kids barely tall enough to reach the counter would always assure cinema ushers they were definitely, definitely old enough for this horror movie that was in development when they were in diapers. Some are just wise beyond their years.

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That level of trust in children is rare, and what Dahl’s imagination gave the world wasn’t meant to last forever. The story somewhat changed in 2010 with the incredible hit that was “Matilda the Musical,” written by Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin and commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company — a stage musical that continues to sell out and steal the hearts of enormous audiences, even over a decade after its debut. It has great strengths and does use Dahl’s work as a blueprint, but it fundamentally has a different heart, one that now beats brightly in “Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical,” a film title that feels as paradoxical as the horrific Miss Trunchbull enjoying a delicious little slice of sugary-sweet private chocolate cake, particularly after you confront just how un -Matilda this version of “Matilda” really is.

The new film is as faithful as can be to the stage musical, with performances bursting with earnest energy and holding peerless faith in that clever little girl. But both versions of “Matilda the Musical” lose sight of the original spikiness of Dahl’s book (something captured horribly well in Danny DeVito’s 1998 live-action film adaptation) in favor of a cleaner, more harmonized portrait that puts forward catchy and clever songs (there’s no doubting Minchin) in the place of more complex reckonings with education, revolution, cruelty, and love that are just waiting to be dusted off the page.

Matthew Warchus makes the leap (that feels like a tiny playground skip) from stage to screen to direct the new Netflix production, holding close many elements from his stage creation. The director’s experience in the theater painfully shows, as characters are lit flatly (Lashana Lynch, giving a heartfelt performance as Miss Honey, particular suffers from this), though they still execute the most fastidious choreography (even though these children haven’t learned to even spell that word yet).

Again, we’re well aware that Matilda Wormwood isn’t normal, but by trying to turn every normal child into a triple threat, it only dulls her shine. The whole thing just feel like watching the UK’s hottest new dance troupe on season 15 of “Britain’s Got Talent.”

It’s no surprise that every casting director wants Lynch on their list since her MCU debut in “Captain Marvel.” Yet, in her “Matilda” casting, we witness another extraordinary young woman, having made a name for herself playing incandescent women breaking the mold, who has to make herself smaller to fit this humble role. Her performance of the musical’s ballad “My Home” proves the actor’s musical talent, but there is a pervading sense that Lynch is just too much of a star for this. You want to see her, but it’s blinding to watch.

Much of the film’s problems come from decisions making sense on paper, which then lose sight of the supremely difficult balance Dahl struck when writing a story about such a cacophonous world: terrifying when Matilda felt it (it’s a shame the obsession with television is ignored and the prospect of revolution fully watered down), pathetic whenever her parents were studied like zoo animals (Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough have fun as the Wormwoods, but their pantomimic edge veers towards sold-out physical audience belly laughs, not the longer-lasting screen character comedy both actors can master), and so tender in moments when Matilda and Miss Honey found quiet moments of kinship in the mess of it all. They would share sweets and marvel at the rainbow wrappers, and that would be enough.

Is the biggest struggle with this film, then, the fact that it is a musical? All the noise? Hundreds of thousands of viewers adore this story told on the stage in this way, but it’s a common mistake to believe it a guaranteed success when transferred to the screen. It’s back on film that Dahl’s acerbic edge is sorely missed, that newcomer Alisha Weir’s plain ambition and innocence isn’t enough to convince, that a sea of schoolchildren rotating on wooden platforms in magenta-sequinned blazers while Bruce Bogtrotter munches away on Miss Trunchbull’s cake is just a migraine waiting to happen.

And yet, in the mess of it all, there is Emma Thompson. Underneath the fake nose and enormous pentagonal jawline, it’s a fully molecular metamorphosis that sings in ways every other part of the film pretty much falls short on. Somehow, England’s greatest screen talent proves she can find the authenticity in this. All the story of Matilda ever needed was great understanding, not just goodwill or really good songs (although Thompson gets a new one from Minchin in “Discipline,” an undeniable comic triumph and feat of endurance). Thompson fully distills Trunchbull’s rage and resentment, reining in the pathetic comedy when fear takes priority, and never veering into outright abuse (which Graham’s neglectful dad fully does). Matilda’s magic is finally put to good use for the first time since 1998 in a wicked Disney villain-esque sequence, complete with snaking chains and impressive pigtails, but it only works thanks to Thompson’s ridiculous — but never farcical — commitment.

Perhaps the ambition is to open up the story of Matilda to more children, younger children, those veering towards a more timid personality. It’s admirable, but also opposes the real conflict Matilda’s qualities — talent, intelligence, emotional threshold — were subjected to. It’s no crime to have another wholesome heroine for a new generation to look up to, only a shame that this is a sanitized reproduction and slight distortion of one who already existed.

Most kids who feel like they don’t belong, like they’re misunderstood or distrusted, or who are just plain lonely might not have the vim to mini-girlboss their way into a brighter future, hands on their hips and songs in their heart. Maybe they just want to read books. But then most kids, and jaded adults, aren’t like Matilda. This version, or any other.

“Matilda the Musical” premiered at the 2022 London Film Festival. Sony Pictures and TriStar will release the film in UK theaters on November 25. It will stream later this year on Netflix.

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• DVD & Streaming

Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical

• Comedy , Drama , Kids , Musical

Content Caution

In Theaters

• December 9, 2022
• Alisha Weir as Matilda Wormwood; Emma Thompson as Agatha Trunchbull; Lashana Lynch as Miss Honey; Stephen Graham as Mr. Wormwood; Andrea Riseborough as Mrs. Wormwood; Sindhu Vee as Mrs. Phelps; Carl Spencer as Escapologist; Lauren Alexandra as Acrobat; Winter Jarrett-Glasspool as Amanda Thripp; Andrei Shen as Eric; Ashton Robertson as Nigel; Meesha Garbett as Hortensia; Charlie Hodson-Prior as Bruce Bogtrotter; Rei Yamauchi Fulker as Lavender; Katherine Kingsley as The Acrobat’s Stepsister

Home Release Date

• December 25, 2022
• Matthew Warchus

Distributor

Movie review.

“My mummy says I’m a miracle. One look at my face, and it’s plain to see,” sing the children of the United Kingdom.

Well, all of them except Matilda. She sings a different song.

“My mummy says I’m a lousy little worm,” she laments. “My daddy says I’m a bore.”

Matilda’s parents don’t like her one bit. Taking care of a child is just too much work for their taste. In fact, the girl’s father has to pay a fine because they forgot to enroll her in school! Now, Matilda feels like one burden too many to them, so her father calls up the cruel Agatha Trunchbull, Headmistress of Crunchem Hall, and tells her just what a “nasty little, troublemaking goblin” his daughter is.

But the truth is that Matilda is only a troublemaker for real troublemakers. She’s got a well-honed sense of justice, and her countless years spent reading books have given her Will Hunting-esque smarts. She’d rather call out injustice than slink by unnoticed.

But none of that matters to Agatha. No, to her, children are simply maggots (it’s the school motto), and they need to be squished in order to grow them into respectable adults. Until then, children are vile. They’re disgusting. They’re revolting .

But just how much can a child be called revolting before she decides to revolt?

Positive Elements

Roald Dahl’s story expresses the biblical value of children and life (Psalm 127:3, 139:13), and the musical adaptation follows suit. “Every life is unbelievably unlikely, their chances of existence almost infinitely small,” a doctor sings. “The most common thing in life is life; and yet every single life, every new life, is a miracle.” And while the movie pokes a bit of fun at how parents tend to express just how special their newborn is compared to all the others, the endearing truth is that each life is a miracle.

Matilda exhibits an element of this as she crafts a story about a man and woman who desire to pull off the world’s most dangerous circus stunt—a feat that’s so impressive that the whole world comes to see it. But just before the act, the man cancels the event, exclaiming that his wife is pregnant. This causes the audience to roar in appreciation, and “the great feat was instantly forgotten,” showing that the creation of new life is much more of a miracle to the world than the most magnificent feat imaginable.

The musical also reminds us just how much impact parents can have on their children, another biblical value (Proverbs 22:6). As Matilda comes up with new ideas for her circus story, the happy ending takes a darker turn as Matilda grapples with the pain her parents and her headmistress have wrought upon her.

But it’s not just the negative people who can change a child’s trajectory—it’s the positive, nurturing ones, too. Miss Honey, a teacher at Crunchem Hall, takes Matilda under her wing, even when doing so might get Miss Honey in trouble with the headmistress.

Elsewhere, Matilda says, “When people do scary things to you, you can just do scary things back. A woman responds, “But Matilda, remember, two wrongs don’t make a right.” The film’s only flaw regarding this is that it doesn’t seem to resolve the lesson, as we don’t fully ever seen Matilda overcoming her desire to do wrong for revenge.

One song talks about the importance of rules, but its subtext informs us that, though rules are good and important, they can also become too legalistic and harsh.

Finally, Matilda challenges us not to let bullies domineer over others. We shouldn’t be bystanders; if injustice exists, we should identify it and seek to correct it.

Spiritual Elements

Matilda is extremely smart—so smart, in fact, that she’s unlocked telekinetic powers. She uses these powers to move things with her mind, including a person at one point. She also uses her abilities to trick someone into thinking a ghost is attacking them.

The children at Crunchem Hall sing a song in Latin that mentions God. Agatha uses a plethora of negative religious and moral phrases to refer to students. She calls Matilda “evil incarnate,” and she calls children in general “demons.” We hear other spiritual phrases, too, such as, “leapt through the gates of Hades,” and “He should have thought of that before he made a pact with Satan and decided to steal my cake.”

Matilda tells a story to a woman, and though Matilda is only making the story up, she later finds out that it actually occurred. Matilda simply had a supernatural sense of it.

Sexual Content

Matilda’s mother wears a dress that reveals cleavage. Two circus performers, a man and a woman, wear tights. When Matilda’s father learns that Matilda isn’t a boy at her birth, he laments that there’s “no sign of a winky-dink at all.” We hear a couple of references to a woman’s knickers. Someone is called a “floozy.”

Violent Content

Agatha believes that children are maggots, and they must be heavily disciplined all the way into adulthood—sometimes even in dangerous ways. She sends particularly disobedient students to stand in the “chokey,” a makeshift tiny shed filled with sharp objects.

Elsewhere, Agatha picks up a girl by her pigtails and throws her out of the school grounds; Agatha then orders another student to “check to see if that child is still alive.” (The tossed kiddo is shaken but otherwise unharmed). Agatha also picks a boy up by his ears and stretches his ears out.

Matilda tells a woman a story about two circus performers, one of whom fell from a high spot and broke every bone in her body. The female performer, Matilda says, later died while giving birth. Matilda’s father throws Matilda to the ground at one point.

[ Spoiler Warning ] Matilda uses her telekinetic abilities to hit Agatha in the head with a metal cup. She also lifts chains up in the form of a figure and smashes a group of chokeys. She also throws Agatha out a window with the powers.

Crude or Profane Language

“H—” is used three times. God’s name is abused once. We also hear general insults like “maggot,” “idiot,” “twit,” “creep” and “stupid.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Matilda’s parents are seen drinking alcohol.

Other Negative Elements

A couple of characters belch, including an extended gastric eruption from a student named Bruce. The resulting gas bubble drifts across the lunchroom. A boy passes gas. The school’s motto is, “Children are maggots.”

Agatha is wickedly cruel to children, stating, “If the small ones don’t pee just a little when I walk into the room, then I’m failing as an educator.” Matilda’s mother calls Matilda “a good case for population control.”

Not all of the ideas our protagonists express should be followed. For instance, in one song, Matilda claims, “Sometimes, you have to be a little bit naughty.” She also wants to seek revenge on a couple of occasions. In another song, students exclaim, “If enough of us are wrong, wrong is right.” Parents should explain to their children why neither of these views are correct.

Matilda messes with her father’s hair product and his hat in retribution for his rudeness.

Roald Dahl’s children’s stories have captivated generations of kids. Whether it was The BFG , James and the Giant Peach , Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or Fantastic Mr. Fox , kids have been swept away by Dahl’s creative works.

But it would be unforgivable for us to list Dahl’s books without mentioning Matilda , the story of the telekinetic girl who stood up to unjust Miss Agatha Trunchbull. The story found a musical adaptation in 2010, and that musical’s film adaptation comes to Netflix on Christmas of 2022.

Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical illustrates many positive messages about the value of life, the importance of good parenting and opposing injustice. And while it’s not a biblical story per se, those values certainly echo Scripture. It’s true, many characters here are quite selfish and cruel (who can forget the scene where Agatha hammer throws a student by her pigtails); but their wickedness is juxtaposed against the kind and nurturing characters we root for.

This musical movie doesn’t change too much from its previous adaptations. The story’s biggest potential concern remains its harsh headmistress and Matilda’s telekinetic abilities.

And parents may also want to discuss the movie’s messaging regarding injustice with younger children. For instance, how can we discern when an authority figure is being unjust or cruel versus simply having us do something we may not want to do? And who can they go to for help if they experience abusive authority?

Overall, despite a couple speedbumps, Matilda the Musical provides a fable that illustrates some important biblical truths—catchy musical numbers included.

Kennedy Unthank

Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”

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‘Matilda: The Musical' Review: The 1996 Movie’s Boring Younger Sister

The new Netflix adaptation sucks out all the fun and magic that are synonymous with Roald Dahl.

Nothing summarizes Hollywood better than the history of Matilda ’s adaptations. A children’s book by Roald Dahl becomes a bestselling hit. It gets the movie treatment, much like his other tales, in 1996 and becomes an instant classic, a constant go-to watch in the childhoods of most millennials and older Gen Zs. Then, it becomes a musical, starting at the Royal Shakespeare Company and then on to the West End and the bright lights of Broadway. And then, people felt the need that this musical, even though it's based on a film which is based on a book, required its own movie. So, to summarize: a book become a movie which became a musical which then became another movie. That's showbiz!

This 2022 adaptation, Matilda: The Musical , takes the story back to its homeland of Britain, with an all-British cast, except for Alisha Weir as the titular genius with telekinetic powers, who is Irish. The setting isn't the only difference. In fact, the 1996 and 2022 movies couldn't be more different. And that's this version’s biggest weakness. You know on Halloween, you see two people dressed as a witch. One person goes full Elphaba, and paints themselves green, maybe even a fake nose and a wart to go with it. And then the other person, who is clearly more boring, wears a little black dress from Zara and a witch’s hat that they’ll take off five minutes into the party? Well, the 1996 Matilda is the former and the 2022 Netflix one is the latter.

Roald Dahl is weird, and his stories deserve to be told in other mediums in a weird way. 2022's Matilda doesn't lean into the absurdism of the book or the little quirks that make up this magical story that has stood the test of time. It tries too hard to impart a message to the audience about bravery and all that nonsense that kids don't really care about. There's little humor or campiness, the key elements that make the 1996 film such a joy to watch. This adaptation just takes itself so seriously. It doesn't play with the limitless visuals that movies grant, feeling like an awkward in-between that isn’t a stage musical but doesn't reach the heights that cinema allows. Roald Dahl is all about making children be in awe of the world, even when they feel that all hope is lost, and there’s nothing here for the audience to be awestruck by. If there is one thing to marvel at, it's the choreography and dancing. There are indeed moments when you're blown away by the talent of the kids - but that shouldn't eclipse the story.

RELATED: 'Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical' Cast and Character Guid

The same goes for the performances and characterization. Emma Thompson could have made Miss Trunchball more fun, but instead plays it safe. She’s so covered in prosthetics you can’t see how angry or disgusted or ruthless she's meant to be (I still have the image of Pam Ferris ’ terrifying facial expressions burned into my head from when I was younger). The biggest disappointment is Lashana Lynch ’s Miss Honey. Lynch plays her as weak, spineless, and passive - leaning on Matilda to get the job done. She quivers and freezes in Trunchball’s company, and it all feels incredibly forced. Lynch has proven herself to be one of the most exciting actresses to watch in recent years, with this year's The Woman King , playing the new 007 in No Time to Die and a variant of Captain Marvel in the MCU. The script doesn't lend itself much to the character - it spends no time in building a relationship between her and Matilda - making their “happy ending” feel unearned.

The real stars of this movie are the children themselves. Alisha Weir is definitely one to watch - she can sing, dance, and act incredibly well for such a young performer. But she doesn't bring any humor to Matilda . Mara Wilson made Matilda, yes, a genius, but a girl we could all relate to. She loved laughing with her friends, jumping on the bed, and, in one of the most iconic scenes, making pancakes. Weir’s Matilda looks like she should be up talking in the House of Commons. Everything is so drab and serious in her world. And hey, her parents are assholes, and she’s being threatened by a maniac of a headmistress, she does have her fair share of worries. But it just takes away from what Matilda is all about - finding magic and fun in the world even when it feels like there isn't any. I can't imagine kids getting the warm, fuzzy feeling that 90s and 2000s kids did when they watched Mara Wilson dancing in the living room, making all the objects do the same. Speaking of, Matilda’s powers are completely diluted in the 2022 movie, sucking out any magical fun from an already pretty boring adaptation.

I guess it all comes down to tone. 1996's Matilda was tongue-in-cheek and knew how weird and bizarre it was. This Matilda update doesn't really understand what film it's trying to be and can’t stick to a consistent tone. It tries hard to use Weir to be a figure of nobility and honor, with sincere, dramatic numbers. But then to follow that up with a grown-ass woman hurling a child by the pigtails across fields and that child is somehow okay - it results in an inconsistent mess. It’s what I’d imagine seeing a scene of a child being thrown across a schoolyard by their hair in the middle of a West Wing episode would be like. Matilda is a children’s story - so make it fun, messy, and above all, weird. Don’t turn her into a martyr for issues that kids really couldn't care less about.

The positives, if any, lie with Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough as Matilda’s parents. They go full camp with big hair and fake teeth, unrelenting in their hatred and torment of their child. It’s the only plot that feels most faithful to the original book. There’s no rhyme nor reason why they’re so horrible, they just are - they’re villains in a children’s story, and the two actors are aware of this, so they have some fun with it. Graham and Riseborough are the much-needed foils that make the movie somewhat enjoyable and comparable to the original book and movie.

I couldn't help but think of another tale of Dahl’s that has been given two adaptations - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Although the 1971 and 2005 films are quite different, they both capture what the original book (and most of Dahl’s stories) are all about: wonderment at the unknown. The same goes for 1996’s Matilda. Not everything has to be sincere, and you don't have to shove an “important” philosophical message down the audience’s throat. If the movie is done well, they can figure it out for themselves. The 2022 Matilda takes the narrative and world of a child and puts it on an adult’s terms. It completely misunderstands why so many children around the world adore these stories - because they were written for them and not their parents.

Stick to the original 1996 movie folks, don’t be the boring witch.

Matilda: The Musical comes to Netflix on December 25.

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Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical Parent Guide

With a memorable score, good script and outstanding actors, this is a fun, vivid adaptation of the classic novel..

Theaters: A musical version of the story of Matilda, a brilliant girl trapped in unfortunate circumstances who uses her mind to build a better life. (Coming to Netflix on December 25th.)

Release date December 14, 2022

Run Time: 117 minutes

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by keith hawkes.

The birth of a first child is a pivotal event – except for Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood (Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough). Although Matilda (Alisha Weir) is an uncommonly bright and conscientious child, her parents would rather she disappeared altogether.

Matilda is more than just clever – she’s a genius. Having taught herself to read, she spends her lonely days perusing everything from Charles Dickens to Fyodor Dostoevsky. Once she goes off to school, though, Mr. Wormwood has every confidence that the headmistress, Ms. Trunchbull (Emma Thompson), will make sure Matilda is as miserable as possible. The Trunchbull, as she’s known by the student body, is a massive, domineering woman with all the charm of a prison warden and half the kindness. In contrast, Matilda’s teacher, Ms. Honey (Lashana Lynch) is a wonderful woman who wants nothing more than to nurture and support her students. Ms. Honey is blown away by Matilda’s advanced intellect and hopes to give her more advanced lessons. But the Trunchbull has other ideas…

The feather in the film’s cap is the cast. The last time I saw Lashana Lynch was in The Woman King , and she spent most of her time in the movie screaming and stabbing people. Somehow, she is equally convincing as the softspoken Ms. Honey. And, if you can look past the extensive prosthetics, Emma Thompson is clearly having a little too much fun in her role as the villain of the piece, and it’s contagious. I even like the child actors, who manage to deliver their lines convincingly and learn some complex choreography.

This production is geared at kids, and the content reflects that with no sexual content and only minor profanity. Of course, since this is a Roald Dahl story, it shuns sugary sweetness, and some kids are faced with absolutely insane threats of violence. Chief among these is “The Chokey”, a sort of Iron Maiden the Trunchbull keeps around for discipline. (I’m not sure what mild content you expected here: Dahl had a kid put in a juicer in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. ) But apart from that, parents have very little to worry about – for them or their offspring. Matilda the Musical is one of those rare kids’ films that adults are likely not only to tolerate but even enjoy. There weren’t any children in the theater I attended, and I still heard plenty of laughs.

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Keith hawkes, watch the trailer for roald dahl’s matilda the musical.

Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical Rating & Content Info

Why is Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical rated PG? Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical is rated PG by the MPAA for thematic elements, exaggerated bullying and some language.

Violence: Children are thrown around and threatened with brutal punishment. A woman dies in hospital. Sexual Content: None. Profanity: There are several uses of mild curses. Alcohol / Drug Use: Adult characters are seen pouring drinks, but not actually drinking.

Page last updated January 20, 2024

Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical Parents' Guide

Mrs. Phelps, the librarian, tells Matilda that bullies rely on your silence to win. Who can you tell if you’re being bullied or hurt?

Matilda sings about the importance of being naughty in the right situations. What does she mean by that? Is there such a thing as “good trouble”? In which contexts?

Matilda’s relationship with her parents is difficult, to say the least. How does she end up moving on? What does this say about the importance of family – even if it’s not a family with the people who gave birth to us?

Loved this movie? Try these books…

Roald Dahl wrote many books for children, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, The BFG, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Twits, The Magic Finger, Esio Trot, George’s Marvelous Medicine, and James and the Giant Peach .

Related home video titles:

A non-musical American adaptation of Matilda was released in 1996. Other Roald Dahl adaptations include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , The Witches , The BFG , The Fantastic Mr. Fox , and James and the Giant Peach .

10 Great Movies Based on Musicals Based on Movies

Many movies throughout cinema history have inspired stage musical adaptations, and some of those musicals, in turn, were made into movies.

A fascinating thing about the entertainment industry is that all of its productions can inherently serve as inspiration for other filmmakers to create their own masterpieces, from remakes to reboots to reimaginings. Oftentimes, in this process, these productions were also adapted to different media. For instance, a lot of films inspired stage musicals that amazed audiences by delivering a new version of the story and, by extension, a new way to experience it.

But with all things cylical, the wheel keeps turning and comes back to where it all began, and movie-inspired musicals, in turn, inspire new films, blending the very best of film and musical theater. This fascinating cycle of creative influence treats fans to stunning spectacles, both visually and musically, and allows them to get in touch with their favorite stories in a whole new way. While there have not been as many cases of movies inspired by movie-inspired musicals over the years, there are a few that are well worth watching. Check them out below.

10 Nine (2009)

Seven years after helming the popular musical film Chicago , Rob Marshall once again stepped in as director for a movie musical of a similar nature: Nine . This 2009 film is based on Maury Yeston's stage musical, which, in turn, took inspiration from the 1963 Frederico Fellini film 8½ . Daniel Day-Lewis leads the cast as Guido Contini, a prestigious Italian film director in the midst of a personal and artistic crisis that leads him into trouble with the many women in his life.

A Talented Cast That Scores All the Accolades

When it comes to comparison, one must be honest: Nine was nowhere near as well-received as 8½ . And in fact, it didn't perform well at the box office either. However, it's a worthwhile film to watch, primarily because of the work of its very talented cast — which includes Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, and Sophia Loren, among others — who were the most praised part of the production upon its release. Rent on Apple TV

9 The Producers (2005)

The producers.

2005 marked the release of The Producers , a film by Susan Stroman, based on the Broadway musical and the 1967 movie of the same name. This one enlisted the involvement of Mel Brooks, director of the two aforementioned productions, and starred Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, joined by Uma Thurman, Will Ferrell, and Gary Beach. It follows a washed-up Broadway producer and his accountant who, having had a play fail miserably, figure out a way to pull off a million-dollar scam by producing a musical destined to fail so that they can flee with the investors' money.

A Hilarious Production Headed by Two Major Industry Players

The Producers had a similar reception to Nine , with mixed reviews and a poor box office performance. However, it does possess two features that make it totally worth watching. For one, the musical movie preserves the essence of the two productions that inspired it, which is due, mostly, to Brooks' involvement in the project. In addition, it is inevitable to highlight the work of Lane and Broderick in the leading roles, which they also played on Broadway back in 2001. Rent on Apple TV

8 Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (2021)

In 2011, Jamie Campbell's story gained exposure thanks to the BBC Three documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16 , and a few years later, he would become a worldwide star, inspiring the creation of the musical Everybody's Talking About Jamie and its eponymous film adaptation. This movie, which marked Jonathan Butterell's directorial debut, features Max Harwood as Jamie, a British teenager pursuing his dream of becoming a drag queen in an overly prejudiced society.

An Inspiring Story Based on True Events

Everybody's Talking About Jamie was very well received by critics and audiences alike, and among other accolades, it earned a BAFTA Award nomination for Outstanding British Film. The main elements that make this movie outstanding are its empowering themes, its wonderful musical numbers, and Harwood's performance in the title role, which, incredibly, was his first one ever. Stream on Prime Video

7 Mean Girls (2024)

Mean girls (2024).

Read Our Review

Mean Girls was released in January 2024, reinvigorating the group of movies based on movie-inspired musicals. This film, which marked Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr.'s directorial debut, is based on the stage musical and 2004 film of the same name, and like those, sees Tina Fey serving as writer. Angourie Rice leads the cast as Cady, a homeschooled teenager who enrolls in a high school for the first time in her life and must deal with the strict social hierarchies that operate in it.

A Twist on a Movie Classic That Garnered Even More Fans

Mean Girls is an iconic 2000s teen comedy that can arguably never be replaced. The 2024 musical builds on the legacy of the original by giving its audience what they want: a production with the same core themes, but with a few twists and many impressive musical numbers. And that's not all: it features Tina Fey and Tim Meadows reprising their roles from the original film, and Reneé Rapp reprising her stage role of Regina George. Ultimately, Mean Girls has established itself as a delightful production that pleases fans of the original film and welcomes new ones worldwide.

6 Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical (2005)

Andy Fickman directs Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical , a film that brings to television the story that he, Kevin Murphy, and Dan Studney adapted for the stage in 1998. That musical, for its part, was inspired by the 1930s movie that attempted to warn parents about the dangers of cannabis use, and became a cult classic after being rediscovered decades later. It revolves around a group of teenage characters who, once they start smoking marijuana, descend into a downward spiral of madness.

A Hilarious Parody Featuring an Impressive Cast

Reefer Madness has a satirical approach and a unique style that builds on the over-the-top antics of the original film to treat audiences to a movie musical like no other. Besides being a great adaptation of the musical that is packed with catchy songs, the film stands out for its setting and the performance of its cast, which has Kristen Bell, Christian Campbell, and John Kassir reprising their stage roles.

Related: Best Recent Musical Movies, Ranked

5 Sweet Charity (1969)

The 1969 musical film Sweet Charity marked the cinematic directorial debut of dancer and choreographer Bob Fosse, and paved the way for what would become one of his biggest hits, 1972's Cabaret . This film, in which Fosse also served as choreographer, was inspired by his 1966 musical, which brought the screenplay of Federico Fellini's Nights of Cabiria to the stage. Sweet Charity puts a twist on the original story by focusing on the romantic misadventures of Charity Hope Valentine, a paid dance partner who fantasizes about finding her significant other and changing her own life.

A Classic Musical Film That Struggled to Get off the Ground

Sweet Charity is regarded as an outstanding piece of 1960s musical cinema that showcases Fosse's distinctive style (in both the direction and visual aesthetics), breathtaking choreography, and the charming performance of Shirley MacLaine in the lead role. However, its reputation was not always such: upon its release, the film did not get the best reviews, but it managed to improve its status over the years, establishing itself as the classic it is today. Rent on Apple TV

4 The Color Purple (2023)

The color purple.

2023's The Color Purple is yet another recent production to join the list of movies inspired by musicals based on movies. This film, following the life of an African-American woman in the American South and her road to independence, is directed by Blitz Bazawule, inspired by the 2005 musical and Steven Spielberg's 1985 film of the same name, the latter of which was the first to adapt Alice Walker's novel to the silver screen.

A Retelling That Retains the Spirit of the Original

The Color Purple earned rave reviews upon its release for the performance of its stars, Bazawule's work as director, and its wonderful soundtrack. But, unquestionably, one of the greatest achievements of this movie was its ability to build on the foundations laid by the previous productions, effectively offering a new take on the story while preserving its essence, blending the best of cinema and theater. Now Playing in Theaters

3 Hairspray (2007)

2007 marked the premiere of Hairspray , Adam Shankman's film that earned a spot among the greatest musical productions of all time. Inspired by the Broadway musical and John Waters' 1988 film, Hairspray presents Nikki Blonsky as Tracy Turnblad, an overweight teenager from 1960s Baltimore, who dreams of being part of a popular dance show, oblivious to the fact that by fulfilling her dream, she would also become a symbol against racial segregation.

An Optimistic Story That Endeared Itself to the World

Before long, Hairspray earned the admiration of critics and audiences alike, and became one of the highest-grossing musical films ever made. Among the most praised features of this production are its neat setting, its cheerful and optimistic spirit, and the performances of the cast (which includes Zac Efron, John Travolta, James Marsden, and Michelle Pfeiifer, among others), whose talent elevated each and every musical number in this amusing film to the highest level. Rent on Apple TV

2 Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical (2022)

Matilda the musical.

Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical brought Dahl's popular story to the silver screen for the second time following the 1996 cinematic classic Matilda . This Netflix film, by Matthew Warchus, is based on Tim Minchin and Dennis Kelly's stage musical, and treats a new audience to the story of Matilda, an extraordinary little girl with telekinetic powers, who must deal with neglectful parents and a headmistress who seems determined to make her life miserable.

Dazzling Musical Numbers and a Villain to Remember

Naturally, Matilda the Musical bears far more similarities to the stage play than to the 1996 film. However, it has achieved something really challenging: delivering a new take on a popular story, with characters that live up to those in the original film. Although the performances of Mara Wilson and Pam Ferris as Matilda and Miss Trunchbull in the 1996 film are impossible to beat, Alisha Weir and Emma Thompson's renditions bring something new to the table in their own unique way. Moreover, the production thrives on its impressive musical numbers, catchy tunes, and the terrific work of its cast. Stream on Netflix

1 Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Little shop of horrors.

Wrapping up this list is Little Shop of Horrors , Frank Oz's 1986 film inspired by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman's musical which, on its own, was a stage adaptation of Roger Corman's 1960 movie. Featuring Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, and Steve Martin, the film revolves around an employee of a soon-to-be-closed floral store, who gets his hands on a strange carnivorous plant that, before long, makes him the local sensation. But this young man's life is turned upside down once he discovers that his beloved plant needs human blood to survive.

A Cult Classic Both Charming and Horrifying

Like many of the other musical movies on this list, Little Shop of Horrors successfully blended the charm of the original film with the magic of the stage production, eventually becoming a cult classic beloved to this day. Among the most outstanding features of the film, we can mention the performance of the cast, its setting teeming with 1960s aesthetics, and the special effects that were used, deemed notably effective for the time. Rent on Apple TV

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“Matilda the Musical”

May 17, 2024

TAC at the lake puts on “Matilda the Musical”, inspired by the 1996 movie. 7 p.m. Friday-Sunday. 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.

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Shanaya Kapoor, Mira Rajput, Rasha Thadani Attend Premiere Of 'Matilda: The Musical' At NMACC

Curated By : Yatamanyu Narain

Last Updated: May 16, 2024, 21:33 IST

Mumbai, India

Shanaya Kapoor, Mira Rajput, Rasha Thadani and others attended 'Matilda's' premiere at NMACC, Mumbai.

Several celebs from the tinsel town attended the premiere of Broadway musical Matilda at NMACC, Mumbai.

One of the most successful Broadway musicals ever, ‘Matilda’ is poised to make its spectacular debut in India at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC), on May 16 i.e Thursday. From Shanaya Kapoor to Mira Rajput, Sayani Gupta to Rasha Thadani, several celebs made their presence felt at the event as they walked the red carpet in Mumbai.

In a video that was shared by Sneh Zala, Shanaya Kapoor can be seen making her dashing entry alongside her mother Maheep Kapoor. While Shanaya rocked a white tank top and denim blue skirt, Maheep looked charming in an elegant white dress.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Snehkumar Zala (@snehzala)

Another clip that was posted by Viral Bhayani captured Shahid Kapoor’s wife Mira Rajput in a spectacular white and blue outfit. She posed for the paparazzi with a wide smile on her face, as she clutched a matching bag close to her.

Raveena Tandon’s daughter Rasha Thadani also walked the red carpet in a stunning black outfit. Keeping her makeup dewy with a hint of red lip colour, the upcoming actress waved at the paps and struck some poses for the shutterbugs.

Four More Shots fame Sayani Gupta sported a transparent white shirt that she paired with a black bra. She also donned blue denim jeans and looked radiant as ever.

Adapted from Roald Dahl’s treasured children’s book, ‘Matilda’ follows the journey of an exceptional young girl who, armed with imagination and resilience, overcomes adversity. Despite struggles with parents who fail to appreciate her intellect and a cruel headmistress intent on causing misery, Matilda finds strength in her prodigious mind, a supportive teacher, and her loyal friends. Her remarkable narrative exemplifies that one can achieve greatness regardless of size!

Penned by Dennis Kelly, featuring original music and lyrics by Tim Minchin, and developed under the guidance of director Matthew Warchus, ‘Matilda’ boasts an impressive collection of 101 international accolades, including 24 for Best Musical. Since its triumphant debut in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, where it captured the hearts of 11 million spectators across over 90 cities, the show has continued to captivate audiences at London’s esteemed West End, particularly at the Cambridge Theatre, where it has enjoyed a full house for over 12 years.

From its grand opening on Broadway at The Shubert Theatre to successful tours across North America, Australia, and various international destinations, including a resounding premiere in Tokyo with a remarkable Japanese production, ‘Matilda’ has set records and garnered prestigious awards. The musical achieved a monumental feat at the 2012 Laurence Olivier Awards, clinching seven wins and securing a place in The Guinness Book of World Records for the most Laurence Olivier award victories.

• Mira Rajput
• Rasha Thadani
• sayani gupta
• shanaya kapoor

Cannes Film Festival 2024: All Of Deadline's Movie Reviews

The 2024 Cannes Film Festival is underway with Quentin Dupieux’s The Second Act starring Léa Seydoux and Louis Garrel serving as the opening-night film.

This year’s lineup includes major Hollywood premieres like Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth, Kevin Costner’s first film of a planned four-part series Horizon: An American Saga , Francis Coppola’s long-gestating Megalopolis , Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindness in a reteam with Emma Stone, Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada and Andrea Arnold’s Bird to name a few.

They are joined by new films from stalwart auteurs including David Cronenberg, Jacques Audiard, Ali Abbasi, Jia Zhang-Ke, Christophe Honoré, Paolo Sorrentino, Gilles Lellouche, Mohammad Rasoulof and Michel Hazanavicius, Guy Maddin, Noémie Merlant and Oliver Stone.

Read all of Deadline’s takes below throughout the festival, which runs May 14-25. Click on the title to read the full review and keep checking back as we update the list.

Section: Un Certain Regard

Director: Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel

Cast: Renate Reinsve, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Thea Lambrechts Vaulen, Endre Hellesveit, Øystein Røger, Vera Veljovic

Deadline’s takeaway: Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel’s lineage should give you a fair idea of what's in store here, but, surprisingly,  Armand  doesn't dig especially deep into the human psyche, finally falling into a strange no man's land between intense character drama and jet-black comedy.

Director: Andrea Arnold

Section: Competition

Cast: Nykiya Adams, Barry Keoghan, Jason Buda, Jasmin Jobson, James Nelson Noyce, Frankie Box, Franz Rogowski,

Deadline’s takeaway: Andrea Arnold knows just how to get under our skin. She embellishes the film with fantastical elements, but whether they're really happening or part of Bailey's childlike desperation to believe in anything magical, the film doesn't make clear. But Arnold certainly wants us to know one thing: Bailey will be OK.

Caught By the Tides

Director: Jia Zhangke

Cast: Zhao Tao, Zhubin Li

Deadline’s takeaway: Jia Zhangke leads his partner and muse, Zhao Tao, on a decades-long romantic odyssey in  Caught By the Tides , which tries too hard to play with time and form for the connection between its leads to be its central preoccupation.

Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point

Director: Tyler Taormina

Section: Directors’ Fortnight

Cast: Matilda Fleming, Michael Cera, Chris Lazzaro, Elsie Fisher, Gregg Turkington

Deadline’s takeaway: It's hard to categorize Taormina's film, and, for some, its freewheeling, indie  American Graffiti  vibe might take a little getting used to. But  Christmas Eve in Miller's Point  is a trip for anyone willing to roll with it, and more than cements Taormina as a talent to watch.

Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes

Director: Nanette Burstein

Section: Cannes Classics

With: Elizabeth Taylor

Deadline’s takeaway: The tapes recorded in 1964 weren't actually  lost,  but it all makes for a satisfying journey through one of Hollywood's most memorable careers. There is the feeling of intimacy that makes this one special, if not exactly full of new revelations.

Emilia Pérez

Director: Jacques Audiard

Cast:  Adriana Paz, Edgar Ramirez, Mark Ivanir, Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez

Deadline’s takeaway: None of this ever seems ridiculous, because Audiard leans into the musical genre’s conventions; rather than bending his provocative story to fit it, he bends the form itself. It may be too soon to call the Palme d'Or with a week of the Cannes Film Festival left to run, but Emilia Pérez looks very much like a winner.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Director: George Miller

Section: Out of Competition

Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Alyla Browne, Lachy Hulme, Matuse, Goran Kleut, Charlee Fraser

Deadline’s takeaway: With Furiosa , George Miller, now seemingly ageless at 79 (he was 34 when the first Mad Max came out), has perhaps given birth to the greatest  Max  yet, a wheels-up, rock-and-rolling epic that delivers on the origin story.

Director: Laurent Bouzereau

With: Faye Dunaway

Deadline’s takeaway: You will find yourself with renewed respect for this great star after watching this documentary on her life. Time for a Faye Dunaway retrospective, and this fine film is perfect reason to do it.

Ghost Trail

Director: Jonathan Millet

Section: Critics’ Week

Cast: Adam Bessa, Tawfeek Barhom, Julia Franz Richter, Shafiqa El Till

Deadline’s takeaway: On the surface, Ghost Trail uses the traditional tropes of the spy movie, but it isn't exactly thrilling, certainly not in the manner of a John le Carré novel. Closer in spirit to Spielberg's  Munich , it's a quietly profound character study about the need for a closure that may never come.

The Girl with the Needle

Director: Magnus von Horn

Cast: Vic Carmen Sonne, Trine Dyrholm

Deadline’s takeaway: It is because this story's truths are so stark that this high-wire work succeeds. Magnus von Horn is a masterful talent, and there is plenty of prize potential within his film. It’s an unequivocal and beguiling triumph. 

Jim Henson Idea Man

Director: Ron Howard

Section: Classics

Deadline’s takeaway: Howard’s documentary brings fresh energy to the subject through the skillful use of animations based on Henson's impressive drawings and wonderful archival rarities that go beyond what has been seen in previous treatments of Henson's life.

Kinds of Kindness

Director : Yorgos Lanthimos

Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau

Deadline’s takeaway: Kinds of Kindness  is about a ubiquitous interdependence between ruthless power and willing submission that crops up everywhere, which implies that we are all in its thrall. That makes it their gloomiest film yet. Of course, it is also very funny.

Megalopolis

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Cast: Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Jon Voight, Shia LaBeouf

Deadline’s takeaway: Watching Anthony Mann's  The Fall of the Roman Empire  and eating cheese afterwards would be the only way to replicate Megalopolis ‘ fever-dream grandeur, a series of stunning images, carried along by the loosest of plots, that pontificate on the self-destructive nature of humankind, the only species capable of civilizing itself to death.

Director: Paul Schrader

Cast:  Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Jacob Elordi, Michael Imperioli, Zach Shaffer, Kristine Froseth, Jake Weary

Deadline takeaway: Oh, Canada is made up of pieces of a life put under a cinematic microscope at different periods, all moving in and out of the mind of a man who is dying but still lucid enough to tell the truths of his life as time is running out, some revealed for the first time as he grapples with both morality and mortality.

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl

Director: Rungano Nyoni

Cast: Susan Chardy, Henry B.J. Phiri, Elizabeth Chisela

Deadline’s takeaway: In Nyoni's sophomore film, the focus is the rub between tradition and modernity, using the occasion of a family funeral as the jumping-off point for a slow-burn drama that builds, rather stealthily, to an unexpectedly emotional climax.

Rendez-vous avec Pol Pot

Director: Rithy Panh

Section:  Premiere

Cast: Irène Jacob, Grégoire Colin, Cyril Gueï

Deadline’s takeaway: The journalists in Rithy Panh's film aren't superheroes; their quest for that truth has its own motivations. Yet the importance of their journey to find it cannot be understated. The film might not walk totally fresh ground for Panh, but there is real power in one filmmaker's dedication to re-examining real world horror from many angles over many years.

The Second Act

Director: Quentin Dupieux

Section:  Out of Competition

Cast: Léa Seydoux, Louis Garrel, Vincent Lindon, Raphaël Quenard

Deadline’s takeaway: Maybe Quentin Dupieux should have paid more attention when he was writing; maybe he should have spent longer in the editing suite. But if the results are always a bit ragged, does it matter? Dupieux might never make a masterpiece, but his slapdash, wild entertainments are irresistible.

Director: Lorcan Finnegan

Section:  Midnight Screenings

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Julian Mcmahon, Nic Cassim, Miranda Tapsell, Alexander Bertrand, Justin Rosniak, Rahel Romahn, Finn Little, Charlotte Maggi

Deadline’s takeaway: Nic Cage as a surfer dude? Unlikely, but who cares? The Surfer  is an object lesson in how to make a film economically by using a single location, a bunch of surfing extras and some stock footage of lizards. Which is the grindhouse ethic at work, for sure.

Three Kilometers to the End of the World

Director: Emanuel Parvu

Section:  Competition

Cast: Bogdan Dumitrache, Ciprian Chiujdea, Laura Vasily

Deadline’s takeaway: Parvu is careful to show the complexity of these characters as well as of their weave of betrayals, mistakes and wrongdoing. The actors bring to their portraits the naturalistic ease combined with intensity that is a hallmark of Romanian New Wave cinema, each one a whole person with their own reasons.

When the Light Breaks

Director: Rúnar Rúnarsson

Cast: Elín Hall, Katla Njálsdóttir, Ágúst Wigum, Mikael Kaaber, Baldur Einarsson, Gunna Hrafn Kristjánsson

Deadline’s takeaway: As an opening-night choice for Cannes‘ Un Certain Regard,  When the Light Breaks  sets a standard for the original and specific vision that is expected of films in this section. 

Wild Diamond

Director: Agathe Riedinger

Cast:  Malou Khebizi, Andréa Bescond, Idir Azougli, Ashley Romano

Deadline’s takeaway: Riedinger's debut feature approaches her subject with remarkable empathy, taking Liane on her own terms and seeing her surroundings largely through her eyes. 

More from Deadline

• Cannes Film Festival Photos Day 3: Anya Taylor-Joy, Barry Keoghan, Franz Rogowski, ‘Bird' & ‘Megalopolis’ Premieres & More
• Cannes Cover Story: Aubrey Plaza Says Francis Coppola “Doesn’t Need My Defense”, Reveals The “Collaboration And Experimentation” Of ‘Megalopolis’

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‘christmas eve in miller’s point’ review: michael cera in a holiday movie that breaks the mold without sacrificing the joy.

A large Italian American family gathers for its annual winter celebration in Tyler Taormina’s latest feature, whose ensemble includes Maria Dizzia, Ben Shenkman and Francesca Scorsese.

By Sheri Linden

Sheri Linden

Senior Copy Editor/Film Critic

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Three features into his filmmaking career, it’s evident that director Tyler Taormina loves faces — though not in the way of Bergman or Cassavetes. Unlike those art house paragons, he doesn’t isolate his characters in order to peer intently into their souls. He collects faces by the dozen and dreams up crowded tableaus.

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Filming in Suffolk County on his native Long Island, with a cast that combines ace character actors and compelling non-pros, Taormina has made a valentine to his Italian American family, set in a fictitious town that’s grounded in everyday tchotchkes and recognizable psychology, but also not quite of this world. This is a place where Santa’s sack of gifts is a bag of discarded bagels, a Roomba and an iguana make memorable appearances, and the useless pair of policemen who patrol the suburban streets like bargain-basement versions of the angels in Wings of Desire might at any second be arrested for impersonating officers of the law.

This is also a story of endings and beginnings, dividing its attentions between the grown-ups’ revelry and worries on the home front and the wild optimism of the teens who sneak away to joyride and shoot the shit and dream. There’s also a boatload of adorable kiddos who aren’t called upon to “play cute.” The screenplay by Taormina and Eric Berger deals in rather generic storylines without dragging them through the formulaic beats of explosion and resolution.

To the buoyant ’60s pop of Ricky Nelson’s “Fools Rush In,” the film opens with a rush of upside-down Christmas lights, a kid’s POV through the rear windshield of a moving car. The kid is Andrew (Justin Longo), and he’s arriving with his parents and sister at “the old house,” the place where his mother, Kathleen ( Maria Dizzia ), and her siblings were raised. Dad Lenny (Ben Shenkman) practices his “extended-family face” in the car and, throughout the night’s doings, delivers the wry glances of an adored in-law, in the fold but still observing it. A frenzy of kisses greets the arriving foursome, with Andrew a particular target of lipsticked aunts. The love overflows.

But the movie has already established one of its central conflicts: the friction between teenage Emily (Matilda Fleming) and Kathleen, the exasperated target of her daughter’s endless hostility. There’s also a notable impasse between Dizzia’s character and her mother, Antonia (Mary Reistetter): The hesitation with which Kathleen first approaches her suggests the trepidation of a daughter-in-law who has never met the impassive woman’s expectations. But no, she’s just the kid who doesn’t visit enough.

Not all the conversations are as urgent as this one. With an Altmanesque overlap of half-heard and half-finished dialogue (but without the Altmanesque ennui), the film’s first half rotates through yakking about real estate, law and order, love of country, love of family, and kids today, with random philosophical asides. And sometimes Taormina just observes the body language of the interactions, the dialogue replaced by the energetic soundtrack playlist. Coursing beneath all the imbibing and games, the mile-long tables of food, the yuletide decorations without end, the VHS trips down memory lane, is the gradually revealed understanding that this will be the last such gathering in this house.

The screenplay doesn’t waste time on exposition, and, like any first-time visitor (Brendan Burt plays such a bemused outsider, eyeing the ornamented house’s cornucopia of kitsch with appreciation and disbelief), you probably won’t grasp all the relationships in this multigenerational get-together on first viewing, at least not until the helpful visuals-equipped closing-credits sequence.

With such a talent as Dizzia on board, wordless reactions at crucial points make explanatory exchanges unnecessary. (My Christmas wish, if anyone’s asking, would be more movies with this magnetic performer at their center.) Take the moment when Kathleen catches her resentful daughter’s affectionate — and perchance performative — ease with ebullient Aunt Bev.

Early in the evening, Kathleen tells Elyse that Emily needs “a little bit of magic.” And Taormina will certainly provide that, when, about halfway through the movie, Emily and her older, more sophisticated cousin Michelle ( Francesca Scorsese ) sneak out of the tradition-bound festivities with a couple of friends, gabby Craig (Leo Hervey) in the back seat and Sasha (Ava Francesca Renne) at the wheel of a vehicle she hasn’t quite yet mastered. Their group of Christmas Eve renegades expands with a stop at a bagel shop that’s a teen hangout — linking Miller’s Point to the sandwich-joint setting of Ham on Rye . What unfolds from there begins with crazy driving and turns into a midwinter night’s fantasia, complete with picture-perfect snowfall, a storybook crescent moon and a lone skater on a lake.

There’s also the bookending presence of three 20-somethings (Sawyer Spielberg, Billy Mcshane, Gregory Falatek) who hang out in the cemetery. Craig deems them failures, but Taormina’s affection for them is evident. His knack for observing the offhand ignorance and cruelty of youth no less than its sincere hunger and exuberance makes me eager to see what he brings to the teen-comedy format, which he’ll reportedly tackle next.

Fleming, in her first feature role, hits fascinating notes of adolescent flintiness, yearning and giddy confusion. Whether she’s ready to admit it or not, she wants to be kinder. Emily glances at the family Christmas tree like an unwanted obligation, and she puts on a tough act with her holiday-dissing friends, but the small wrapped present she carries with her through part of the night is a shiny red emblem of contrition. Late in her insurrectionist adventure, Lund and editor Kevin Anton produce an exquisite match cut that connects Emily, in a middle-of-the-night parking lot, and her mother, gazing down at an elaborate doll’s house.

The grown-ups in this Christmas story have let go of the center-of-the-universe sense of immortality that propels the kids, but they have their rites of passage too, their passions and reinventions as well as their closely held traditions. In Taormina’s comic drama of beginnings and endings, there are useless gifts and ones that matter, and it’s hard to have one without the other.

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