Film review: Onward ***

By Preston Wilder You might guess, even if you didn’t know – but it’s even more touching if you do know – that Dan Scanlon,

Film review: Emma **

By Preston Wilder Anya Taylor-Joy is Emma Woodhouse, “handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition” in the immortal opening lines of

Film review: The Way Back ***

By Preston Wilder Tough-but-fair coach takes over a team that keeps losing, and turns them into winners. We’ve been here before, of course, in innumerable

Film review: Judy *

By Preston Wilder What do you think about when you think about Judy Garland? Maybe nothing; maybe she’s one of those long-ago icons who survive

Film: Best films of the 2010s

By Preston Wilder Random? I suppose it is a little random. But we’re now exactly two months into the 20s, enough to tie up any

Film review: Like a Boss **

By Preston Wilder What if Like a Boss were a well-disguised analogy for American politics? What if Mel (Rose Byrne) and Mia (Tiffany Haddish) stood,

Film review: The Aeronauts **

By Preston Wilder It seems wrong to say it – British period dramas coming, after all, with a presumption of Quality, not just entertainment –

The fox and the hedgehog

By Preston Wilder A 1953 essay by Isaiah Berlin, citing the ancient Greek poet Archilochus, divides the world into foxes and hedgehogs: foxes are good

Film review: Gretel & Hansel ***

By Preston Wilder There’s a scene early on in Gretel & Hansel where the titular duo, lost in the forest, eat some funky-looking mushrooms they