by G. E. Uke, Reporter

Legacy movies are all the rage these days. This is especially true for movies that build upon famous films of decades past. This is good, in its way. They draw attention to the classics and make sure the current generation understands what came before them. Because cinema was effectively “born” in America, it can rightly be said that our young country counts film as an important element of its culture. Most other stuff we borrow, so this makes these legacy movies even more important.

Wonka is this type of movie. It falls under the umbrella of “Musical Fantasy”, like Jingle Jangle or Mary Poppins. No musical fantasy would be complete without epic songs and Broadway-style dance routines, and Wonka does a fine job with these. Timothee Chalamet (Dune) is front and center in his role as Willie Wonka, and this film really allowed him to show the world what he was made of. Dancing, singing, whimsy, oddball humor. You can tell that he really poured a lot of himself into this role.   

Be advised, I’m going to compare this movie to Mary Poppins a lot. 

One of the things I found particularly charming about Wonka was how unashamedly over the top it was. The protagonists are unyielding in their softhearted goodness and gullibility. The antagonists are comically evil, and equally heroic in their villainy. The paradigm of chocolate is a consistent theme throughout the movie. It is a source of magic, a symbol of happiness, and a resource to be hoarded and fought over. Freedom and moral purity aren’t concepts I normally attribute to chocolate, but this movie skillfully does so. There’s even a chocolate cartel. Willie has his own reality warping “paradigm” of steampunk techno-magic, which makes him wonderfully different from all the people around him. They are merely human, but he is practically a fairytale creature on the same level as Mary Poppins. Unlike Mary Poppins, he unleashes giraffes on people. 

There was a lot of great acting in this movie, and detailing it all would involve a mountain of spoilers and take up more space than this review has. This is unfortunate, because they all did work worthy of praise. The most honorable mentions go to Hugh Grant as an Oompa-Loompa, Calah Lane as Noodle, and the triumvirate of Paterson Joseph (Slugworth), Mathew Baynton (Fickelgruber), and Matt Lucas (Prodnose) as the evil leaders of the chocolate cartel. Keegan-Michael Key was also hilarious in his role as the chief police inspector, whose corruption is entirely fueled by bribes of chocolate. 

Rating:
All in all I give Wonka 5/5 stars. It was consistently witty, charming, and captivating the whole way through. 



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