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Matilda

Matilda

Comedy · Family · Fantasy · 1996

Matilda Wormwood is an brilliant and intelligent little girl. Unfortunately, her parents, Harry and Zinnia, fail to see that fact. As time passes, she finally starts school and has a kind teacher, loyal friends, and a terrifying, sadistic headmistress. As she becomes fed up with the constant cruelty, she discovers she has a special gift that she just might be able to use to outwit the unruly adults around her.

Movie details

Matilda

“Somewhere inside all of us is the power to change the world.”

1996 Comedy · Family · Fantasy 1h 38m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.0 / 10

193.6K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

95 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

72 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

7.2 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Matilda Wormwood is an brilliant and intelligent little girl. Unfortunately, her parents, Harry and Zinnia, fail to see that fact. As time passes, she finally starts school and has a kind teacher, loyal friends, and a terrifying, sadistic headmistress. As she becomes fed up with the constant cruelty, she discovers she has a special gift that she just might be able to use to outwit the unruly adults around her.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Matilda?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie

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Annie

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Family · 2016

A quiet teenage artist Rafe Katchadorian has a wild imagination and is sick of middle school and the rules that have been put before him. Rafe and his best friend Leo have come up with a plan: break every rule in the school hand book and as you expect trouble follows.

Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Danny DeVito

Written by

Nicholas Kazan · Robin Swicord

Mara Wilson

Mara Wilson

Matilda Wormwood

Danny DeVito

Danny DeVito

Harry Wormwood / Narrator (voice)

Rhea Perlman

Rhea Perlman

Zinnia Wormwood

Embeth Davidtz

Embeth Davidtz

Miss Honey

Pam Ferris

Pam Ferris

Agatha Trunchbull

Paul Reubens

Paul Reubens

FBI Agent

Tracey Walter

Tracey Walter

FBI Agent

Court is in session

Put Matilda on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.