Manny the Movie Guy Reviews ‘Wicker’ and ‘Wildwood’: Double W, Double WOW

This weekend, the letter W is delivering pure WOW at the movies. One is a wickedly sexy fairy tale for grown-ups. The other is a handcrafted fantasy epic for the whole family. Both are wildly original, and both deserve your time on the big screen.

‘Wicker’ — 3.5 out of 4 Kisses 💋💋💋½

What if you could order up the perfect husband? That’s the wonderfully bonkers premise of Wicker, and I fell for it hook, line and sinker.

Olivia Colman plays a lonely fisherwoman, mocked by her village for being unmarried. Fed up, she commissions the local basketmaker (Peter Dinklage) to weave her a husband. What she gets is Alexander Skarsgård, as a man made entirely of wicker, and he turns out to be far more spectacular than she ever dreamed. Their romance sets off jealousy, fascination and full-blown chaos across the village.

Colman is a treasure, as always, finding the heartbreak and the hilarity in a woman who refuses to conform. And Skarsgård? He was born to play this role. The Wicker Husband was created almost entirely with a practical suit built with Wētā Workshop, the wizards behind The Lord of the Rings, and it’s a marvel. Somehow a man made of sticks is the most romantic leading man of the year.

Writer-directors Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer have crafted an audacious, funny and surprisingly sensual fable about sex, marriage and the absurd rules society places on women. It’s strange in all the best ways. It’s just a hair shy of perfect, but it’s a one-of-a-kind delight.

Wicker opens in select theaters October 23 and expands nationwide October 30.

‘Wildwood’ — 4 out of 4 Kisses 💋💋💋💋

LAIKA, the magical stop-motion studio behind Coraline, ParaNorman and Kubo and the Two Strings, is back, and Wildwood is its masterpiece.

Based on the novel by Colin Meloy of The Decemberists and illustrator Carson Ellis, the film follows Prue McKeel (Peyton Elizabeth Lee), a girl whose baby brother is snatched by a murder of crows. Her rescue mission leads her into Wildwood, a forbidden forest just outside Portland, Oregon, filled with enchanted creatures, uneasy allies and dangerous enemies.

Every single frame of this film is handmade, and you can feel the love in all of it. The battles soar, the birds look astonishingly alive, and the forest feels like a world you could step right into. Director Travis Knight has created something epic and deeply personal, a story about love, loss, sacrifice and the magic waiting just beyond your doorstep. In an era of algorithm-driven entertainment, Wildwood is a glorious reminder of what human hands and imagination can create.

And what a voice cast: Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay, Jake Johnson, Charlie Day, Tom Waits and more. Every one of them adds texture to this rich, gorgeous world.

This is the kind of movie that reminds you why we go to the movies in the first place. See it on the biggest screen you can find.

Wildwood opens in theaters nationwide Friday, October 23.