How do you bring a film from more than half a century ago up to date for a society more tuned into the politics of representation? You won’t find out in Wonka.
The new prequel to the classic Gene Wilder film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) aims to tell the backstory of the magical chocolatier long before he encountered Charlie Bucket. But in setting the dial at 1971, Wonka carries all the problematic cultural trappings of a film made for a different time.
At the start of the new movie, orphaned young Willy Wonka (Timothée Chalamet) disembarks from a ship with 12 sovereigns in his pocket. He soon loses or gives it all away and ends up locked into a contract, working to pay off his debt to a Dickensian hostel owner (Olivia Colman). There he encounters others in the same position, including Noodle (Calah Lane) and Abacus Crunch (Jim Carter).
