The Witches (HBO Max, 10.22) ) is an oppressively broad, diabolically unsubtle “fantasy comedy” based on Roald Dahl‘s 1983 novel of the same name. (In 2010 I visited Dahl’s home in Great Missenden, England — a magnificent spread but the room in which Dahl wrote was in a small, vaguely musty cottage behind the main house.) Directed by Robert Zemeckis, and co-written by Zemeckis, Guillermo del Toro and Kenya Barris. Starring Anne Hathaway, Octavia Spencer, Stanley Tucci and Jahzir Kadeem Bruno (i.e., the kid who gets turned into a mouse). Chris Rock narrates.
