Wildwood Is the One Movie You Should Watch Today

When Wildwood ended, people in the cinema started clapping. I’d walked in without watching a trailer or reading what it was about. By the time the credits rolled, I understood why they clapped. If you’re picking one movie to see in a cinema this weekend, this is the one I’d recommend.

The opening caught me completely off guard. It also made me glad I’d gone in knowing so little. So I’ll keep the setup simple. There’s a family, a bargain, and promises that don’t hold. And just across a bridge from Portland, Oregon, there’s a forest where the rules of everyday life no longer apply. I liked how close it all felt. You could imagine passing that bridge every day and never wondering what was on the other side.

The details are worth seeing on the big screen

Wildwood comes from LAIKA, the studio behind Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings. Travis Knight, who also directed Kubo, gives the animators plenty to do here. During the chases and battles, I kept thinking about how many tiny adjustments it must have taken to make a few seconds of frantic action feel so fluid. Then there are the quieter scenes, where a slight change in a character’s face can tell you what they’re trying to keep to themselves.

That’s part of why I’d call it a masterpiece. I could spend one scene admiring how much work must have gone into it and the next completely forget I was looking at puppets.

What stayed with me after the credits

For all the magic in the forest, the choices people make in Wildwood felt painfully familiar. The film takes seriously what people are willing to do for someone they love, especially when they’re scared of losing them. Some of those choices surprised me. What made them stick was that I could understand why someone would make them.

I left thinking about how often we hear “and they lived happily ever after.” Real life rarely gives us that kind of certainty. Sometimes what we have is “happy right now.” And when you know how easily that can change, right now can mean quite a lot.

Wildwood at SM City Baguio

Wildwood was listed at SM City Baguio Cinema 1 for Friday, November 13, at 2:50 p.m. and 7:50 p.m. The film is rated R-13 in the Philippines and runs for 2 hours and 10 minutes. Check the cinema schedule for the latest screening times. Saturday and Sunday screenings are unconfirmed, so today, November 13, 2026, might be the last day for you to see this wonderful movie on the big screen.