Anya Taylor-Joy gives a wonderful performance in the title role of this Jane Austen adaptation as a well-meaning but proud young woman who enjoys playing match-maker without proper concern for the feelings of those involved. Bill Nighy plays Emma's father to perfection. Fans of the book will be pleased.

“I wanted to be the funny one,” laments the title character of “Hannah Takes the Stairs,” “and I’m never the funny one.” That’s not true. As played by the actress-writer Greta Gerwig, Hannah is neurotic, sweet and mildly sarcastic, in a Gen Y-Diane Keaton sort of way, and her small-stakes odyssey through three relationships is wryly observed. That said, “Hannah,” the third feature by the Chicago writer-director-editor Joe Swanberg, i find out more...