Wicked

I’ve loved musical theatre and films for as long as I can remember. I grew up loving Disney. my first musical I was in was a community theatre production of The Sound Of Music. I was a puppet in The Lonely Goatherd number. Musical theatre and emo music got me through high school. When we watched Singing In The Rain in my film class, I was sitting in the back of the class crying. Musicals still hold a really important place to me. Hell, fucking WONKA helped me quit smoking. But I always avoided Wicked. This isn’t even a slight at Wicked. It was the cynicism in me. “Oh wow, a massive musical that everyone loves, not interested”. Mind you, I was one of those people who found Hamilton when it was Off Broadway so I was early to the party. But I don’t know, wicked just wasn’t something I was interested in. I knew Defying Gravity, which is an obvious banger, and I knew Popular, which was cute. The most knowledge I had was a bit in South Park and a section of a senior showcase I saw at UCI in 2022 (they fucking killed that by the way). But I never looked any deeper into this. The trailers didn’t really interest me. I didn’t like how it was in two parts. I didn’t like how twitter’s awful video streaming made every shot in the trailers look like a hideous wash of grey. I knew I was gonna see it, but I wasn’t going in ready to have my life changed. Holy fucking shit, I am so sorry to every and all Wicked fans. This was absolutely incredible. This is why movie musicals exist. THIS is why we fucking go to the movies. It’s for films like this.  I have a lot to say. The craft is incredible. This film takes advantage of its medium and drives everything to an 11. I was extremely skeptical with splitting this into two parts, but watching this made it clear that it was necessary. It’s amazing to watch a film where literally everything is at maximum effort. Every dancer is sharp. Like razor sharp. Each hit is felt. The sound design emphasizes each hit. The way the camera moves in sync with the choreography almost felt like a fight sequence. Alice Brooks needs to shoot an action. She’d kick so much ass. I mentioned it earlier but trailer marketing did this film SO dirty. Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc. made this film look insanely grey and washed out. This does not represent the film. Holy shit, it’s BEAUTIFUL. PRACTICAL SETS. COLOR. THIS IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN YEARNING FOR. I’ll admit though there is one sequence that is pretty blown out lighting wise but everything else in that scene is still so incredible that I genuinely don’t give a shit. Everyone was incredible, but a standout for me was Bowen Yang. He’s barely in it but holy shit, every choice he made was absolutely hysterical. He should be in every movie. Goldblum was perfect as always. Cynthia Erivo is a force to be reckoned with. Ariana Grande was fucking incredible. No wonder that Glinda was her dream role, she was perfect. There are two cameos in here that are absolutely adorable. This film is long and I loved it. I was fully locked in from start to finish. Cannot believe I have to wait a year for the conclusion, but I’m not gonna wait that long, because I am 100% seeing it live. I love musicals. I love theatre. I love film. I fucking love Wicked.