‘Wicked’ Makes Movie Magic: At The Movies With Kasey
I took my knitting to the movie theater, which tells you two things. I can knit in the dark. And I think two hours and forty minutes is an awfully long runtime. Despite being in show choir the year Wicked debuted on Broadway, I was not more familiar with the show than knowing a couple of its most famous songs. Man, I was missing out all these years.
Inspired by The Wizard of Oz, Wicked creates a vivid backstory for The Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), exploring the origins of her green skin and her complicated relationship with her college roommate, Galinda (Ariana Grande). Elphaba is mentored by sorcery teacher Madam Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), who sees a unique talent in her that could make her useful to the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum). Meanwhile, disturbing changes start to happen in Oz that test Elphaba and Galinda’s motives and powers.
Wicked is the best movie musical I have seen in years. The story moves along quickly, the musical numbers are high-energy and beautiful. The themes are relevant but also timeless. I loved everything about it. Ariana Grande was hilarious as Galinda, showcasing her vocal range and also bringing out the nuances of the character. As Elphaba, Cynthia Erivo grounds the production with a moving depiction of a strong-willed but vulnerable woman. The two together were captivating. Meanwhile, Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero is so charming he even has chemistry with his horse (the same one from Bridgerton, by the way). There’s even good acting by a goat, voiced by Peter Dinklage.
The amount of lush detail in Wicked shows how much love went into the production. There are hidden rainbows, throw-back fonts, subtly foreshadowing melodies, and a lot of play with green and pink light schemes. From the epic opening to the show-stopping finale, Wicked features plenty of Easter Eggs for fans of the musical or The Wizard of Oz, while also standing in its own excellence. The incredible 1930s-inspired costumes, beautiful cinematography, intricate sets, and wonderful performances make Wicked a must-see theater experience.
Wicked was directed by Jon M. Chu and written by Winnie Holzman, Dana Fox, and Gregory Maguire. It runs 160 minutes and is rated PG.
If you are ready to start watching Christmas movies, Netflix has a new slate of films for the season. The best so far, Our Little Secret, stars Lindsay Lohan as Avery, an ambitious young woman who has an emotional breakup with her childhood sweetheart, Logan (Ian Harding), only to be reunited with him at Christmas ten years later when they are each dating a different sibling in the same family—Cameron (Jon Rudnitsky) and Cassie (Katie Baker). Speaking of Wicked, Kristin Chenoweth also stars as the intimidating matriarch of the group. Directed by Stephen Herek and written by Hailey DeDominicis, Our Little Secret feels pretty similar to a lot of hijinks-at-the-in-laws’ type holiday comedies. The escalating stakes of the secret-keeping between Logan and Avery keep the plot interesting, though, and Lohan and Harding have good enough chemistry for the romantic part of the story to work. Both Avery and Logan are also given more grown-up concerns motivating their choices, making the film feel less silly than titles in this genre often do. It does not have much re-watchability, which I look for in a Christmas classic, but as far as new movies this year go, don’t skip this one.
The Merry Gentlemen is basically Magic Mike at Christmas, as Broadway dancer Ashley (Britt Robertson) comes home for the holidays and discovers that her parents (Beth Broderick and Michael Gross) are struggling to keep the bar they own, The Rhythm Room. Improbably, Ashley decides that they can get the revenue to save the family business by hosting a male dance revue, and she even convinces the handyman, Luke (Chad Michael Murray), to star in the show because he likes her folks. This movie is very silly and also not very good. The saving grace is the chemistry between Britt Robertson and Chad Michael Murray, but overall it is cliched and not very funny.
Similarly, the funniest part of Hot Frosty is the title. The film stars Dustin Milligan as a snowman who comes to life and falls in love with a lonely widow played by Lacey Chabert. Hot Frosty has a fun cast and a somewhat charming premise, but the execution is flat, relying too much on the gimmick of the plot and yet not leaning into the quirks enough for it to be cute or funny.
Worst of all, though, was Meet Me Next Christmas which stars Christina Milian as Layla, a woman desperate to get tickets to a sold-out Christmas Eve Pentatonix concert so that she can find a handsome stranger she met at the airport the Christmas before. The plot is incredibly controvied and the actual Pentatonix are shoehorned into the movie as kind of a Greek chorus. They should stick to singing. Meet Me Next Christmas might only make good background noise while wrapping presents.
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