I think I’ll try defying gravity.

I’ve been sitting around the house wondering what movies I should watch to chat about now that How About Notflix is getting revitalized…again, and then I remembered I have seen movies. Several movies, even before watching Superman. I have taken several flights over the last six months and watched movies on those flights because they were five-six hours long. Like Wicked. And Wicked For Good. I should write about them.

Wicked is incredibly gay and I say that as positively as I possibly can. Directed by John Chu of Step Up and Jem and the Holograms fame, Wicked stars the ever gorgeous Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba Thropp or as most of you will better recognize her; The wicked witch of the west. On her other side is Ariana Grande as Galinda the Good, or the good witch from the Wizard of Oz. Based on the musical play which itself is based on a 1995 book by author Gregory Maguire, Wicked is a dystopian retelling of Wizard of Oz that paints Oz as not such a great place and also the Wicked Witch as a more fleshed out character.

And yes when I say this is based on the musical stage play, the film is very much a musical. It’s a very interesting musical for the fact that the characters constantly breaking out in song is actually acknowledged within the world as something that just happens. Galinda and Elphaba are unwitting and reluctant roommates at Shiz University which is an utterly stupid name for a school but we’ll get into wording later on. Elphaba ends up at the school because of her magical powers and Galinda is there because her parents are rich, she doesn’t have much of a talent outside of her natural charms drawing people to her every word. So naturally she’s jealous. Elphaba meanwhile is the black sheep of her own family being the only one with green skin, and since Oz is incredibly racist and conceited it keeps her at arm’s length from society.

Also she casts spells out of anger sometimes and accidentally hurts people.

What can I say about the cast of this movie other than how incredible they are? Michelle Yeoh is here as Madame Morrible, dean of sorcery studies who takes Elphaba under her wing. Jeff Goldblum plays The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by which I mean he’s Jeff Goldblum being himself dressed as the Wonderful Wizard and being charming as hell. Marissa Bode plays Nessarose Thropp,  and even more impressively they actually cast a paralyzed actor to play a paralyzed character. Jonathan Bailey plays the sexy prince Fiyero Tigelaar in order to ensure this film is a The Mummy level of bisexual awakening for a new generation, and Peter Dinklage voices Dr. Dillamond, who cares. I’d be here all day listing the incredible characters so I’m going to move on.

Don’t look up the character names by the way. If you’re somehow really familiar with the original books from Wizard of Oz, knowing the character names can be a spoiler in itself.

The dialogue in Wicked might put some people off and while there is no official explanation that I’m aware of, I’ve seen a lot of really convincing theories online about why characters talk the way they do. Characters use words in Wicked that come off as some combination of whimsical and incredibly stupid, particularly they mispronounce words like braverism, gratituion, and disrespectation. One theory is that the dialogue is meant to remind the audience that this world is similar to ours, but also different in many subtle and not so subtle ways. Another theory is that the Ozian humans can be mediocre, not care about their flaws, and still succeed while the Ozian animals are held to a higher standard even when they can’t help it.

And you will leave the movie hating many of the characters in this, and that’s also intentional. Oz is full of people who peaked in high school and never really hit big after that. They are vain, self-absorbed, extremely narcissistic, and I guess above all either ridiculously racist or so self-obsessed that they lack empathy unless there’s something they think they can get out of helping others. And the racism plays into the film, as we learn animals are being oppressed by the government so badly that they are actually losing the ability to speak and many are considering leaving Oz entirely before the government goes full genocide. Sure Ozians live in endless wealth and vast luxury, but at what cost to literally everyone else?

I have not read the Wicked books or seen the play which likely puts me in with 90% of the audience. This is one of the very few times where I’ve actually felt interested in origin stories explaining future tales. It feels natural, unlike in Solo for example where they felt the need to clarify that Solo isn’t his real last name but a moniker taken on because he likes to work alone. I wanted to know how we would get from point a to point b here. Will the movie explain how Elphaba gets the flying monkeys aligned with her? Does Dorothy even show up or is this a completely separate timeline? Can Jeff Goldblum get even more charming? Yes, somehow he can.

Also the musical scenes are incredible both in the song itself and the choreographed dancing and performances. Ultimately I found Wicked to be incredibly enjoyable both times I watched it, first time on the plane and the second back at home when I watched it on my big 4k TV. And with my limited time, it takes a lot to get me to watch a film twice in a short span.

Rating: A+