Welcome to another entry in the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com! We have another current nominee for ya!
Today it's the smash-hit from last Thanksgiving season, the much-anticipated film version of the smash-hit Broadway show Wicked! Or Wicked: Part 1, more accurately. Yes, the FIRST ACT of the two-and-a-half-hour stage show was stretched out to 160 minutes for the screen. Jesus, Hollywood, do ya not believe in editing rooms anymore??
Anyway, this Wizard of Oz prequel was directed by John M. Chu of Crazy Rich Asians and In the Heights fame, and stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande as the two main characters, Elphaba Thropp (or The Wicked Witch of the West as she would later be known) and Glinda the Good Witch of the North. But of course this film takes place before either of them earned their famous monikers, when they were just students at Shiz University ("This school is the shiz!"). Galinda Upland as she was known then was a well-to-do, popular, entitled young woman, while Elphaba was an outcast of modest means, gifted in magic but isolated from her peers due to her green skin (one of two very on-the-nose metaphors in this film). One of the school's prominent professors (Michelle Yeoh) takes an interest in Elphaba and thinks she shows enough promise to meet the celebrated Wizard (Jeff Goldbum, playing Jeff Goldblum). This sparks jealousy from Galinda, who has been assigned against her will as Elphaba's roommate. The two have an Odd Couple-esque relationship before finally becoming friends, and Galinda comes to support Elphaba's visit to the Emerald City. But all is not what it seems....
