Comment: Wicked is a fun movie musical, sure, but it shouldn't win the Best Picture Oscar

The Oscars nominations are here, and each snooty cinephile and Letterboxd clout chaser has opinions. So here’s mine: Wicked was a precise amusive move, but it shouldn’t triumph Best Picture.

Before you drawback your buckets of h2o to melt maine similar a wicked witch, fto maine caveat that I thoroughly enjoyed my cinema-going acquisition astatine Wicked.

Watching the opening scenes did springiness maine that tummy-flip of amusive that I haven’t had since I watched the archetypal Harry Potter movies, and I can’t bask those present due to the fact that *gestures astatine JK Rowling’s full online presence*. One person told maine they couldn’t hold for Wicked to travel retired connected streaming, due to the fact that they knew it would beryllium their caller comfortableness movie.

But is simply a fuzzy feeling capable to marque it genuinely worthy of the Academy Awards’ highest prize? Movie musicals have, historically taken the apical gong. West Side Story (1961), My Fair Lady (1964), The Sound of Music (1965), Oliver! (1968), and Chicago (2002) each got Best Picture. There hasn’t been 1 successful implicit 2 decades, mind, if you don’t number the La La Land snafu.

Now Wicked whitethorn good triumph wherever its root story, The Wizard of Oz, did not — it mislaid to Gone With the Wind successful 1939.

Wicked’s film’s clever and intricate costumes, it’s frankly death-defying choreography, and the stellar performances of Cynthia Erivo (nominated for Best Actress) and Ariana Grande (in the moving for Best Supporting Actress) are each worthy contenders successful their ain right. Nine nominations would person been enough. But arsenic a coherent full it is, narratively and spiritually, a flop.

The film’s hefty 2 hr forty infinitesimal run-time is longer than the full Broadway show, sans interval. That means a batch of padding, alternatively than the benignant of snappy editing you ideally privation for a gold-trophy-winning portion of the metallic screen.

It re-commits Wicked’s archetypal misdeed of ending the archetypal enactment connected Defying Gravity, the show’s 1 existent banger. But alternatively than hold done an interval for the anti-climactic showtunes to come, audiences volition person to hold years – and wage for different ticket.

Splitting an adaptation of a beloved enactment has, to my chagrin, go a fashionable cash-grab determination from movie studios. Wicked has been peculiarly sly astir this. Nowhere connected the promotional materials would you conjecture that it is simply the opening act.

Because of this determination to cleave it successful two, it is simply a stunted story. The affectional through-lines of the character’s development, its extremist stance that reviled outsiders enactment for bully portion the existent baddies inhabit the halls of fame and power, each mislaid successful the shiny sauce. Now we person months of Grande queerbaiting implicit Glinda’s sexuality when, to beryllium clear, she and the Wicked Witch of the East were banging connected the mode to the Emerald City successful the publication that inspired the philharmonic that inspired this film.

Musicals person a almighty remit, arsenic Hollywood knows amended than most. The Sound of Music was precise wide that Nazi’s are the atrocious guys. Wicked could person taken akin purpose astatine the dangers of creeping fascism, but it didn’t instrumentality the landing.

It leaves the assemblage inactive reasoning Grande’s Glinda is conscionable excessively acrophobic with aforesaid representation to articulation Erivo’s Elphaba connected that broomstick, alternatively than a pistillate who is astir to go the figurehead of a fascist state. The world’s richest antheral is presently throwing retired Sieg Heils connected TV; we request films unafraid to amusement audiences wherever an obsession with popularity tin pb to populism.

There are other, amended films successful the moving for Best Picture that managed to archer a full communicative successful a azygous portion of cinema and tackle thorny issues.

Conclave is simply a glorious, multi-faceted gem of a communicative astir faith, sex and the corrupting lure of power. It managed to crook a pulpy airdrome thriller into a breathtaking enactment of art. I won’t spoil the twist, but it’s an implicit wonderment and highly arguable fixed the existent authorities of attacks sex quality from the highest halls of power.