Tag: Musical

Wicked: For Good (2025) | REVIEW

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande-Butera in WICKED: FOR GOOD — PHOTO: UNIVERSAL PICTURES (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Jon M. Chu — Screenplay by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox.

The wait is over for musical theater fans all over the world. The long-awaited sequel to 2024’s Wicked, both based on the musical theater show of the same name, has hit theaters and is already one of the biggest hits of the year. Still directed by In the Heights director Jon M. Chu, Wicked: For Good is an adaptation of the second half of the aforementioned musical theater show and is thus one of the decade’s key part two films. The sequel follows the wrongly villainized Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba (played by Cynthia Erivo), known for her green skin and her magical powers, some time after the events of the first film, which culminated in an instantly iconic performance of “Defying Gravity,” as Elphaba escaped the Emerald City and left her best friend, Galinda ‘Glinda’ Upland (played by Ariana Grande-Butera), to become ‘Glinda the Good,’ a pinkly-dressed faux-witch and key representative of the Wizard of Oz (played by Jeffrey Goldblum) and his empire. The film sees our main duo step into their roles as opposing forces, hoping for reconciliation and a better future for Oz, with Elphaba being particularly focused on improving the rights of animals and anyone else who may lose their ability to speak up as a result of the Wizard’s regime. 

Continue reading “Wicked: For Good (2025) | REVIEW” →

Sinners (2025) | REVIEW

Michael B. Jordan and Miles Caton in Ryan Coogler’s SINNERS — PHOTO: Warner Bros. Pictures (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Ryan Coogler — Screenplay by Ryan Coogler.

Ryan Googler should be a household name. He burst onto the scene with his incredible feature debut Fruitvale Station, revitalized the modern American sports drama (and an iconic franchise) with Creed, broke box office records with the iconic superhero film Black Panther, and took on the daunting task of making a sequel to his superhero epic, even though it would be without its leading man with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, following Chadwick Boseman’s tragic passing. Coogler has proven himself to be a commercially viable filmmaker with something on his mind and the skill with which to pull off his ideas breathtakingly. But now he’s finally made something unique and original, despite the genre tropes his film willingly embraces, following years upon years of working with true stories, established characters, or within the Marvel machine. Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is an original vampire period film of which he insisted on having full creative control and future ownership, with a deal that resembles what Quentin Tarantino, among others, have done before him. That was a deal worth fighting for, because Sinners is the kind of instant classic original genre film that will blow people away.

Continue reading “Sinners (2025) | REVIEW” →

Wicked (2024) | REVIEW

Ariana Grande-Butera and Cynthia Erivo in WICKED — PHOTO: UNIVERSAL PICTURES (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Jon M. Chu — Screenplay by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox.

Sometimes I like to think of myself as an ‘unrealized musical theater kid,’ since I do, and always have, enjoyed performances, musicals, and whatnot but didn’t really have school programs or friends to help steer me in a fulfilling direction when I was younger. As such, it sometimes feels like I’m behind on a couple of musical theater touchstones that I undoubtedly would’ve loved when I was younger. Although I knew of “Defying Gravity,” through, I think, Glee, Wicked has been a little bit of a blind-spot for me, despite my love and appreciation for The Wizard of Oz. In early 2024, I did express some doubt about this entire big-screen adaptation project of the musical theater phenomenon, as the adaptations of Cats and Dear Evan Hansen appeared to have only lessened the reputations of those shows. So, I openly asked, on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, if this was something people actually wanted to see? Wicked die-hard fans were quick to respond with a clear and obvious ‘yes.’ Now that I’ve seen the big-screen adaptation, I can happily say that I totally get the excitement. Although I, admittedly, don’t think it’s perfect or the best movie musical of the last ten years, I found Wicked to be utterly delightful. I understand why it is, ahem, popular.

Continue reading “Wicked (2024) | REVIEW” →

Emilia Pérez (2024) | REVIEW

Zoe Saldaña in EMILIA PÉREZ — PHOTO: Shanna Besson.

Directed by Jacques Audiard — Screenplay by Jacques Audiard.

As was already evident based on Julia Ducournau’s Titane and Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, modern day French filmmakers sometimes gravitate toward these ambitious and unique films that defy genre conventions and classifications (and that are difficult to describe to acquaintances without getting strange looks) with great success. Un Prophet and Dheepan director Jacques Audiard, a Palme d’Or winning filmmaker, had similar aspirations recently with his Emilia Pérez, which is arguably most succinctly described as a gender transition musical crime film (mostly set in Mexico and mostly in Spanish) despite the fact that it contains even more sides than even that brief description encompasses. Emilia Pérez has already earned Audiard and his cast plenty of awards attention including the Jury Prize and Best Actress award (for its four female principal actresses) at the Cannes film festival. Nonetheless, the film has also been met with criticism from both Mexican audiences and the LGBTQ+ community. Setting aside all of the praise and all of the controversy, how good is the actual film itself? Well, let’s have a look.

Continue reading “Emilia Pérez (2024) | REVIEW” →

Dear Evan Hansen (2021) | REVIEW

Ben Platt and Julianne Moore as son and mother in Stephen Chbosky’s DEAR EVAN HANSEN adaptation — PHOTO: Erika Doss / Universal Pictures.

Directed by Stephen Chbosky — Screenplay by Steven Levenson.

I decided to skip Dear Evan Hansen, the coming-of-age film musical based on a stage musical of the same name, back when it was first released in theaters. I did this in spite of the fact that I had heard the Benj Pasek and Justin Paul songs beforehand (and really liked quite a few of them — I know the lyrics to some of them from end to end). The story follows a depressed and lonely seventeen-year-old high school student, named Evan Hansen (played by Ben Platt), who suffers from extreme social anxiety. One day, he runs into Connor Murphy (played by Colton Ryan) — the troubled brother of Zoe Murphy (played by Kaitlyn Dever), whom Evan has a crush on — and Connor, due to a misunderstanding, decides to take Evan Hansen’s personal letter home with him. Sometime later, Evan finds out that Connor has taken his own life, and that the Murphy family thinks that Evan’s letter was left as a suicide note for the friend they never knew he had. Evan, not knowing how to get out of the situation, then decides to fabricate this lie that he and Connor were best friends, and, in the process, he gets to be a part of the kind of family he always wanted to be in.

Continue reading “Dear Evan Hansen (2021) | REVIEW” →

REVIEW: RRR (2022)

N. T. Rama Rao, Jr. and Ram Charan showing off their dancing skills in RRR — PHOTO: DVV Entertainment /

Directed by S. S. Rajamouli — Screenplay by S. S. Rajamouli — Story by V. Vijayendra Prasad.

Excuse me as I begin my review with a bit of a story. For months, I’ve wanted to watch the widely successful RRR, the Indian epic that has taken Hollywood and the world by storm, but I have also been deeply frustrated by the fact that it isn’t really in theaters and it isn’t on streaming services. Or was it? You see, for a while now I’ve noted that Netflix allowed me to put the film on my watchlist but not actually watch it. JustWatch, the primary online streaming guide I use to track the arrival of new releases, even insisted that it was on Netflix in Denmark. I didn’t know what to believe. Well, this frustration went on for quite some time. That is, until last week, when I read a Danish review of the film, which specified that to watch the film in Denmark, you simply needed to change your language to English on Netflix. Et voilà. It actually was on the Danish Netflix this whole time, but for some reason, it was locked away behind simple language settings. Anyway, I digress. Let’s talk about the hottest movie of 2022, which I’m so glad that I finally saw, S. S. Rajamouli’s RRR. 

Continue reading “REVIEW: RRR (2022)” →

REVIEW: Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)

The titular wooden boy in Guillermo Del Toro’s PINOCCHIO — PHOTO: NETFLIX.

Directed by Guillermo Del Toro and Mark Gustafson — Screenplay by Guillermo Del Toro and Patrick McHale – Story by Guillermo Del Toro and Matthew Robbins.

The story of Pinocchio has been told and retold over and over again since Carlo Collodi first wrote it in the 1880s. Nowadays it is mostly known for its classic 1940s Disney adaptation about a wooden boy who wants to be real and who sings the classic line about there being no strings on him. This year, Disney even tried to release a live-action remake which came and went without making much of an impression. Hopefully, fate will be kinder to Netflix’s stop-motion animation film that is directed by Guillermo Del Toro and Mark Gustafson, as it presents a more mature version of the story that updates the classic tale to a time of war.

In Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio (titled thusly, even though he is not the only credited director), Geppetto (voiced by David Bradley) is heartbroken from the loss of his son Carlo decades ago in a bombing raid. On one of his nights out drinking, Geppetto screams angrily to the skies as lightning flashes above, and the woodcarver decides to cut down the pine tree that was planted in his son’s memory. Geppetto goes to work and carves the tree until he has created a wooden boy. When Geppetto passes out, Sebastian J. Cricket (voiced by Ewan McGregor) witnesses a spirit bringing the wooden boy to life as Pinocchio (voiced by Gregory Mann). Adamant that Pinocchio must be exactly like Carlo and be kept away from real-world dangers, Geppetto soon finds out that he cannot control his new lively boy, who gradually becomes more and more interesting to a traveling circus and the Italian government.

Continue reading “REVIEW: Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)” →

REVIEW: West Side Story (2021)

The Jets, The Sharks, and Tony & Maria in Spielberg’s West Side Story – Photo: 20th Century Studios.

Directed by Steven Spielberg – Screenplay by Tony Kushner.

If you’ve been thinking that another West Side Story is pretty unnecessary, then you’re not alone. After all, Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins’ 1961 musical film adaptation of the Romeo & Juliet-inspired Broadway stage play ended up with eleven Oscar nominations and won in ten of those categories including Best Picture. Often regarded as one of the greatest musical films of all time, the 1961 film has made people very familiar with the story. So, did we need Steven Spielberg to make a new version of the stage play? No, we definitely didn’t. But here’s the thing. Let’s be honest, we also didn’t technically need another Batman reboot. We didn’t technically need three different live-action Spider-Men in the last twenty years. However, even though we didn’t need those films, just like how I loved the vast majority of the Spider-Man films, as well as the new Batman flick, I have to say that Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story is just wonderful. We didn’t need it, but I’m glad we now have it.

Continue reading “REVIEW: West Side Story (2021)” →

Additional Bite-Sized Reviews, Dec. 2021: ‘In the Heights,’ ‘Fast and Furious 9,’ and More

Anthony Ramos as ‘Usnavi’ and Melissa Barrera as ‘Vanessa’ in Jon M. Chu’s IN THE HEIGHTS. — PHOTO: Warner Bros. Pictures.

In this edition of my monthly movie and television catch-up article series titled ‘Additional Bite-Sized Reviews,’ I mostly run you through my thoughts on several different films that I’ve missed throughout the year. That means that I have finally seen films like Jon M. Chu’s In the Heights, Rebecca Hall’s Passing, the latest entry in the Fast and Furious franchise (F9), and much, much more including a Best Picture winner that I missed during the previous Oscar season.

Continue reading “Additional Bite-Sized Reviews, Dec. 2021: ‘In the Heights,’ ‘Fast and Furious 9,’ and More” →

REVIEW: tick, tick… BOOM! (2021)

Andrew Garfield as Jonathan Larson in Netflix’s tick, tick… BOOM! — Photo: Macall Polay / Netflix.

Directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda — Screenplay by Steven Levenson.

Hamilton-creator Lin-Manuel Miranda’s tick, tick… BOOM! is based on the Jonathan Larson musical of the same name and it tells the story of Jonathan Larson’s time as an aspiring composer and playwright in New York City in the early 1990s. Larson (played by Andrew Garfield) is about to turn thirty years old, and he is worried that he is about to miss his moment. While he is juggling paying his bills, working on his relationship with his girlfriend, Susan (played by Alexandra Shipp), and working as a waiter in a SoHo diner, he is also trying to complete his musical Superbia, which he has been working on for eight years, before it is to be presented a couple of days prior to his birthday. But Larson finds it difficult to find time for everyone in his life as he can constantly sense that time is ticking away inside his head.

Continue reading “REVIEW: tick, tick… BOOM! (2021)” →