Don’t sleep on the Wicked Movie, y’all. It really is that good. 

Wicked remains my favorite musical of all time, so I was inclined to like the movie no matter what—but I also know just how hard it is to make a movie musical work. So many musicals I love have bad movies. Wicked is not one of them.

I didn’t know Cynthia Erivo’s work very well prior to this film—she’s excellent. I appreciated her layered performance of Elphaba: snarky, smart, ostracized. I was also very pleasantly surprised with Ariana Grande’s acting chops. One advantage the medium of film has over theater is the ability to see a character’s inner life, and the opportunity to see a conflicted Glinda up close was something that makes the storyline work for me even more than I thought it did. Director Jon Chu did a great job showing layers to not only Glinda and Elphaba but the entire supporting ensemble. This movie was an Event with a capital E, and Jon Chu led an amazing team to pull it off.

The Wicked movie is a two-parter—what we’re seeing released this weekend is only a film adaptation of Act One. I was skeptical when I heard the musical was being split into two movies—all I thought at the time was “greedy studio, sure”—but coming out of Part I today, I actually think it makes all the sense in the world. The harshest criticism I have for the stage musical is that it often moves too fast and thus, plot points don’t all feel adequately developed. This is no issue in this film, I feel every element of the story that exists in the musical is given proper breathing room to be follow able and built upon. 

You couldn’t cut Wicked into one movie without cutting some great musical numbers and story threads.

I will admit—Act One is far stronger than Act Two in the stage show, so perhaps adapting Act One was the “easier” job, but seeing what Jon Chu, screenwriter Winnie Holzman, and the cast and crew were able to do expanding on an already killer Act One, I’m very excited to see Part Two. Same time next year? 👀💚🩷

This was an elite film. The magic lives.