Review: Erivo and Grande can’t save "Wicked: For Good"

by Cláudio Alves

Months before it arrived on Broadway, when it first opened for previews in San Francisco, Wicked was already being criticized for an act-two problem. Some finagling was made on the trip to the East Coast, yet the show that premiered at the Gershwin in October 2003 suffered from many of the same structural issues. They didn't stop it from becoming a commercial success or a cultural phenomenon, but still. Two decades later, the revisionist tale of the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good was announced as being split into two movies, alarming those who were familiar with the show and its problems. Financial incentives aside, the decision allowed the first act to soar higher than it would were it still chained to an unsatisfying conclusion, but it left the second part unmoored. Bloating the runtime to double what it is on stage and transmuting a 15-minute act break into a year-long wait didn't help either.

This is not to say that Wicked: For Good was fated to fail, simply that it faced bigger obstacles to success than its predecessor. Sadly, Jon M. Chu and company weren't up to the challenge, no matter how hard the dream team of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande tried...

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Something "Wicked" this way comes!

by Cláudio Alves

Ariana Grande, Jon M. Chu and Cynthia Erivo photographed by Giles Keyte on the set of WICKED: FOR GOOD | © Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.

In 1900, L. Frank Baum published the first book in what would become a series and a cultural monument – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Two years later, he'd adapt Dorothy's adventure into a musical extravaganza for the stage, and six years after, that Kansas girl would walk the yellow brick road into the silver screen for the first time. But it would take MGM's 1939 Technicolor miracle of a movie for The Wizard of Oz to reach its full potential. In 1995, Gregory Maguire used Baum's creation to question the workings of American propaganda through a revisionist tale. In 2003, Wicked reached the stage, reimagined as a mega musical that would take the world by storm. Last year, Jon M. Chu's film adaptation of the show's first act wowed audiences and, next week, the story ends, For Good.

It's been a long journey to get here, and I was lucky enough to attend the London premiere of Wicked: For Good, experiencing one of 2025's most anticipated movies firsthand, along with the fervor of die-hard fans and the media fanfare of a promotional roll-out the likes of which we rarely get to witness...

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More Oscar News: The Winners’ Circle is Back!

by Cláudio Alves

On the heels of yesterday's presenters announcement, AMPAS has revealed that it'll be reviving the winners circle presentation of the 81st Academy Awards. That means five past victors will present the acting categories, each presenter dedicating a little speech to one of the year's nominees. As someone who's yearned for its return since 2009, I can't begin to tell you how over the moon I am about this news. And judging by social media, I'm not alone. Oscar obsessives everywhere are rejoicing in anticipation while also theorizing about what stars the Oscar producers will pair together. Judging by the previous list of names, we can make some assumptions, but why not share one's own ideas instead?

If it was up to me, here's who I'd choose to present the acting nominees…

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Hello, Gorgeous: Best Actress of 2022

A new series by Juan Carlos Ojano

“WHO IS SHE?”, a philosopher named RuPaul once asked.

As with that question, character introductions are vital in storytelling. First impressions are usually given importance right from the page, as those will establish our relationship with said characters. Screenwriters strategize on how they describe a character when they enter the story. Likewise, directors pay attention to how characters enter the story for the first time. Whether those entrances become consistent with the rest of the character or are ultimately subverted as the narrative unfolds even further, they matter a lot. 

Since it is a truth universally acknowledged that Best Actress is perhaps the single most important category in the long history of the Academy Awards, particularly in the lives of its (mostly gay) fans who worship actresses to the ends of the earth, this new series will be focusing on how each of the five Best Actress-nominated performances were introduced in their respective films. Narrative functions, filmmaking decisions, emotional implications, and stray observations included...

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Happy Halloween with Hercule Poirot

by Cláudio Alves

I don't know about you, but after the double whammy of Belfast and Death on the Nile, I was ready to give up on Kenneth Branagh as a director. Yet, like Michael Corleone famously said: "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!"

Turns out that what Branagh and, more specifically, his Agatha Christie adaptations needed was a healthy shot of nonsense plus the spooky seasonings of horror. A Haunting in Venice, now streaming on Hulu, succeeds by untethering itself from literary fidelity, twisting Christie's Hallowe'en Party out of shape in pursuit of maximum entertainment. Though a sense of melancholy pervades, self-serious prestige is abandoned, or mayhap sacrificed at a witches' altar. And from its deadened carcass, Hercule Poirot emerges as the center of a ghostly storm, the skeptic anchor keeping this Hammer Horror resurgence from floating away on the Lido tide…

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