Wicked: for Good

Saturday night, January 3, Sharon and I watched Wicked: for Good as a rental on the AppleTV. We saw Wicked Part One last December. Jack, Sharon and I saw the play Wicked in San Francisco in December of 2009.

Wicked: For Good is a musical and fantasy film directed by Jon M. Chu. It was written by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox. The sequel to Wicked (2024), it adapts the second act of the 2003 stage musical by Stephen Schwartz and Holzman. The play and the films are loosely based on Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel, a re-imagining of L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 1939 film adaptation.

Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Michelle Yeoh, and Jeff Goldblum return from the first film. Set in the Land of Oz before and during the events of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the film follows Elphaba and Glinda in their new identities as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good.

Both the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute listed Wicked: for Good among the top-ten films of 2025. It received five nominations at the 83rd Golden Globe Awards, including: Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy; Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture; Cinematic and Box Office Achievement, and; Best Original Song. The film received seven nominations at the 31st Critics' Choice Awards (including Best Picture).

We are continuing our annual journey to see all of the films that might be nominated for an Oscar. Although Sharon lamented not seeing the movie in the theater at the beginning, this is not a good movie. The plot is a mess. It includes a number of original songs not from the play; the new songs are not good. I will be surprised if it is nominated for a Best Picture Oscar...