Curator Watchlist
A bold, uneven, and often dazzling musical fantasy that reimagines Oz through Black culture, disco-era spectacle, and a distinctly New York sensibility. It’s messy in places, but the production design, costumes, choreography, and performances give it a singular energy that has only grown more appreciated over time.
Where to watch: Buy
Tue · 2h 14m
Director: Sidney Lumet
Starring: Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell
Dorothy Gale, a shy kindergarten teacher, is swept away to the magic land of Oz where she embarks on a quest to return home.
Sidney Lumet
Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell
A bold, uneven, and often dazzling musical fantasy that reimagines Oz through Black culture, disco-era spectacle, and a distinctly New York sensibility. It’s messy in places, but the production design, costumes, choreography, and performances give it a singular energy that has only grown more appreciated over time.
The Wiz is one of those movies that feels more alive the messier it gets. Sidney Lumet’s direction gives the film an odd, serious backbone, while the songs, costumes, and sets push it into a fever-dream version of Oz that is both glamorous and unnerving. It’s not trying to be the 1939 film, and the best way to watch it is on its own terms.
What lingers most is the movie’s visual imagination and its sense of place. This is Oz filtered through 1970s New York, Black performance traditions, and a big-studio appetite for spectacle. Some scenes are awkward, some are overlong, but the ambition is undeniable, and the musical numbers have a raw, theatrical force that makes the film memorable even when it stumbles.
For viewers tuned to camp, reinvention, and cultural specificity, it’s a rewarding watch. For others, its tonal swings may be too much. But as a singular studio musical with an outsized legacy, it remains worth seeing at least once.
Kimi 🖤 (4★) · 2246 likes
if u don’t like this movie ur boring and ur also probably white
Jason Alley🏳️🌈🐻 (3.5★) · 1998 likes
Is that a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup wrapper on Michael Jackson's nose?
brahski (4★) · 1566 likes
The costuming! The music!! The sets!!! THE SHEER HORROR OF THE SUBWAY SCENE!!!!
pilot · 1293 likes
doesn’t sync up with pink floyd
Diana Geraldine (4★) · 897 likes
Dorothy: *screams for Toto every two minutes*Also Dorothy: *forgets Toto as soon as a musical number starts and they begin walking away* Fucking spectacular. Feverish and almost difficult to digest but oh so enjoyable.
A cult musical built on camp, theatrical excess, and audience participation energy.
A stylized musical drama with performance-first charisma and a strong sense of visual identity.
Big musical emotion, Black performance history, and glossy showbiz spectacle.
A lively, music-driven ensemble film with a distinctly urban 1970s groove.
A glamorous, uneven, highly stylized star vehicle with strong fashion and melodrama.
A genre mashup that embraces camp, music, and larger-than-life fantasy.
A major Black musical biopic with emotional intensity and star power.
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A strange, melancholy musical that turns performance into emotional escape.
A wildly imaginative fantasy with elaborate production design and a dreamlike tone.
A road-trip fantasy with warmth, musical charm, and a playful sense of adventure.
A whimsical musical fantasy that balances wonder, danger, and eccentric design.
identity, homecoming, self-discovery, Black cultural reimagining, urban fantasy, journey narrative, musical spectacle, loneliness
musical, fantasy, family adventure, camp, 1970s, urban, spectacle, Black cinema, surreal, theatrical