A glossy, crowd-pleasing musical fantasy with strong performances, big emotional hooks, and enough wit to keep the spectacle from feeling purely ornamental. It’s especially rewarding if you enjoy star-powered production design, friendship-driven melodrama, and songs built for maximum theatrical release.
In the land of Oz, ostracized and misunderstood green-skinned Elphaba is forced to share a room with the popular aristocrat Glinda at Shiz University, and the two's unlikely friendship is tested as they begin to fulfill their respective destinies as Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.
Director
Jon M. Chu
Cast
Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Michelle Yeoh
Curator Review
Verdict
A glossy, crowd-pleasing musical fantasy with strong performances, big emotional hooks, and enough wit to keep the spectacle from feeling purely ornamental. It’s especially rewarding if you enjoy star-powered production design, friendship-driven melodrama, and songs built for maximum theatrical release.
Best for
musical fans
fantasy audiences
viewers who like big studio spectacle
fans of queer-coded friendship/romance subtext
people who want an emotionally earnest crowd-pleaser
Skip if
you dislike stage-to-screen musicals
you want a complete story in one sitting
you prefer subtle, naturalistic acting
you’re allergic to heightened sentiment and showy production
Overview
Wicked is a rare blockbuster musical that understands the assignment: make the theater feel alive, make the emotions legible, and make every number feel like an event. Jon M. Chu leans into scale and shimmer without losing the central appeal, which is the chemistry between two women whose bond is funnier, sadder, and more complicated than the fairy-tale framing suggests.
Worth noting
The movie’s biggest strength is how it turns familiar material into a story about outsiderhood, performance, and the social cost of being labeled “good” or “bad.” It’s also unabashedly designed for audience pleasure, from the production design to the vocal showcases to the way it builds toward huge communal moments. That polish can feel overextended at times, especially given the split structure, but the emotional payoff is real.
Bottom line
If you want a lean narrative, this may feel like half a movie stretched to feature length. But if you’re open to a lavish, sincere, slightly overstuffed musical fantasy, it delivers the kind of transportive moviegoing experience that people will keep revisiting in theaters, karaoke bars, and group chats alike.
Top Letterboxd reviews
kats (5★) · 46467 likes
the way the entire theater moaned every single time jonathan bailey was on screen should be studied
Dylan (4★) · 33690 likes
graduated from shiz university with a masters in aaaghahohahaghhaaaaahhhhh
leahonfilmm (4.5★) · 31819 likes
i love that jonathan bailey didn’t even try to play fiyero straight at all ⊹ ࣪ ౨ৎ˚₊
☆ sophie ☆ (4★) · 26132 likes
historians will say they were ‘good friends’
davidehrlich (1.5★) · 23267 likes
undeniably funny that this 160-minute half-movie about how the wicked witch of the west got her broom opens with voiceover saying “let me tell you the whole story.”
Themes
female friendship, outsider identity, moral ambiguity, public image vs private self, coming-of-age, power and corruption, romantic tension, social hierarchy