‘Sonic the Hedgehog 3’ Review: Sonic vs. Anti-Sonic

December 19, 2024

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This is not Sonic, even though it kind of looks like him (CREDIT: Paramount Pictures and Sega of America, Inc.)

Starring: Ben Schwartz, Colleen O’Shaughnessey, Idris Elba, Keanu Reeves, Jim Carrey, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Krysten Ritter, Natasha Rothwell, Shemar Moore, Lee Majdoub, Tom Butler, Alyla Browne, James Wolk, Sofia Pernas, Cristo Fernández, Adam Pally, Jorma Taccone

Director: Jeff Fowler

Running Time: 110 Minutes

Rating: PG for All the Silly Cartoony Action Nonsense

Release Date: December 20, 2024 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Our true-blue, Ben Schwartz-voiced shiny speedster is enjoying his happy family life with his adoptive parents and his fox and echidna friends. But some secrets in the halls of power threaten to get in the way of that blissful domesticity. You see, back in the 1970s, a clandestine government program created Shadow the Hedgehog (voiced by Keanu Reeves), who is basically, naturally enough, a shadow version of Sonic. He’s on the loose now, and that of course threatens the stability of the entire world. So Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles form an uneasy alliance with their archnemesis Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) and Robotnik’s long-lost grandfather (also Carrey) to get Shadow back into the shadows.

What Made an Impression?: How Can You Say No to This Guy?: I never played the Sonic video games all that much while growing up, and I only kind of like the first two movies, but whenever there’s a new cinematic adventure with the most famous hedgehog in the world, I find myself getting inexplicably excited. A lot of that has to do with Schwartz’s effervescent, incorrigible vocal performance. And it also probably has something to do with the fact that no matter how convoluted these plots get, it’s clear that everyone is having tons of fun. This franchise is no marvel of storytelling, but it is kind of impressive how wholesome it’s managed to remain amidst all the chaos.
Keep Punching It Up: For the most part, the most complimentary I can be about Sonic 3 is that it’s a pleasant enough diversion for a couple of hours. But occasionally it really comes alive with some especially punchy dialogue, like when one character is mistaken for Detective Pikachu, or when Robotnik describes himself as “undesirable to all possible genders.” Those probably don’t sound as funny typed out as they do in context, but they definitely got some laughs at my screening. Anyway, I most certainly wish that the script had focused on being clever like that more often. The requisite goofiness is certainly there, but it gets distracted by this little thing called saving the world, which isn’t what I’m coming to Sonic movies for. But maybe that’s just me!

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is Recommended If You Like: The possibility that there could be a new Sonic movie every two years for the foreseeable future

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Sycophants

All I Want for Christmas is for More People to See ‘The Order’

December 14, 2024

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Order up! (CREDIT: Vertical/Screenshot)

Starring: Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Jurnee Smollett, Alison Oliver, Marc Maron, Odessa Young

Director: Justin Kurzel

Running Time: 116 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: December 6, 2024 (Theaters)

The Order came out in theaters on the first weekend of December, aka the dumping ground between the mega-blockbusters of Thanksgiving and the mega-blockbusters of Christmas. So it probably won’t be on the big screen for much longer! But if you’re in the mood for a bleak, based-on-a-true-story crime thriller as the mercury plummets and the wind starts whipping, then you may just want to check out Jude Law as a weary FBI agent hunting down Nicholas Hoult as an ambitious white supremacist terrorist. (Marc Maron also pops up as an outspoken radio host!) It’s a worthwhile watch if you want to reckon with the most portentous corners of society.

To sum it all up, I’d like to paraphrase my own headline: all I want for Christmas is for the world to be cured of neo-Nazism.

Grade: 4.5 Attempts to Contain the Disorder out of 6 Kids Birthday Parties

‘Nickel Boys’ Lets You in on the Action

December 12, 2024

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If I had a Nickel for every Boy… (CREDIT: Courtesy of Orion Pictures)
© 2024 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Starring: Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs

Director: RaMell Ross

Running Time: 140 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Racism and Authoritarianism

Release Date: December 13, 2024 (New York Theaters)/December 20, 2024 (Los Angeles Theaters)

What’s It About?: Young Elwood Curtis (Ethan Herisse) has a promising future ahead of him in 1962 Florida. He’s excited about heading off to college, but then an unfortunate encounter leads to a false accusation and a stint at the brutal reform school Nickel Academy, where he befriends a fellow student/inmate named Turner (Brandon Wilson). Elwood seems more or less confident that he’ll be able to leave eventually, although the truth soon hits him hard as he realizes that he’ll need to be particularly crafty if he wants to return to a life of freedom anytime soon. Meanwhile, the much more hardened Turner has come to accept that the only way to escape before “graduating” is in a body bag. And as bad as all that sounds, occasional flashes to the future reveal that even darker practices are afoot at this institution.

What Made an Impression?: The Power and Limits of POV: If you’re a scholar of filmmaking techniques, you’ll notice something right away that makes Nickel Boys unique. On the other hand, if you’re a complete novice regarding the language of film, you still might notice something, even if you don’t quite have the vocabulary for it. That’s because director/co-writer RaMell Ross and his cinematographer Jomo Fray decided to shoot this whole dang thing from a first-person point of view, as if the camera were strapped to the heads of a couple of the main characters. We mostly follow Elwood’s perspective, but about halfway through, it alternates between his and Turner’s POV. I found this approach more interesting than mesmerizing, although I have noticed that plenty of my colleagues were much more blown away. While it didn’t work on me as well as it could have, it’s definitely not ostentatious; Nickel Boys is essentially about the reconstruction of traumatic memories, so it makes sense to strictly limit the available information in this fashion.
Digging Up the Dirt: So is there any chance that Elwood and/or Turner make it out of Nickel alive? Feel free to skip this paragraph if you want to go in having absolutely no idea, but if you don’t mind being teased a bit more, I will say that the glimpses of what happens decades later are both seamless and tantalizingly detached. They’re focused on a surreptitious investigation into Nickel that has the “trust no one” vibe of classic X-Files. There aren’t any aliens of cryptids, but there’s enough institutional malfeasance to make it feel unnervingly supernatural. The ideas at play in this movie won’t come as a surprise to anyone whose eyes are open, but chances are it will still leave you with a feeling you won’t be able to shake.

Nickel Boys is Recommended If You Like: Big Formal Swings

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Points of View

Kyle Mooney Takes Us Back to ‘Y2K’ for a Coming-of-Age Apocalypse

December 5, 2024

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Did these guys do it all for the Nookie? (CREDIT: Nicole Rivelli/A24)

Starring: Jaeden Martell, Rachel Zegler, Julian Dennison, Daniel Zolghadri, Lachlan Watson, Eduardo Franco, Fred Durst, Kyle Mooney, Mason Gooding, The Kid Laroi, Miles Robbins, Tim Heidecker, Alicia Silverstone, Lauren Balone, Kevin Mangold

Director: Kyle Mooney

Running Time: 93 Minutes

Rating: R for Stabby Electronics, Potty Humor, and Teenage Party Antics

Release Date: December 6, 2024 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: It’s December 31, 1999, and all Eli (Jaeden Martell) wants to do is finally hook up with his crush Laura (Rachel Zegler). His good buddy Danny (Julian Dennison) has his back, but pretty much everyone else in their high school relentlessly mocks them. But soon enough, that’ll be the least of their worries, because of this little thing called the Y2K virus. The start of the year 2000 was supposed to cause mass confusion among the world’s electronics as they mistakenly interpreted those last two digits as 1900. But in the real world, the new year rolled in with merely a blip. But what if instead the Y2K bug was a signal for all the computers to unite into a singularity and conquer humanity, and what if it all went down in Eli and Danny’s hometown?

What Made an Impression?: Apocalyptic Nostalgia: Y2K was directed and co-written by Kyle Mooney, who was 15 in December 1999. His fondness for the era is abundantly clear, and you get the sense that he was kind of disappointed that the world didn’t explode on January 1. I’m sure he didn’t actually want things to turn quite as violent as his movie does, but this nevertheless feels like a dream come true in a way. Basically, Y2K is what happens if you go, “What if the 1998 teen comedy Can’t Hardly Wait had been about the end of the world?” And that promise certainly sounds invigorating.
The Mooney House Style: In his years as a YouTube creator and Saturday Night Live cast member, Mooney perfected his own unique version of what is often termed “awkward” or “cringe” comedy. And while those descriptors are certainly accurate, they don’t fully capture his arsenal, as his videos also often manage to be quite sweet and weirdly exhilarating. Which is one way of saying, it’s really hard to do what Kyle Mooney does if you’re not Kyle Mooney or one of his longtime collaborators. Martell, Zegler, Dennison and the rest of the young cast all do their best to play believable, well-rounded teenagers. But in attempting to bring Mooney and Evan Winter’s script to life, it’s like they’re speaking in a language they’re not quite fluent in. Mooney himself naturally proves to be much more readily capable as a video store employee, as does fellow iconic weirdo Tim Heidecker as Eli’s dad. Perhaps the now-40-year-old Mooney could’ve pulled a PEN15 and played the lead character himself?
My Bizkit Hasn’t Been This Limp in Years: Finally, we as a moviegoing society in 2024 have to talk about something very important, as this is the second movie this year trading on our collective familiarity with a certain iconic/infamous rock star. Yes indeed, after Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst was unrecognizable in I Saw the TV Glow, he shows up in Y2K as himself to save the world with the power of nu metal. Like a lot of teens and preteens in 1999, I was more or less obsessed with Limp Bizkit, but I thought I had grown out of that as I put childish things away. But now we find ourselves at this cultural reckoning where we must ask ourselves: is the bard behind “Nookie” and “Break Stuff” a national treasure? If my limited understanding of a certain famous psychologist and theorist is correct, then there’s something Jungian about how Durst keeps popping up. Mooney certainly has a knack for tapping into the collective unconscious, and Y2K is at its strongest when you can feel him utilizing that skill.

Y2K is Recommended If You Like: Dial-up modems, Cheesy outdated computer graphics, Getting lost among the cliques

Grade: 3 out of 5 Viruses

‘A Real Pain’ is a Real Delight

December 4, 2024

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No Real Pain, No Real Gain (CREDIT: Searchlight Pictures)

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin, Will Sharpe, Jennifer Grey, Kurt Egyiawan, Liza Sadovy, Daniel Oreskes

Director: Jesse Eisenberg

Running Time: 90 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: November 1, 2024 (Theaters)

Before I saw A Real Pain, I read and listened to what other people who had seen it thought about it. (That’s the sort of thing that happens when you’re a big fan of movies and you like to be a part of the conversation.) Some people expressed how they tend to be bothered by extremely neurotic folks like David (Jesse Eisenberg), whereas others expressed how they tend to be bothered by unpredictable wild cards like David’s cousin Benji (Kieran Culkin). Meanwhile, I’m like, “They’re both driving me batty!” Or they would, if I were interacting with them in real life. But instead, I’m watching their movie and declaring, “This is beautiful.” That’s the Power of Cinema!

Grade: Not Painful at All, Instead It Felt Like an Emotional Massage

‘Nightbitch’ is for the Canine Within All of Us

December 3, 2024

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The Nightbitch Cometh (CREDIT: Searchlight Pictures)

Starring: Amy Adams, Scoot McNairy, Arleigh Patrick Snowden, Emmett James Snowden, Zoë Chao, Mary Holland, Archana Rajan, Jessica Harper

Director: Marielle Heller

Running Time: 98 Minutes

Rating: R for The Messiness of Family Life While Raising a Toddler

Release Date: December 6, 2024 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Amy Adams plays a Mother who’s been feeling a little suffocated at home lately. That’s because she’s taking some time off from her art career to raise her toddler Son (played by twins Arleigh Patrick and Emmett James Snowden), while her clueless Husband (Scoot McNairy) goes off each day and does a business. And it’s not just the sleepless nights and the constant messes that are driving her feral. You see, when the moon comes up, she becomes someone, or something, else. During the day, she is a human woman, but when the sun goes down, she is Nightbitch.* Yes indeed, the rumors are true, this Mother regularly transforms into a canine and stalks the neighborhood on all fours. (*I don’t remember her ever actually referring to herself as “Nightbitch” in the movie, it might’ve just been in the trailer. But either way, it is the name of her movie, after all.)

What Made an Impression?: Don’t Give Up on Yourself: A lot of the pre-release buzz about Nightbitch has dismissed (or celebrated) it as a 30 Rock gag come to life, but what’s most striking about the actual movie (based on Rachel Yoder’s 2021 novel of the same name) is how gentle and almost timid it is with its central metaphor. It’s just a dollop of magical realism rather than a whole course, as the Mother only fully surrenders to her canine side just a couple of nights. Or it’s possible that she transforms every night but doesn’t always remember it. Either way, the final cut is not filled beginning to end with nonstop doggone antics. But that makes sense, because that untamed version of the Mother has been suppressed so deeply ever since she started staying at home. But as the bitch begins to emerge, she mostly keeps it hidden from everyone else, even though it’s one of the most attractive things about her. Her husband, for example, certainly never sees the complete dog version, but what he can sense is a major turn-on. You wouldn’t have expected this sort of performance out of Amy Adams if you’ve only seen her in Junebug and Enchanted, but she has no qualms about getting down and dirty.
Thank You for Being a Friend: While Nightbitch makes its central point viscerally and unmistakably, it’s hardly revelatory. The Mother’s dilemma about losing herself is the same nightmare that pretty much any woman who is thinking about having kids faces. In these kinds of stories, the harried mother protagonist too often finds herself disappointing all womankind. But fortunately in this case, the Mother has a wonderful support system in the form of three lovely, rambunctious friends (Zoë Chao, Mary Holland, and Archana Rajan), as well as a wise, mysterious librarian (Jessica Harper). At a certain point, you have to wonder: are these women also nightbitches? The evidence points to no, but also… maybe? Either way, this is a wonderful story about letting the people in your life in to see the real you, whether or not that includes turning into a dog.

Nightbitch is Recommended If You Like: Admitting the things you’ve been too afraid to say for far too long

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Magical Women

‘Queer’ Bounces Around 1950s Mexico City and Then Heads Down to the Jungle

November 27, 2024

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A still from the movie Queer, accompanying a review of the movie Queer (CREDIT: Yannis Drakoulidis/A24)

Starring: Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey, Jason Schwartzman, Lesley Manville, Drew Droege, Henrique Zaga, Omar Apollo, Ariel Schulman, David Lowery

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Running Time: 135 Minutes

Rating: R for Explicit Sex and Explicit Drug Use

Release Date: November 27, 2024 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Sharp-dressed 1950s man-about-town William Lee is hanging out in Mexico City, since his status as an opioid addict makes him a criminal back in the United States. True to the title of the movie he’s in (and the William S. Burroughs novella it’s based on), he whiles away his days looking for other men to hook up with (when he’s not otherwise occupied by getting high or downing tequila). One strapping young lad named Eugene Allerton (Drew Stareky) particularly catches his attention. He’s a little different than the other guys in the city’s queer community, but soon enough, he and Lee are inseparable, and then they head down to the jungles of South America to find a doctor who can open up their mind to the possibility of telepathy.

What Made an Impression?: Constant Intoxication: Queer is divided into three chapters and an epilogue; the first is easily the most plotless, though it’s not without its charms. It would have you believe that the Mexico City of 70 years ago was made up entirely of bars that exclusively catered to American gay men, alongside the occasional movie theater. This means that we get to see Daniel Craig attempt a few awkward dances of seduction before fully dropping trou on multiple occasions. The sex scenes are much more explicit (and passionate) than the average theatrically released American movie (regardless of the orientation of the characters), so that’s worth noting if you’re worried that cinema has lost its horny edge. But if you’re like me, you might start to wonder if this is what the entire movie is going to be non-stop for two hours and 15 minutes. Fortunately, some other stuff happens eventually as well.
Vipers and Vegetation: As Lee and Allerton knock on the door of the doctor in the jungle (a barely recognizable Lesley Manville), they’re greeted by an angry snake who nearly rips their heads off. And it’s at precisely this moment that reality becomes more or less fully altered. Lee’s dreams of telepathy aren’t exactly realized, but everything does become about a thousand times more psychedelic. The two traveling companions vomit out what appear to be their own hearts, and Lee later encounters a snake that’s crying while eating its own tail. I don’t know what it all means, but I enjoyed digesting the visual feast! (Perhaps someone more well-versed in the oeuvre of Burroughs can explain the symbolism to me.) All in all, Queer is a heartfelt, playful, and adventurous journey that could open up your heart and head a bit if you’re willing to let it in.

Queer is Recommended If You Like: Snazzy eyeglasses, Orpheus (1950), Sweat-stained faces

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Centipedes

‘September 5’ Brings Us Inside the Control Room During the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre

November 26, 2024

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The view from September 5 (CREDIT: Paramount Pictures)

Starring: John Magaro, Peter Sarsgaard, Ben Chaplin, Leonie Benesch, Zinedine Soualem, Corey Johnson, Georgina Rich, Benjamin Walker, Rony Herman

Director: Tim Fehlbaum

Running Time: 94 Minutes

Rating: R for Language and Descriptions of Deadly Violence

Release Date: November 29, 2024 (Limited Theaters)/December 13, 2024 (Expansion)

What’s It About?: September 5, 1972 was one of the darkest days in international sporting competitions. That was when the Palestinian militant group Black September invaded the Olympic Village at the Munich Summer Games. Hostages from the Israeli delegation were taken and eventually killed. The new movie entitled September 5 recounts that incident from the vantage point of the ABC Sports crew that suddenly found themselves covering a terrorist attack unfolding right in front of them.

What Made an Impression?: How to Find Meaning out of Violence: September 5 is arriving at a fraught historical moment, with the conflict between Israel and Palestine currently in one of its darkest chapters ever. I’m not worried that this will inflame that tension, at least not any more so than any other piece of fiction inspired by this subject could. It actually reminded me of Civil War in terms of its reticence to make any blunt political statement. But of course, whereas that film is about a speculative future, September 5 is about an event that very much did happen, and long enough ago that we certainly could reckon with what it all meant. But co-writer/director Tim Fehlbaum instead opts for a strict docudrama approach, outlining the who, what, when, where, and how, while leaving the why up to everyone else to decide.
An Uneasy Achievement: While September 5 is hesitant to make any moral judgments, it is willing to congratulate its characters from a technical standpoint, although even then there is a deep well of uneasiness. The sports team is warned that they’re in way over their heads as their assignment turns into the hardest of hard news, though they ultimately prove to be up to the task. They congratulate themselves for a successful high-pressure broadcast, but then they’re left to wonder: what the hell just happened? What does it mean to be the hosts of global tragedy? Chances are, you’ll be feeling both a newfound respect for and a newfound existential crisis about broadcast media.

September 5 is Recommended If You Like: Television history, Subtle use of Canadian accents, Inevitable tragic endings

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Satellite Feeds

The Political is Personal in the Secretly Shot ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’

November 25, 2024

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It’s a secret… but you should go see it (CREDIT: NEON)

Starring: Misagh Zare, Sohelia Golestani, Mahsa Rostami, Setareh Maleki, Niousha Akhshi, Reza Akhlaghi, Shiva Ordooei, Amineh Arani

Director: Mohammad Rasoulof

Running Time: 168 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Bloody Injuries and Disturbing Threats

Release Date: November 27, 2024 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: The Seed of the Sacred Fig was shot entirely in secret, possibly because the ideas that writer-director Mohammad Rasoulof is exploring threaten to upset the entire structure of modern Iranian society. A lawyer named Iman (Misagh Zare) has recently been given a prestigious promotion as a judge in Tehran, which keeps him away from his wife Najmeh (Sohelia Golestani) and daughters Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) and Sana (Setareh Maleki) for long stretches. With the nation roiled by political protests, Iman dutifully toes the line of the state, despite the violent official responses. Meanwhile, he’s barely aware of the tension brewing within his own household, with Rezvan and Sana feeling much more inclined to agree with the protesters, especially after a friend of theirs is grievously injured at a demonstration. It all comes to a head when Iman’s government-issued handgun goes missing. He suspects that a member of his family is undermining him, and he’s willing to take extreme measures to uncover the truth.

What Made an Impression?: Iran in Microcosm: Reports about the current political situation in Iran have been disseminated in unexpected ways, at least from my vantage point. There was an episode of the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast with someone describing the situation firsthand while having his voice altered, and now there’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig. It feels like an urgent warning from Rasoulof and his cast and crew about the oppression that women and young people are facing. Iman’s standoff with his daughters arrives as a stark metaphor of the fight between Iran and its citizens. He feels duty- and honor-bound to be the good patriarch, but he loses his grip on reason and sanity after he takes ever more desperate steps to maintain control. Rezvan and Sana make perfunctory attempts to state their case with reason and evidence, but they’re just as willing to go to extremes to protect their own freedom.
A Slow and Steady Boil: The Seed of the Sacred Fig stretches to nearly three hours, despite taking place over the course of just a few weeks, if that. But that small stretch of time is long enough to come to a lifetime’s worth of epiphanies. The first half or so is sufficiently claustrophobic to make you feel restless, as it’s mostly confined to the family’s modest home and Iman’s dimly lit workspaces. As the action spreads out in the climax, you might find yourself amazed at how much tension has been coiling up that whole time. It’s an epic statement on an intimate scale, with a violent release serving as the unforgettable punctuation.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig is Recommended If You Like: Revolution crossed with dysfunctional family dynamics

Grade: 4 out of 5 Protests

‘Wicked’ Takes Flight and Delivers the Zest

November 20, 2024

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Wicky-wicky-Wicked (CREDIT: Universal Pictures)

Starring: Cynthia Erivo, Arian Grande, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Marissa Bode, Peter Dinklage, Bowen Yang, Bronwyn James

Director: Jon M. Chu

Running Time: 160 Minutes

Rating: PG for The Birth of the Flying Monkeys

Release Date: November 22, 2024 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Is there a single living soul who’s never encountered any of the many adaptations of L. Frank Baum’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz? One of the most popular is surely the musical Wicked, based on the revisionist novel by Gregory Maguire. But just in case you’re coming into totally fresh to the big screen version, here are the key details: Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo) is a green-skinned outcast in the Land of Oz who encounters the uber-popular Galinda Upland (Ariana Grande) as they enroll at Shiz University. After initially clashing, they forge an unlikely friendship while learning the ways of magic under the tutelage of Headmistress Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh). Elphaba demonstrates prodigious supernatural talents that are the envy of everyone else. That puts her on a collision course with the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum), who wants to utilize her skills for his own mysterious ends. Meanwhile, conspiracies are underfoot that could transform Oz forever and lead Elphaba and Galinda towards their inescapable destinies.

What Made an Impression?: A Witchy Good Time: Maybe I’m totally kooky for saying this, but for me, the main appeal of Wicked isn’t the music. Sure, there are some culture-shifting numbers (“Defying Gravity” doesn’t pull out any stops in its silver screen moment, that’s for sure), but for my money, it’s all about the crackling interplay between Elphaba and Galinda. And true, singing is definitely a big part of their interactions, but they make an enduring impression no matter how they communicate, with Erivo and Grande emphatically making the roles their own. Now, I’ve never seen the stage version, so I suppose I can’t make that statement with complete authority, but they are in no way doing mere impressions of Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. In Erivo’s hands, Elphaba is a force of nature who is never to be underestimated, while Grande (who’s credited by her full name of Ariana Grande-Butera) makes a total hoot out of the profound insecurity of the popular girl.
Don’t Take Magic for Granted: The world of Wicked may have originated from source material that’s more than a hundred years old, but it would fit right at home with the many young adult fantasy series of the past couple decades, what with the witches and the magical school and the talking animals. But this story is a little more complicated than just a metaphor for adolescence. Magical and non-magical beings exist uneasily alongside each other, and political machinations are tricky to parse. Jeff Goldblum’s casting as the Wizard proves to be a stroke of genius, as he utilizes his signature offbeat diction to charm anyone who can’t immediately see through to his charlatan nature. But while there is plenty of subterfuge afoot, there is also plenty to love about this version of Oz. And yet, it seems like there’s also always someone lurking around every corner, ready to snatch that goodness away. So appreciate the magic while you can, and do your best to understand why someone wouldn’t want you to be able to. (Also, take note of this Slight Spoiler: despite the lack of acknowledgement in the advertising, this is just Part 1, with Part 2 due to arrive in theaters in November 2025.)

Wicked is Recommended If You Like: Schoolyard cattiness, Baritone goats, Blinding lights

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Brooms

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