Review: 'Wicked' is one of the best movies of the year

How do I love "Wicked," let me count the ways. I love the way Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande play frenemy witches with their talent shining on its highest beams. I love the way the film acts as a prequel and a sequel to "The Wizard of Oz" with Dorothy on the sidelines. And I love the way "Wicked" finds its own identity apart from the Broadway musical smash that spawned it.

Like a comet pulled from its stage orbit, "Wicked" splashes down on screen to spread its wings and fly. The result is one of the best movies of the year, a joyous eruption streaked with darkness. It's also a transport vehicle for the Grammy-winning songs by Stephen Schwartz and a sharp script co-adapted by stage originator Winnie Holzman from Gregory Maguire's novel.

Director Jon M. Chu, who proved he had the right stuff with "Crazy Rich Asians" and "In the Heights," shrewdly approaches his job with an artist's disciple matched by a fanboy's unquestioning love. Too much? Maybe. But "Wicked" heads won't be able to resist it.

There's been a lot of love for "Wicked," which is still running on Broadway with no signs of stopping after 23 years, spawning countless productions at home and abroad, profits in the billions and fans that rival Swifties for unstinting loyalty.

Of course, the haters are going to hate and "Wicked" detractors cringe at its sentimentality. Please note that even the acclaimed 1939 "Oz" got dunked with withering reviews (the New Yorker called it a "stinkeroo"). Somehow classics break through the noise.

My advice? Don't hang back with the snobs. Other films this year are bigger ("Dune Part 2"), weightier ("The Brutalist"), wittier ("Anora"), twistier ("Conclave") and extra adventurous ("Emilia Perez"), but none leaves a more indelible handprint on the heart than "Wicked."

Like the play, the movie opens with the funeral of green girl Elphaba (Erivo), aka the Wicked Witch of the West, presided over by good witch Glinda (Grande). Villain and heroine are carefully delineated in an operatic Oz scene-setter, "No One Mourns the Wicked."

But are the lines really drawn that hard and fast? A film-long flashback shows the two as misfit roomies at Shiz University, where sorcery is on the curriculum. The headmistress, Madame Morrible  (the great Michelle Yeoh), sends Elphaba for tutoring to the bizzaro Wizard, swanned by Jeff Goldblum with a sinister charm that will keep you guessing.

Erivo unleashes her formidable lungs on "The Wizard and I," vowing to team up with the Wiz so he will degreenify her. No chance. Meanwhile Glinda exerts her makeover skills on Elphaba in a knockout number, "Popular," in which Grande shows she's a comic dynamo with real acting chops. Erivo and Grande are to die for in performances that should put both in the Oscar race.

Cheers too for Jonathan Bailey as the roguish prince, Fiyero. You're in for a demo-level display of song, dance and acting virtuosity in "Dancing Through Life" as this frisky thirst trap comes between Elphaba and Glinda. Happily, the romantic triangle takes a backseat to the friendship of Elphaba and Glinda, which gives the film its backbone, grace and grieving conscience.

And what of the talking animals in Oz? Peter Dinklage voices history teacher Doctor Dillamond (he's a goat), just one of the beastie intellects who are caged and denied the faculty of speech. Something bad is happening in Oz and the story culminates in Elphaba taking flight against oppression with "Defying Gravity," the showstopper that ends the film on a soaring high note.

Hey, wait a minute. "Defying Gravity" is only the end of Act One on stage, which prompts me to join the growing protest against dividing "Wicked" into two movies. And in a decision that will prove either savvy or stupid, audiences will have to wait a full year for Part Two.

I'm guessing we'll all hang on for the magic, especially when Grande defines delicious and Erivo delivers a tour de force that also nails every quiet nuance in a performance for the ages. And the word is "wow" for the crescendo of musical runs she unleashes after belting "and nobody in all of Oz/no wizard that there is or was/Is ever gonna bring me down." Better believe it.

Because of the wonderful things it does, even half of "Wicked" stands as a new gold-standard in movie musicals and a perfect compliment to the immortal "The Wizard of Oz."

I've heard it said that movies come into our lives for a reason. And "Wicked" has good reason, especially now, to celebrate the power of women in a world that puts outsiders in cages. These witches can preach. They can also set the screen ablaze. No wonder seeing "Wicked" once is just not enough.