Hello and welcome to this week’s Film Roundup, bringing you the best of the upcoming cinematic releases and why you should be looking forward to them. This week, we’re defying Gravity with Wicked, denying anatomy with Layla, and, um… defying gravity again with The Magic Reindeer: Saving Santa’s Sleigh.
Usual disclaimer: unless otherwise stated, I haven’t seen these films. All of my opinions are based on trailers, early reviews and other rumours and buzz.
Wicked
Based on the hit West End musical, Wicked tells the story of Glinda (Arianna Grande) and Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) as they meet at school, and how they went from close friends to the Good Fairy and the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz.
I’ve never seen the stage show, but it’s got a huge following – I remember its hit song, Defying Gravity, being everywhere when it was first performed. It is a powerful song, and Grande and Erivo have four massive lungs between them to belt it out and do it justice. Arianna Grande hasn’t done a huge amount of acting before, besides a few cameos in the likes of Zoolander 2, Men In Black: International and Don’t Look Up, but she certainly looks the part, and what we see of her performance in the trailer is very much in the mould of Kristin Chenoweth (the original Broadway cast’s Glinda, who in turn has a cameo appearance here alongside original Elphaba Idina Menzel). It will be interesting to see whether she can hold her own opposite Cynthia Erivo, who is an incredible actress and singer – she was nominated for Oscars in both of those categories for her part in Harriet. If she wins an Oscar, she’ll be one of very few people to achieve the EGOT status, having already won an Emmy, a Grammy and a Tony for performing in The Colour Purple. It feels unlikely that she’ll win for Wicked – Best Actress is already a competitive field this year, and none of the songs that were written for the stage show will qualify for the Best Original Song award – but you never know. There is plenty of scope here for her to show off what she can do.
The rest of the cast also looks great. Jeff Goldblum is playing the Wizard of Oz himself – a man who has amassed a lot of political power by pretending to have magical powers, which feels like something Jeff Goldblum could get away with in real life if the fancy took him. The magnificent Michelle Yeoh is playing Elphaba’s teacher and mentor Madame Morrible. And Peter Dinklage is playing a talking goat, because why not.
In the director’s chair is Jon M. Chu, who has some credentials for adapting musicals for the big screen having directed In The Heights (aka The Other Lin Manuel Miranda One). In The Heights is quite specifically set in a particular area of New York, which limited the staging options in the film – it couldn’t stray far from the same brownstone brickwork and fire escape ladders you see in the stage show set. The world of Oz flips that problem on its head. Trying to confine a massive magical world to a stage presents all sorts of challenges, but the cinema presents a much larger canvas to do justice to the grandeur of Emerald City and the sweeping plains that surround the Yellow Brick Road. It’s immediately apparent from the trailer that Chu has seized that opportunity with both hands – this Oz is bright and colourful and otherworldly.
There has been a lot of marketing for this, which isn’t surprising – despite its 2 hour 40 run time, this is just part 1 of an intended double-feature so it needs to do well to justify part 2. The early signs are good though. It currently has an impressive 92% critic and 99% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a respectable 7.5 stars on IMDB. Personally I am quite looking forward to finally seeing what all the fuss is about.
- Wicked on IMDB
- Wicked on Rotten Tomatoes
Layla
Layla (Bilal Hasna) is a British-Palestinian drag queen who falls for Max (Louis Greatorex) while performing at a corporate Pride event. But a chance encounter with their family causes them to confront the different aspects of their identity.
Anyone who’s seen the excellent superhero comedy series Extraordinary will know Hasna as Kash, the insecure flatmate who spends season 1 in denial about the end of his old relationship and season 2 struggling to figure out his sexuality. You might also have spotted him in a minor role in Netflix sci-fi Three Body Problem. But you probably won’t realise that here until some way into the trailer, because with Layla’s full drag outfit and self-assured flamboyance he’s almost unrecognisable. This is clearly a confident and committed performance that should earn him a lot more roles in future.
I haven’t heard a lot about this film but it’s dealing with some big issues. Director Amrou Al-Kadhi, in their feature length directorial debut, appears to be drawing from their own experience of the intersection of London queer scene and Middle-Eastern communities (their IMDB biography notes that they have a drag show titled ‘Glamrou: From Qu’ran to Queen’). There is a stark contrast between Layla’s drag ensemble and their traditional Muslim outfit, which is reminiscent of the theme of code-switching that is more commonly explored in films centred on the Black experience in Britain or America. The overarching message here though seems to be the importance of staying true to yourself.
This is a celebration of queer culture and exploration of identity anchored by a strong central performance, and should definitely be worth a watch. It’s not getting a very wide cinema release (the MAC is showing it in a few weeks), but as a Film4 production it will likely be on TV before long if you don’t manage to catch it on the big screen.
- Layla on IMDB
- Layla on Rotten Tomatoes
The Magic Reindeer: Saving Santa’s Sleigh
The Magic Reindeer: Saving Santa’s Sleigh tells the story of Niko, a young reindeer who dreams of joining the Flying Forces and pulling Santa’s sleigh. But when the sleigh goes missing on his watch, he embarks on an adventure to get it back.
I haven’t heard much about this, but it looks like the sort of competent but cheap animation that normally goes straight to video. Apparently it’s actually the third in a series, following 2008’s The Flight Before Christmas and 2012’s The Flight Before Christmas 2: The Magic Reindeer, making this franchise 16 years old! Maybe it has more pedigree than I’m giving it credit for.
I get the impression that small children looking for something festive will love this but there won’t be much for the adults accompanying them, besides the vague hint at some sort of reindeer gang war somewhere in the middle. Speaking as someone who has no compunctions about going to the cinema to see a kids’ film if it looks worth a watch, even I wouldn’t recommend seeing this unless you have some tiny people to entertain.
- The Magic Reindeer: Saving Santa’s Sleigh on IMDB
- The Magic Reindeer: Saving Santa’s Sleigh on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week…
This week’s film of the week is Wicked, innit.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
- Paddington in Peru – Not quite as perfect as Paddington 2, but still a hugely enjoyable, very cute movie that the whole family can enjoy. Olivia Coleman and Antonio Banderas are both great casting, and Emily Mortimer makes a game effort of replacing Sally Hawkins. The early-credits bonus scene is well worth sticking around for (but the end-credits scene, less so). If you need to entertain small children for a couple of hours, this is probably a better pick than The Magic Reindeer…
- Gladiator 2 – Another sequel that doesn’t live up to the original, but as with Paddington that’s more because the bar is so high than any particular fault of this movie. There are a few too many CGI animals (my preview last week gave a defence of the rhino and baboons, but the sharks in the naumachia scene weren’t really necessary), and the climax felt a bit rushed and silly. But there are great performances from Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal in particular, and the fight scenes are as exciting as you’d want them to be.
- Heretic – Less of a horror than I was expecting, but still a great watch centred around a deeply unsettling performance from Hugh Grant. Heretic explores the idea of faith, and why people believe in religious ideologies – it’s like a cinematic essay, with its thesis presented through twisted mind games and one easily digestible analogy built around Monopoly boards. Come for the chills, stay for the discourse on theological doctrine.
Trailer of the week
The first How To Train Your Dragon film is one of my all time favourites – the stunning animation, the soaring music and the beautiful writing showed that Dreamworks were capable of rising out of Pixar’s shadow. The sequel somehow managed to improve on the first, and the third found a poignant and mature way to round off the trilogy. Does this beloved and classic animation need a live action remake? No, absolutely not. Will I care in the slightest as soon as the soundtrack kicks in? Also no.
Leave a Reply