First review: Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo bring the magic to Wicked: For Good but it’s only just good enough
The hotly-anticipated Wicked sequel is about to hit the silver screen – and the verdict is in on how it stacks up to the first movie.
Wicked: For Good delivers just enough musical magic to satisfy devoted fans, while two other new releases offer mixed fortunes for moviegoers.
WICKED: FOR GOOD (PG)
Director: Jon M. Chu (Wicked)
Starring: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum,
***
The musical magic fades, but the spell remains unbroken
The much-anticipated musical sequel Wicked: For Good is just good enough … but only just.
And let’s be honest: the sheer length and sustained song-and-dancery of the first Wicked movie would have sent all unconvinced viewers packing, never to return.
So this one is for the true believers alone.
If you have spent the whole of 2025 still carrying a contact-high from Cynthia Erivo’s incendiary rendition of the Wicked showstopper Defying Gravity – one of the all-time great vocal performances in movie musical history – then Wicked: For Good will be everything you have been hoping for.
Those who know the original Wicked stage production inside-out will already be aware that the first movie used up many of the best songs.
However, while Wicked: For Good only features two musical numbers that match the melodious peaks scaled by its predecessor, there is a distinctly deeper and subtly darker emphasis on story here that will keep (what by now is) a captive audience invested, connected and excited.
We pick up the tale almost exactly where we left off, with the bendy black-hatted Elphaba (Erivo) and the tastefully tiara-ed Glinda (Ariana Grande) halfway along their journey from grudging frenemies to BFFs for life.
Not that the happily hoodwinked citizens of the Land of Oz would be aware of the ever-evolving bond between the pair.
A propagandist line being pushed by The Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) has seen Elphaba banished into an exile of infamy as the so-called Wicked Witch of the West.
Meanwhile, Glinda has had the suffix ‘The Good’ attached to her name, now that she has become the pretty poster girl for a lifestyle dream in Oz that is really a nightmare of The Wizard’s making.
Something has got to give, and it is the controversial construction of the Yellow Brick Road – using forced labour taken from Oz’s animal population – that not only mobilises Elphaba to take action, but also nudges Glinda towards a timely moment of truth.
Oh, and you’re wondering where the dashing Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) fits in to this tumultuous scenario, let’s just say his days as Glinda’s fiance might be numbered, and leave it at that.
Away from the obligatory musical interludes – of which Grande and Erivo’s divinely duetted version of For Good is the clear standout – some lively sub-plotting linked to the traditional tale of The Wizard of Oz (where Dorothy, Toto, The Tin Man and so on will make brief, yet significant appearances here) will also be cherished by devoted Wicked-ophites.
A side note for those who were either daunted or exhausted by the lengthy running time of the first Wicked: this follow-up comes in about half-an-hour shorter, and is all the better for it.
Wicked: For Good is in cinemas now.
JAY KELLY (M)
***1/2
Selected cinemas.
George Clooney is an actor who has gone on record as saying movies are no longer his main priority in life. In Jay Kelly, Clooney plays a major screen star coming to the exact same realisation, and it is this casting masterstroke that carries this wistful comedy-drama a long way into a viewer’s affections. As we join Jay, he has just wrapped shooting his latest blockbuster, and about to start work on yet another. However, instead of dutifully arriving on the new set as arranged by his loyal manager Ron (Adam Sandler), Jay takes off for Europe in pursuit of his neglected young daughter who is about to start college. Jay hasn’t really thought through the finer details of his improvised grand tour, and ill-advisedly takes his entire entourage with him to help with the quest. As effective a fit as Clooney proves to be for the conflicted and unhealthily self-centred title character, the glue truly holding everything together (and guiding the movie towards its intended tone of gentle regret) is the soulfully understated and sincere performance of Sandler.
KEEPER (MA15+)
***
General release.
Writer-director Osgood Perkins (son of Psycho star Anthony Perkins) is one of the most exciting, innovative and downright cunning filmmakers working exclusively in the horror genre right now. Perkins’ last two movies (last year’s Longlegs with Nicolas Cage, and the recent Stephen King adaptation The Monkey) have been lauded as modern classics by those in the know, and rightly so.
Unfortunately, the prolific Perkins’ winning streak comes to an end with his latest release, but it is not for want of trying. The wonderful Tatiana Maslany (from the series Orphan Black) stars as Liz, an accomplished artist embarking on a weekend retreat to the woodlands with her doctor boyfriend Malcolm (Rossif Sutherland).
The unexpected arrival of Malcolm’s weirdo cousin and his awkward Eastern European girlfriend immediately puts a hard spoil on the experience for Liz, but things are going to get worse for our heroine for reasons that won’t be revealed until very late in proceedings.
While this creepy cabin-in-the-woods affair is creatively deceptive and darkly amusing at all times, there is also a feeling that the movie is sometimes being far too enigmatic for its own good.
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Originally published as First review: Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo bring the magic to Wicked: For Good but it’s only just good enough
