Jon M. Chu – MOVIESMARKUS

It’s a pretty flat experience. No need to beat around the bush. The two new songs (not in the stage production) written by the original musical composer Stephen Schwartz (“No Place Like Home” and “The Girl in the Bubble”) are pretty mid compared to the caliber of songs expected from this artist. The rest of the songs don’t really hit either, except “For Good” which director Jon M. Chu couldn’t have ruined if he tried. This entire underwhelming feeling very much speaks to the many directorial missteps from Chu. The film ends up being one more focused on getting to the end of a story, than continuing to build on the aspects of Wicked which connected so strongly with so many. Now, there will definitely be those who will enjoy Wicked: For Good, but the connection/experience won’t be anywhere close to how they felt coming out of the theaters in 2024.

The story: Desperately attempting to liberate the enslaved animals of Oz, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) is now considered an enemy of the state, with Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) proclaiming “she will kill us all” at every given opportunity. The anti-animal propaganda from the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) is working as the animals who haven’t been captured yet are fleeing, while Elphaba attempts to get them to stay and fight back. Glinda (Ariana Grande) is struggling between becoming the beloved “good witch” she’s always wanted to be and coming to Elphaba’s defense. And Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) who is set to marry Glinda, still longs for Elphaba.

The two leads continue to have undeniable chemistry and their performances are solid, although every supporting character seems to have been reduced and stripped of anything that made them interesting. The story itself continues to carry the same anti-fascist overtones and personally I did appreciate the darker tone this movie took when displaying sequences of persecution, bigotry and manufacturing consent. This is also a two hour and seventeen-minute movie and to Chu’s credit it never felt particularly long, even during the final hour and change as the storytelling unfortunately stumbles down the yellow brick road towards its finale. Aside from the final song, this is the portion of the film which I would deem a bit of a clunky mess. While the story makes sense and the final hour plus does promise a spark with the arrival of the Dorothy character, this is also where the pacing begins to jump around wildly making the journey awkward, confusing, rushed with certain details glossed over and hollow during scenes written to elicit a strong reaction. It’s as if an invisible fast forward button was pressed in a frustratingly distracting way.

Final Thought: If watched together, parts one and two would be nearly five hours long. I’ve never seen the Broadway production, but I’ve read it’s under three. I would guess this is the underlying reason as to why Wicked: For Good feels the way it feels. Sure, there are bits and pieces here that work and it looks like hundreds of millions of dollars. And because this story is an extension of the first half, the tale is a good one; maybe only pissing off the “keep politics out of my movies” crowd. It’s clearly not a stand-alone film; God help anyone who tries to follow what’s happening here without having seen part one and 1939’s The Wizard of Oz. Again, I won’t be surprised if someone were to tell me they enjoyed this movie. It’s all just so tied to Wicked that it’s impossible not compare the two. And in doing so, this half of the story is mostly (and it pains me to say this) borderline forgettable.

Now playing in theaters and on HBO Max.

Adapted from the acclaimed Lin-Manuel Miranda Broadway musical, by writer Quiara Alegria Hudes (who also wrote the musical stage play book) “In the Heights” is not just a love letter/song to Latin Caribbean culture, but also a look at a place where these cultures thrive as one; a place called Washington Heights in New York City.

Told as a “tall tale” of sorts to a group of children, by a Dominican man named Usnavi (Anthony Ramos). He tells the story of his dream as a young man to move back to the Dominican Republic after living in Washington Heights since childhood. The musical also follows a handful of other characters. The two other prominent storylines feature Nina (Leslie Grace) a Puerto Rican student who recently dropped out of college and has come back home to the Heights to break the news to her father (Jimmy Smits) and Vanessa (Melissa Barrera) a young Latina with dreams of parleying her fashion design aspirations into a one-way trip out of Washington Heights.

These storylines spotlight some of the topical political issues and everyday situations many Latino/Latino immigrants living in the U.S. find themselves going through today. And these storylines are only amplified by a plethora of stand-out performances from the entire cast, but specifically Ramos, Smits and Olga Merediz, who plays Abuela Claudia, an old Cuban woman with no children of her own, so instead she watches over the young people in this neighborhood. Merediz steals the show multiple times, injecting much needed life into this film’s lackluster initial hour. Her performance reaches its apex with her singing of “Paciencia Y Fe”, which is one of the most beautiful musical sequences put to film.

Director Jon M. Chu (Step Up 2: The Streets, Crazy Rich Asians) is seemingly a perfect match for this production. The choreography for most of the song and dance numbers are handled with tremendous care for the culture and implemented with a high caliber of cinematic flair.

That said, with all of the love I have for this movie, I must say that it took me over an hour to get into it. OVER AN HOUR! This is a film of two halves. During the first hour plus, “In the Heights” is shockingly flat, there are pacing problems, a lack of stakes and songs which are tragically forgettable. Although, as I said prior, while the bones of the three main stories are a nice start, I found myself bored with Chu’s delivery. This is why it was so shocking when around the seventy-minute mark, “In the Heights” sees Chu wake up and flex on us all. Beginning with the blackout/” Paciencia Y Fe” sequence, Chu doesn’t look back, giving us musical perfection for the following hour. Why it took so long to get to that point is a mystery. But once it does, rising tides lift all boats, as the acting, the storylines, the dance sequences, even the songs all reach a level which rivals anything out of “West Side Story”.

Final Thought: “In the Heights” is a story of acceptance, homecomings and suenitos, told in the hip hop cadence Miranda is known for. This is a love letter that eventually became something which exceeded my high expectations…just maybe fast forward a bit if you can.

Follow me on Twitter @moviesmarkus and on Instagram @moviesmarkus1