Hello, Smarty. It's Your Weekly Recs!
Defying Gravity, Caesar, the Box Office, etc.
Dear Wags,
Must we use the portmanteau Glicked? Oh, let people have their fun. As we head into the Thanksgiving holiday, Hollywood’s latest gladiatorial matchup is looking a little lopsided. Universal’s Wicked has conjured nearly $20 million in previews, while Paramount’s Gladiator II pulled in $7 million from early screenings. A supernatural marketing push should help Jon M. Chu’s Broadway adaptation soar past the $100 million mark on a broomstick. It has a shot at becoming the biggest movie musical—ever. Meanwhile, Ridley Scott’s $300 million sword-and-sandals epic will need to crush it globally to be in the black.
The reviews? All over the place, but who is reading reviews? Frazzled yet forgiving, audiences just want a seasonal escape. The ideas may be a bit warmed over, but neither picture feels entirely stale. Here’s hoping they get a nation of streamers off the couch and back into theaters.
Yours Ever,
Marcello Rubini
Striking a Chord
The Piano Lesson (Netflix, Theaters). Shall we have a family affair about a family affair? Denzel Washington produced this adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, starring his eldest son, John David, and directed by his younger son, Malcolm. The plot centers on the Charles family of Pittsburgh, who are possessed of an heirloom piano, a legacy of their deliverance from the South and possibly, their ticket to a better future. Danielle Deadwyler gets another showy role as a sister determined to save the heirloom from her grasping brother.—Levee Green
Hope and Glory
Blitz (Apple TV +, Theaters). There was once a good war, and while those who lived through it are all nearly gone, its legend is still burnished for the movies. Come to Steve McQueen’s epic expecting something edgy, and you’ve picked the wrong conflict. Feisty East Ender (Saoirse Ronan) has a very ’40s name (Rita!) and a biracial son, George (Elliott Heffernan). When the bombs begin to fall, he’s shipped off to the countryside. Determined to reunite with his mum, he runs away, navigating wartime hazards to get back to London. The picture makes its points about racial prejudice, but it’s a pretty straightforward boy’s own adventure, with young George as the Battle of Britain’s Oliver Twist.—Noah Claypole
Bun in the Oven
Joy (Netflix). The future of in vitro fertilization suddenly looks hazy, so it’s worth revisiting how hard it was to pull off in the first place. The story behind the 1978 birth of Louise Joy Brown, the world’s first “test tube baby,” is rendered in murky polyester tones, with Thomasin McKenzie, James Norton, and Bill Nighy as the team that overcame public censure and medical barriers to revolutionize fertility treatment. It’s all a bit quiet, but the players are enormously likable and the depiction of the women at the heart of the saga is trenchant and moving.—Kristy Bainbridge Briggs
