Weekend Watch: Wicked, Gladiator II, Flow

A witches' feud, a warrior's creed and a cat's quest

Image Credit: Universal Pictures

Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, where I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Wicked looks to defy gravity, Gladiator II sees Ridley Scott return to Rome and Flow brings a beautiful, animated story to life. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite and Threads/Instagram: @jammerwhite

Movie musicals have been something of a mixed bag of late, so I was certainly nervous upon learning that Wicked, one of the biggest, most successful stage musicals, was finally making the journey to screen. And not just because I’m a big fan of the original musical (its soundtrack was one I listened to on repeat for years).

Fortunately, thanks to sterling work from director Jon M. Chu and his cast and crew, Wicked is something of a triumph. This story, itself adapted from Gregory Maguire’s book Wicked: The Life And Times Of The Wicked Witch Of The West (which re-framed the story of Elphaba, the titular witch as a misunderstood antihero rather than a villain), fizzes with imagination and charm. Perhaps the smartest move by screenwriters Winnie Holzman (who was also behind the musical’s book), and Dana Fox was to incorporate more of the darker themes from Maguire’s novel into the script for the film.

And that’s partly possible because Wicked is a long movie –– this is Part 1 of the story, a two-hour 40-minute epic that ends at the midpoint of the stage version (itself only two hours and 45 minutes, including an intermission) with the show-stopping Defying Gravity as belted by Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba.

Yet it never feels bloated or overlong, and the extended length gives characters such as Elphaba’s sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode) room to breathe.

And that cast… Erivo and Ariana Grande are the star turns here as Elphaba and nemesis-turned-BFF-turned complicated frenemy Glinda are outstanding, singing live on set in a medium where that rarely happens (because it’s really tough to do well). They won the roles in the shadow of stage stalwarts Kristin Chenowith and Idina Menzel, but they truly make the characters their own; Erivo’s stillness and spine blending ideally with Grande’s winning turn.

The whole ensemble works, with standout turns from the likes of Jonathan Bailey (as charismatic, shallow prince Fiyero) and Jeff Goldblum bringing his usual offbeat energy, but with darker overtones as the Wizard.

Wicked seems set to be a huge hit and, assuming Part 2 (out in a year) lives up to it, it has the makings of a modern classic.

Wicked is in US and UK cinemas now.

Image Credit: Paramount Pictures

Given how successful the original 2000 Gladiator turned out to be (almost half a billion at the box office and five Oscars for its trophy cabinet), it’s somewhat surprising that it has taken this long for a sequel to arrive.

Yet when you consider the tortured development history of attempts to follow it up (including, er, a script from musician Nick Cave that included Russell Crowe’s Roman gladiator time travelling), it’s perhaps less of a shock.

Not forgetting that Ridley Scott, who directed the original film, is not a man to just dive into something because the studio asks him to. Instead, he’s taken years to lock down what the new movie should be, and while the result is far from perfect, it’s still an entertaining companion piece to the original.

The story here is set 16 years after Crowe’s Maximus gave his life to kill murderous, manipulative emperor Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). Our focus this time is Lucius (Paul Mescal), the grown son of Connie Nielsen’s Lucilla, who has matured into quite the warrior himself.

He’s been living in the distant African country of Numidia, but when a Roman army led by Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), Lucius is left with a dead wife and a future in chains, as he’s enslaved. And, as the title might suggest, he ends up pressed into service as a gladiator, while plots and schemes swirl to unseat the current emperors (Geta, played by Joseph Quinn and Caracalla, brought to superbly simpering life by Fred Hechinger), who are, if anything, even more unhinged than Commodus.

Yet for all that Mescal, Pascal, Nielsen, Quinn and Hechinger make an impact, they’re all acted off the screen by Denzel Washington, who doesn’t so much chew the scenery as swallow it whole. He blazes across the screen as slave-turned-arms dealer/slave owner Macrinus, wearing the best costumes and scheming like a panto villain.

Despite Scott returning to direct, Gladiator II certainly can’t compete with the original in terms of impact and sheer grit. But it certainly has spectacle and brio.

Gladiator II is in UK and US cinemas now.

Image Credit: Janus Films

If your tastes don’t run to big-budget musicals or Roman epics, then might I interest you in perhaps the sweetest film of the year? And one that features zero humans but might be the most humane?

In the same vein (yet very different to) as Robot Dreams from earlier this year, Flow is a dialogue-free delight. Well, I say dialogue free, but that depends on whether you speak cat. Or dog. Or Secretary Bird.

Set in the aftermath of devastating, watery environmental crisis, Flow follows a cat, a dog, a lemur, a Secretary Bird and more as they try to survive on a boat that has drifted by. These mismatched buddies must put aside their instincts to work together, and the results are so charming, it’s hard not to fall in love with them all.

Gints Zilbalodis, who co-wrote, directed, produced, edited the film, composed the score and served as art director, has created something truly wonderful here, and it’s almost a shame this is coming out the same weekend (in America, at least) as two giant films. Still, hopefully families will find it. As, indeed, should anyone who appreciates original animation and well-crafted filmmaking.

Flow is on limited release in the US. It’ll arrive in the UK on March 1st next year.