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Sex cardigans - and other reasons to love Wicked: For Good · The Front

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  Speaker 1: But I shouldn't call it a sack. I think it's
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  Speaker 1: a cardigan.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, sex cardigan. Well from The Australian. This is the
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  Speaker 2: weekend edition of the Front. I'm Claire Harvey. Wicked for
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  Speaker 2: Good is in cinemas now. If you're already a super fan,
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  Speaker 2: you get it. If not, and you're thinking this is
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  Speaker 2: a sequel to a film adaptation of a stage show
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  Speaker 2: about the backstory of the Wizard of Oz. Huh, but
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  Speaker 2: go with me. You should see Wicked for Good. Nicki
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Gammil is here to help me talk you into the cinema.
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  Speaker 3: This is a film about besties, the drama of young women.
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  Speaker 2: This is The Australian's columnist and critic Nicki Gamil reading
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  Speaker 2: some of her review of Wicked for Good, which you
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  Speaker 2: can read now at the Australian dot com dot au.
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  Speaker 2: Slash culture.
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  Speaker 3: The hurting and the hugging, the cat fighting and the
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  Speaker 3: coming together.
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  Speaker 1: And being seen in a way that no one else
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  Speaker 1: sees you in a love like no other that also
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  Speaker 1: crushes like no other. Complicated female friendship is at the
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  Speaker 1: heart of this two part movie extravaganza, and like the
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  Speaker 1: first half that debuted a year ago, Wicked Part two
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  Speaker 1: is a triumph. We're back in familiar territory, the land
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  Speaker 1: of Oz, around the time of events in nineteen thirty
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  Speaker 1: nine's beloved film Classic. Yet Dorothy is only seen fleetingly here.
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  Speaker 3: She's the mulish farm girl who took a dead woman shoes.
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  Speaker 3: The focus is on the relationship between Glinda the good
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  Speaker 3: Witch and Elfheba, the wicked Witch of the West College
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  Speaker 3: roommates in Part one, enemies turned frenemies turned besties, now
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  Speaker 3: astray ringed in this version of the film, Restlessly.
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  Speaker 2: Nikki. I saw it on the weekend with a gang
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  Speaker 2: of girls, and I've worn my wicked bracelets pink congreence
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  Speaker 2: just for you.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you.
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  Speaker 2: I'm there to ask, are you team Alfaba or Team Glinda?
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  Speaker 3: They're by so interesting, They're both so complex as we
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  Speaker 3: all are. I'd have to say I'm team Alphaba because
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  Speaker 3: she is the truth telling outsider, which.
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  Speaker 1: I aspire to be in life.
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  Speaker 2: Alphaba is played by the British stage star Cynthia Rivo,
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  Speaker 2: thirty eight years old and pure emotion on screen.
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  Speaker 1: Come with me, think of what we could do together.
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  Speaker 3: This is Cynthia's film. The performance is extraordinary. I hope
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  Speaker 3: she gets nominated for an Oscar again this year. I
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  Speaker 3: just feel like she completely embodied the idea of an
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  Speaker 3: outsider who is not accepted, who is othered, who is
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  Speaker 3: judged by a majority, particularly in the first film, which
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  Speaker 3: was set in the College of Sorcery. I think a good.
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  Speaker 4: Def gravy and you can't pull me down yet I
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  Speaker 4: make you understand.
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  Speaker 3: I felt her beautifully expressive face absolutely conveys the hurt
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  Speaker 3: and the kind of raging loneliness of not belonging.
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  Speaker 2: Glinda the Good Witch is played by real life popstar
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  Speaker 2: Arianna Grande, who's thirty two.
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  Speaker 3: Is that a very who you work well?
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  Speaker 4: R There's nothing that can stop being from becoming popular?
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  Speaker 3: Are She initially went for the alphab apart, she went
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  Speaker 3: for the Wicked Witch of the West part, and she
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  Speaker 3: ended up with Glinda the good Witch. And I think
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  Speaker 3: it's quite extraordinary what she's done because on the surface,
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  Speaker 3: it's a very sackering character. It's the goody to shoes.
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  Speaker 3: She's perfect, she's popular, she's all those kind of things.
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  Speaker 3: She gives that character real weight and depth and towards
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  Speaker 3: the end, real pathos. You kind of you're really kind
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  Speaker 3: of your heart breaks for her. Which is the beauty
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  Speaker 3: of the writing, but also the beauty of the performance
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  Speaker 3: and my goodness singing from both of them.
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  Speaker 4: And none of it seems to matter any loss.
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  Speaker 2: Sand Now. It's based on the stage play Wicked, which
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  Speaker 2: is a rief on on the famous movie The Wizard
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  Speaker 2: of Oz exactly, and that was on TV the night
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  Speaker 2: before I went to see Wicked two, and I'd forgotten
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  Speaker 2: how kind of stage it is. Again, I don't want
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  Speaker 2: to be too judgmental this thirty nine. Yeah, so we
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  Speaker 2: have to have fairly low expectations.
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  Speaker 1: I think, I thank you my pretty and your little dog.
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  Speaker 2: The cackle of the Witch and the kind of hokiness
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  Speaker 2: of the costumes really stuck out for me.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Sure, but kids by it, you know that the
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  Speaker 3: story has endured. It's got so many resonances. I watched
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  Speaker 3: the film recently because I reviewed the film for The Australian,
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  Speaker 3: and I was.
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  Speaker 1: Enchanted by it all over again.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, yes, you know, the flying monkeys and you know, and.
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  Speaker 1: The Wizard of Oz.
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  Speaker 3: It is all hokey and very much of its time,
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  Speaker 3: but there's something enduring about it, which is why we've
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  Speaker 3: got this new iteration of the story.
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  Speaker 2: Happy Well, Lass simply because it's a love story, isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: There's a romantic element, there's a sex scene, and the
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  Speaker 2: romantic lead, the male lead is Fiero, the handsome Prince.
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  Speaker 2: But I felt as though, certainly towards the end of
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  Speaker 2: Wicked two, without giving too much away, it's about the
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  Speaker 2: love between these two women, and it felt like more
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  Speaker 2: than just friendship.
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  Speaker 3: Oh look, absolutely, you know it's it's that genre of
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  Speaker 3: film that's you know, Filma and Luise, It's so many films.
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  Speaker 3: It's that beautiful, tight, complicated love between two young women
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  Speaker 3: that morphs and changes as they grow and they grow
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  Speaker 3: into different people, but they come together, they break apart traumatically,
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  Speaker 3: they come together again. It's very recognizable, and I think
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  Speaker 3: that's why young women really respond to this film. The
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  Speaker 3: second version has done extraordinary box off even greater at
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  Speaker 3: this time in its season is what the first one did,
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  Speaker 3: And I think that's driven by young women because they
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  Speaker 3: recognize something in it, they recognize the truth in the story.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, Wicked the musical.
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  Speaker 3: Has been a huge success ever since that debut on
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  Speaker 3: Broadway in two thousand and three, and you know, schools
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  Speaker 3: have done it. It's been played all over the world.
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  Speaker 3: It's one of the longest running shows in the West End.
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  Speaker 3: It's just been extraordinary the success of the musical, and
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  Speaker 3: this is a very faithful adaptation of that, and I
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  Speaker 3: think it's quite extraordinary for a film that's centered on
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  Speaker 3: the love yes between two young women to do so
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  Speaker 3: amazingly at the box office.
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  Speaker 1: It's fabulous.
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  Speaker 2: Did it need to be two movies?
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  Speaker 1: Oh?
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely, because it's a really complicated story. And when you
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  Speaker 3: go and see the musical, it's basically, you know, there's
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  Speaker 3: an interval in between. So the first half of the
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  Speaker 3: musical is the frog, the bubble, it's it's light, it's
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  Speaker 3: explaining the characters, its exposition. But the second half it
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  Speaker 3: gets darker and naughtier, and this is where the real
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  Speaker 3: storytelling comes out. It's much more action led the second
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  Speaker 3: part as well. And this is for good the movie
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  Speaker 3: that we're seeing now, And basically, yes, it's darker the
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  Speaker 3: second part, but this is when you sit back in
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  Speaker 3: that cinema and you go, wow, this is the story
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  Speaker 3: of the origin of the tin Man and the Cowardly
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  Speaker 3: Lion and the Scarecrow. Oh my goodness, the Scarecrow. The
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  Speaker 3: story that he has I feel like. The musical was
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  Speaker 3: based on a novel from the nineteen nineties, and I
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  Speaker 3: feel like that novelist and the creators of the musical
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  Speaker 3: took so much care and respect with the original story
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  Speaker 3: from nineteen nineteen thirty nine Move, which was also based
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  Speaker 3: on a novel. I feel like there's just been a
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  Speaker 3: lot of care taken to preserve the enchantment of this story.
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  Speaker 3: But Wicked, the movie, it just kicks the whole thing
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  Speaker 3: along in terms of storytelling. It's quite ingenious, and I
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  Speaker 3: just think you sit in that cinema and you go, wow,
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  Speaker 3: this is amazing.
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  Speaker 1: This is the magic of storytelling.
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  Speaker 2: Coming up when Witches get nasty. I took a gang
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  Speaker 2: of ten year olds to see it for it was
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  Speaker 2: great fun. Their reactions were absolutely hilarious, particularly to the
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  Speaker 2: sex scene or the last scene.
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  Speaker 3: Every uh, maybe why when you've got me seen.
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  Speaker 4: Through the form run.
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  Speaker 2: They're still at the age when they were mortified to
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  Speaker 2: be seeing people kissing on the spa. How did you
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  Speaker 2: feel about the sex scene.
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  Speaker 1: I was a bit surprised.
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  Speaker 3: I'd forgotten about that in the musical, and it's it's
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  Speaker 3: a PG rating, so you know, all kids can go.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, it's not a graphic sex scene in any way.
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  Speaker 3: It's beautiful and both those actors are openly gay, so
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  Speaker 3: I thought that was a fascinating edge to the whole thing.
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  Speaker 1: But I thought it felt right for the story.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, I certainly wouldn't have any worries about
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  Speaker 3: taking someone younger to see that.
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  Speaker 2: I could have seen more flesh. Actually, I was disappointed
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  Speaker 2: when Alphabet takes off her cloak and puts on the
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  Speaker 2: thrumpy cardigo.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Hessian sack.
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  Speaker 3: There's a whole social media thing about the Hessian sack.
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  Speaker 1: I shouldn't call it a sack. I think it's a cardigan.
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  Speaker 2: It's time to talk about the sex card again.
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  Speaker 3: What's wrong with having sex in a wool carte again?
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  Speaker 2: It's like a Tuesday for me. Maybe there's a breeze
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  Speaker 2: in the room and she's like, I can't I get
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  Speaker 2: to my orgasm if there's a there's a breathe on.
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  Speaker 3: We don't know.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the sex cardigan.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I guess we don't want to see necessary to
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  Speaker 3: be a bit like Goldfinger, you know, the full gold
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  Speaker 3: body we it would be hard to pull off cinematically.
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  Speaker 2: Filmically, Yeah, it is big but it speaks to adults really.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely.
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  Speaker 3: I was reading box office in the UK has been
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  Speaker 3: the biggest amongst young women since Barbie, and I thought,
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  Speaker 3: you know, this is the first film since Barbie that's
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  Speaker 3: a thoughtful, a deeply thoughtful look at womanhood. And obviously
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  Speaker 3: there is a lot of money in it because young
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  Speaker 3: women and older women and women who want to take
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  Speaker 3: their daughters and young girls, we want to see our
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  Speaker 3: stories on screen. So you know, I just think it's
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  Speaker 3: fantastic that films like this are doing amazing box office.
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  Speaker 3: And I also think the ingenious storytelling in Wicked for
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  Speaker 3: Good sets it up possibly for a sequel. I'm not
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  Speaker 3: going to say how, but I so want to say, well,
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  Speaker 3: I mean, I know how you could write it.
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  Speaker 1: But maybe you should write it. Well.
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  Speaker 3: I've just finished writing a screenplay, but I just feel
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  Speaker 3: like this story can kick on. And I trust this
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  Speaker 3: creative team because I feel like they are doing it
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  Speaker 3: with the intellectual property, the ip that they've got, the
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  Speaker 3: beloved ip that they've got.
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  Speaker 1: They're doing it so carefully and so respectfully. So bring
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  Speaker 1: on the sequel.
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  Speaker 3: I know you because I.
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  Speaker 1: Because you, I Haveman.
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  Speaker 3: For Good.
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  Speaker 2: Vicky Gammill's much loved weekly column is in the Weekend magazine.
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  Speaker 2: Her film reviews are in our Culture section, and you
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  Speaker 2: can find it all at the Australian dot com dot
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  Speaker 2: au or on our mobile app. This episode of the
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  Speaker 2: Front was hosted by Me Claire Harvey, produced by Me
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  Speaker 2: with help from Christian Amyot and Lead Samaglue, and edited
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  Speaker 2: by Lead Samaglue. Thanks for joining us on the Front
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: this week. Our team also includes Tiffany Demack, Joshua Burton,
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  Speaker 2: Stephanie Coombs and Jasper Leag who also wrote Art Bead