Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande – For Good

Submitted by someone going by I Am A Dude Duh, a cut from the soundtrack of some low-budget indie film you’ve probably never heard of…

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[4.33]Nortey Dowuona: The emotional bond between these two barely survived the first film, and breaking the narrative in two has weakened the whole thing. Thus, if you are not watching the first movie, the lush rendering of both Elphaba’s and Glinda’s voices feels immobile and and ultimately fruitless, since there has been no true bond established, just the remnant of one, that crumbles into nothingness once it recedes from your mind and into the grasp of many vague, off-handed memories like, “how come Logic and Cynthia had better chemistry?”
[5]

Claire Davidson: I have only a passing familiarity with the Broadway musical that spawned them, so take my critiques with a grain of salt, but I really, really did not care for the Wicked duology. We’d be here all day if I dwelled on my complaints, but in summary, I think both projects suffer from the ills of the long-distended studio system that birthed them, their overreliance on padding recognizable IP with fan service overriding their function as musicals, resulting in films that feel overlong, erratically shot and choreographed, and short on genius pathos. For all the opprobrium I have for these projects, though, my real hot take is that I actually prefer For Good to its crowd-pleasing predecessor — yes, the musical’s second act is short on barn-burners like “Defying Gravity,” but the latter film’s focus on more restrained balladry forces it to pare back its pastel-kitsch spectacle in favor of more grounded emotion. That’s faintly damning praise, though, because even the song that provides the sequel’s title is mid-tier within the musical: the message of friendship’s potential to shift one’s perspective is sweet, sure, but the track’s laboriously slow pace aims to cultivate an air of gentility that robs the lyrics of deeper intimacy. That’s before you consider the film’s spin on the track, too, where Ariana Grande completely buckles under the song’s demands. She’s always struggled to project real body in her lower range, even in her pop music, but here, the wispiness of her girlish affectations as Glinda feels especially insincere, to say nothing of how her performance upends the song’s sense of balance opposite Cynthia Erivo’s magisterial ease. That “For Good” is upheld as one of the films’ decisive highlights only demonstrates the flimsiness of their craftsmanship, hardly producing the thrillifying experience one would expect from the brains behind one of Broadway’s best-selling shows.
[5]

Alfred Soto: I don’t understand Wicked. Even 20 years ago I wondered why the hell reimagining Glinda and the Witch of the West’s relationship as Obi-Wan vs Anakin was a good idea. I guess this plaint works in context.
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Joshua Lu: Even with all the cynicism that arose from the overwrought Wicked press tour, even though the song is over twenty years old, and even though I knew Dorothy was scrambling ten feet away in a basement the whole time, hearing this in theaters still brought a tear to my eye! The greatest toxic yuri anthem of all time!
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Ian Mathers: I swear, I want to bring nuance and stuff to this, but a big part of my brain is just looping “this shit… …is so ass” over and over every time I try and listen to the song.
[3]

Charli Jae Brister: I wrote a 312 word blurb before deleting everything but the final line: Tom Hooper must answer for his crimes.
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