David R. Walker

Maria

Director: Pablo Larrain

Cast: Angelina Jolie, Pierfrancisco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher, Haluk Biligner, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Stephen Ashfield, Valeria Golino, Caspar Phillipson

Running Time: 2 hours and 4 minutes

Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Chilean director Pablo Larrain completes his beautiful trilogy of powerful and iconic woman with his latest film Maria starring Oscar winner Angelina Jolie (Girl, Interrupted) as Greek Opera diva Maria Callas all set in the last week of her gorgeous and tragic life in Paris in 1977. His first two films Jackie and Spencer were brilliant and earned both Natalie Portman and Kristen Stewart Oscar nominations for their turn as Jacqueline Kennedy and Diana Spencer respectively.

Angelina Jolie is extraordinary as Maria offering crisp pronunciation of all of screenwriter Steven Knight’s best lines as the fickle and eccentric Maria Callas.

In a series of televised interviews with the eccentric Mandrax played by Oscar nominee Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog) as he dutifully follows Maria around Paris, she looks back in her glamourous career and her famous love affair with Greek shipping Tycoon Aristotle Onassis played by Turkish actor Haluk Biligner.

At the centre of Larrain’s film Maria is the diva’s relationship with her two dutiful servants, the Italian butler Ferruccio wonderfully played by Pierfrancisco Favino (Rush, The Traitor) and Bruna played by Alba Rohrwacher (My Brilliant Friend, The Lost Daughter). Ferruccio is adoring of Maria Callas but disapproves of her nonchalance regarding her ever failing health.

As Steven Knight’s script weaves a fascinating if slightly confusing tale about Maria Callas’s splendid life including her superb performances at some of the worlds best Opera Houses including La Scala and The Metropolitan he deftly links Larrain’s film Jackie to Maria with the reappearance of JFK played by Danish actor Caspar Phillipson who also appeared as Jackie’s husband. The link is clear and historical. After the assassination of JFK, Jacqui Kennedy married Aristotle Onassis after he broke off his affair with Maria Callas.

It is a travesty that Angelina Jolie did not get a 2025 Oscar nomination for her role as Maria Callas. She really was superb, at once elegant and tragic, maintaining her dignity and defiance in the face of impending death.

Pablo Larrain’s film Maria is beautiful but flawed in places, although there are lots of lavish historical references to the Diva’s glamourous life in the 1950’s and 1960’s. I found parts of the film slightly repetitive although the film is saved by alluring cinematography by Ed Lachman who has been Oscar nominated.

Maria is mainly for Opera fans and this film version is a fitting bookend to Larrain’s complete fascination with these iconic women, a sumptuous end to a fascinating trilogy. Maybe he will do a film about Marilyn Monroe since she is referenced in this film when she sang Happy Birthday Mr President to JFK. Larrain clearly loves iconic moment.

Like the opera diva herself, the city of Paris in 1977 is the other character, haunting and sparking in the soft hues of autumn. The French capital is a perfect back drop for a film about the fading life of a legendary Opera star as she flounders amidst her sumptuous apartment amongst beautiful clothes, sparkling jewels and illicit drugs.

Pablo Larrain’s Maria gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10, a beautiful film which could have been stylistically improved, saved by astonishing performances by Angelina Jolie and Pierfrancisco Favino.

Anora

Director: Sean Baker

Cast: Mikey Madison, Yura Borisov, Lindsey Normington, Mark Eydelshteyn, Vache Tomasyn, Karren Karagulian

Running time: 2 hours and 19 minutes

Film Rating: 9 out of 10

Tangerine and The Florida Project director Sean Baker returns with the utterly dazzling film Anora featuring a standout frenetic and motor mouth performance by Mikey Madison as Ani a wisecracking Manhattan lap dancer who gets naively embroiled in the romantic life of a young Russian playboy Ivan played by Russian actor Mark Eydelshteyn. In fact Ivan is only 21 years old and a complete hedonist and party animal who falls for Anora and offers her enough cash to be his girlfriend for a week.

Sean Baker’s first part of Anora feels like a frenetic drug induced orgy of pop music, drinking, laptop dancing and lots of vigorous sex. As Anora and Ivan fall supposedly in love, Ivan withholds how influential and wealthy his Russian parents really are. Ivan lives in a massive mansion owned by his father in Brighton Beach in the Russian community of New York.

Anora’s dream of falling in love with a rich prince that can whisk her away to Vegas seems to come true. As they party and frequent all the glittering temptations of Vegas, they impulsively decided to get married in Vegas without informing Ivan’s parents.

Written and directed by Sean Baker, Anora is like Pretty Woman on acid, a hooker love story with enough lap dancers thrown in plus a cat fight to make this film truly entertaining and utterly watchable for all the crazy antics.

Then in a deftly crafted change of pace, the hedonist partying comes to an end when Ivan’s parents discover that their spoilt rich son has married a foul-mouthed hooker from Manhattan.

Into the fray are sent to Russian tough guys, Yura Borisov as Igor, who is exceptional in this role and Paul Weissman as Nick in which they try to tame Anora in the Russian billionaire’s plush mansion. A scene so explosive and almost comical that it is absolutely riveting.

Sean Baker loves to explore the dark frayed edges of humanity, the ugly and steamy side of sex, shady prostitution and how money plays a pivotal role in power dynamics within a decadent society. What Anora also does so beautifully is to show how Ivan just treats her as a female plaything until his parents fly in from Moscow to attempt to get the marriage annulled.

In between all the chaos and the amazing acting, is Igor, a quietly spoken Russian man who’s only desire is to really protect Anora from this ruthless excessive family and while she initially dismisses Igor as just another kind idiot, she soon discovers an unexpected saviour.

Anora is perfectly filmed and directed, a Cinderella love story told in reverse with a feisty heroine who battles her way through a world of competitive sleaze, highlighting with illumination how an immigrant community can hang onto the shredded scraps of the dystopian American dream.

Experience Anora, watch Anora, it is truly a revelatory film and deserved the Palm d’Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Anora is not for the faint hearted but it is a viciously taut tale of one girl’s survival in the face of adversity, mistrust while battling her own conception that her sole purpose in life is just to please men.

Superbly acted by Mikey Madison and Yura Borisov, Anora is highly recommended viewing for mature audiences who appreciate a gut wrenching ending.

Anora gets a film rating of 9 out of 10. Utterly compelling and crazy. See it to believe it.

Flight Risk

Director: Mel Gibson

Cast: Michelle Dockery, Topher Grace, Mark Wahlberg, Maaz Ali, Paul Ben-Victor

Running Time: 1 hour 31 minutes

Film Rating: 6 out of 10

Actor turned director Mel Gibson won an Oscar for Best Director for Braveheart back in 1995 which was 30 years ago. Gibson’s time in the director chair has hit some highs including Hacksaw Ridge and some lows now with his new film Flight Risk.

Flight Risk is not a terrible film but it’s not brilliant. Jared Rosenberg’s script about three people being on a small plane together across snowbound Alaska is terrifying enough, claustrophobic at times and exhilarating. The three characters in question are British actress Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey, The Gentleman) as the hard as nails FBI agent Madolyn, Topher Grace (Traffic, Spiderman 3, BlacKkKlansman) as the mischievous and dodgy accountant Winston who is going to New York to testify against the mob and lastly the real villain of the show, the demented Daryl, a hired killer who starts off as the pilot of the small plane.

Similar in concept to the Steven Knight scripted 2013 film, Locke starring Tom Hardy, Olivia Colman and Ruth Wilson, all the action of Flight Risk takes place on the plane with the dramatic Alaskan mountains as landscape. Dockery’s character Madolyn has to reassure Winston that everything is going to be alright and that they will land in Anchorage safely. Of course that’s if the crazed Daryl expertly played with the right shade of psychopath by Oscar nominee Mark Wahlberg (The Departed, The Fighter) doesn’t kill them first.

As in Locke in which the whole film just shows Tom Hardy’s character driving a car and all the threatening action happens via cell phone with the rest of the characters off screen, Flight Risk alludes to other characters including a friendly pilot Hassan played by Maaz Ali and Madolyn’s boss Coleridge played by Paul Ben-Victor, while the real action happens in a small plane in which Winston and Madolyn have to survive until they can land safely in Anchorage. The story is about the three characters on the plane and nothing else.

Flight Risk as a film needs a counterpoint to the claustrophobic action occurring on the plane and unfortunately Jared Rosenberg’s script is not as crisp or engaging as screenwriter Steven Knight.

Flight Risk starts off well but as the bumpy journey progresses the middle is boring and the ending is engaging but not clever. This flight lacks some real entertainment. Maybe if the plane was flying across a crowded city this film would be more interesting.

Exciting but not brilliant, Flight Risk gets a film rating of 6 out of 10 and is recommended viewing if you need to kill 90 minutes and love films with claustrophobic settings. From director Mel Gibson I did expect a far more superior thriller which this film isn’t.

Den of Thieves: Pantera

Director: Christian Gudegast

Cast: Gerard Butler, O’Shea Jackson Jr, Evin Ahmad, Salvatore Esposito, Cristian Solemino, Nazmiya Oral, Dino Kelly, Fortunato Cerlino, Yasen Zates Atour

Running time: 2 hours and 24 minutes

Languages: French, English, Flemish, Italian

Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

American director Christian Gudegast follows up his 2018 heist film Den of Thieves with the flashy sequel Den of Thieves: Pantera reuniting cast members Gerard Butler (Plane, Kandahar, 300, Copshop, Greenland) and O’Shea Jackson Jr (Cocaine Bear, Godzilla: King of the Monsters) as L.A. cop Big Nick O’Brien and master thief Donnie Wilson.

This time Den of Thieves: Pantera is set on the French Riviera, the pristine and glamourous location of Nice on the La Cote d’Azur.

Following a brazen theft of diamonds that arrived on a flight from Johannesburg to Antwerp, Donnie Wilson joins a gang of thieves lead by Jovanna played by Swedish Kurdish actress Evin Ahmad.

Nick O’Brien after extracting information out of a stripper in L.A. about the missing millions gets a tip that Donnie Wilson is in Nice, follows him there where he meets the French police unit Pantera headed by Hugo played by Yasen Zates Atour (Robin Hood).

O’Brien teams up with Donnie Wilson who gradually lets him into his gang of thieves. The only catch is the one diamond belongs to a Sardinian crime family whose mobster would like the diamond back.

After a breathtakingly elaborate heist at the ultra-secure Diamond centre in downtown Nice, a double cross occurs on the road between France and Italy and soon Donnie Wilson realizes who he can trust.

Den of Thieves: Pantera is heavy on intrigue and light on action except for a thrilling car chase in a tunnel but what director Christian Gudegast does well is build up the pace of this film about a Mediterranean diamond heist, so when the theft does take place, the action is compelling.

Nice as a city works well as a location and while the first film was very action heavy on the L.A. streets, Den of Thieves: Pantera has a glossy international feel about it, which is more character driven filled with intrigue and bravado. The screenplay with multiple languages also written by Christian Gudegast is edgy focusing more on masculine friendship and betrayal with a dash of mafia menace thrown in.

The exterior shots of Nice and Sardinia are gorgeous and the sports cars are awesome too. This is an intriguing European heist film proving that there is definitely no honour amongst thieves.

Den of Thieves: Pantera gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10 and is an entertaining action film assisted by two suitably macho performances by Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr whose character’s relationship switches between rivalry and deceit. Recommended viewing for fans of Gerard Butler action films.

Took Place on Sunday 5^th January 2025 in Los Angeles and hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association at the Beverly Hilton Hotel – Here are the 2025 Golden Globe Winners in the Film Categories:

Best Motion Picture – Drama

The Brutalist

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Emilia Perez

Best actress in a Motion Picture – Drama

Fernanda Torres – I’m Still Here

Best actor in a Motion Picture – Drama

Adrien Brody – The Brutalist

Best actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Demi Moore – The Substance

Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Sebastian Stan – A Different Man

Best Supporting Actress in any Motion Picture

Zoe Saldana – Emilia Perez

Best Supporting Actor in any Motion Picture

Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain

Best Director – Motion Picture

Brady Corbet – The Brutalist

Best Screenplay – Motion picture

Peter Straughan – Conclave

Best motion picture – Animated

Flow

Best Motion picture – Non-English Language

Emilia Perez

Best Original score – Motion Picture:

Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor – Challengers

We Live in Time

Director: John Crawley

Cast: Andrew Garfield, Florence Pugh, Adam James, Douglas Hodge

Running Time: 1 hour 48 minutes

Film Rating: 6 out of 10

There was hardly any pre-publicity for this film and I can see why.

Brooklyn and The Goldfinch director John Crawley’s non-linear romantic drama We Live In Time featuring Oscar nominees Florence Pugh (Little Women) and Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge, Tick Tick Boom) star as a young couple Tobias, an ad executive for Weetbix and Almut, head chef for a Anglo-Bavarian restaurant in a film which doesn’t elevate into a truly memorable drama.

Unfortunately screenwriter Nick Payne decided for some bizarre reason to mix up the chronological order of this couple’s timeline of romance from the initial meeting literally by accident to their eventual coupling and then pregnancy and the dramatic birth of their first child, a daughter. So the storyline comes across as confusing and uninteresting made worse by the fact that Andrew Garfield’s character Tobias had no character defects or recognizable foibles.

There was nothing eccentric or vaguely sexy about Tobias. The whole film basically centred on Almut’s character well played to a degree by Florence Pugh but one got the feeling that this character also needed more depth.

Almut is an ambitious chef that wants to enter an international cuisine competition but battles between raising a daughter and dealing with a devastating ovarian cancer diagnosis. Pugh does her best in an essentially very mediocre film in which her male lead brings nothing of value to a film about two quirky ordinary people whose lives are not even that fascinating. These characters are not eccentric or rich or even evil. They are just boring.

At least in Babygirl both Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson’s characters were both so utterly compelling and kinky.

Adam James from the Belgravia TV series appears briefly as Almut’s mentor Simon Maxson and Douglas Hodge (Joker, Gemini Man) stars as Tobias’s dad Reginald. Both actors unfortunately don’t add any real value to the narrative.

We Live in Time is utterly underwhelming as a film and you cannot make the main backdrop of a romantic film the dreary Herne Hill in London. Set the film in Tuscany or Provence.

Romance needs to be alluring and beautiful, not dull and depressing, which is what this film is.

Despite Florence Pugh’s best efforts, We Live In Time is a depressing, confusing and extremely dull British romantic drama which is best avoided.  

We Live In Time gets a film rating of 6 out of 10 and lacks any character depth and genuine conflict beyond the tragic subject of cancer and chemotherapy. Even in this romantic drama, there are very few fleeting moments to cherish. Not recommended viewing.

Babygirl

Director: Halina Reijn

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Antonio Banderas, Harris Dickinson, Esther McGregor

Running time: 1 hour 54 minutes

Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

When a film opens with Oscar winner Nicole Kidman (The Hours) having an orgasm after watching porn, audiences must know that Babygirl is going to be a kinky cinematic adventure.

Dutch director Halina Reiijn fully explores female sexuality from a unique perspective that of a woman in absolute power who soon starts unravelling sexually and emotionally when she begins an illicit affair with a much younger man.

In this case, Kidman who is absolutely superb in this film, plays the gorgeous Tech tycoon Romy who meets the arrogant and cocky Samuel, a fantastic performance by Harris Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness, Where the Crawdads Sing) who really shows his acting abilities especially in some of the more bizarre sex scenes with Kidman involving milk and submission.

Romy is a successful corporate executive in New York who is married to a rather emasculated theatre director Jacob, strangely played by Oscar nominee Antonio Banderas (Pain and Glory) and they have two daughters. But Romy wants more after she sees the tough and creepy Samuel, a new hot intern who arrives at the Tech firm after glimpsing his power to control a vicious German shepherd on a Manhattan sidewalk.

Halina Reijn who wrote and directed Babygirl explores some fascinating topics from fetishism to gender power dynamics, to lust and loyalty. The constant games between Samuel and Romy shift between desire and domination.

Where Reijn goes wrong in this film, unlike such classics as Adrian Lyne’s Fatal Attraction is that Samuel is not vicious enough as a character but he becomes a tool for Romy’s own sexual fantasies. Even when Samuel starts invading Romy’s private life and she reasserts her power over him, there is no sense of menace besides the odd display of aggression.

Unfortunately Antonio Banderas’s character is very badly written and he comes across as a flaccid, aging husband that does not have the stamina to satisfy Romy’s intense sexual urges.

Some of Reijn’s shots in this film are brilliant especially the underground rave scene in Manhattan whereby Romy pretends she is still 25, when in fact she is a drug induced cougar. Other scenes especially some of the sex scenes are so strange and repetitive that as a viewer I was waiting for the climax of this frustrated love triangle.

Eventually Romy and Jacob’s marriage unravels to a point whereby confession is the only salvation. Samuel as a strong, desirable young man just views Romy as another sexual conquest, a game to be played until all the rules have been broken.

Babygirl is going to divide audiences but as a film it is sexually provocative and in no ways thrilling. For a film to be a thriller that would involve a gun and a murder.

Nicole Kidman deserves all the acting accolades after winning the Best Actress prize at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival. It was interesting to see British actor Harris Dickinson take on a more substantial role as a devious leading man.

If you enjoy bizarre sex scenes and power games, then watch Babygirl now. The first half of this film was brilliant but soon like any infatuation the thrill wears off quickly.

Babygirl gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10. Recommended viewing if you enjoy art house cinema.

Canary Black

Director: Pierre Morel

Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Rupert Friend, Ben Miles, Goran Kostic, Saffron Burrows, Ray Stevenson

Running Time: 1 hour 41 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

After a swish opening sequence at a fancy apartment building in Tokyo, French director Pierre Morel’s new spy action film Canary Black moves to Zagreb, Croatia, whereby top CIA spy Avery Graves expertly played by British action star Kate Beckinsale (Van Helsing, Total Recall, Contraband) goes a deadly mission to save her kidnapped husband, the seemingly harmless David Brooks played by Rupert Friend (The Young Victoria, Pride and Prejudice, Asteroid City).

Avery liaises with her handler at Zagreb CIA station, Jarvis Hedlund played by the late star Ray Stevenson (The Three Musketeers, Thor, Memory) as she tries to figure out which evil mastermind is behind the kidnapping of David and what on earth is on the encrypted file called Canary Black.

Matthew Kennedy’s refreshingly original gender reversal screenplay, make the woman the main action hero and the victim in this case is the muscular and handsome David Brooks. The villain is the duplicitous Croatian minister Konrad Bresnov played by Bosnian actor Goran Kostic (Taken, The Zookeeper’s Wife).

Naturally Bresnov seeks world domination and wants to use Canary Black which is a dangerous digital spyware to wipe out the superpowers technological capabilities.

As Avery blasts her way to find her supposed husband, she crosses paths with the deputy director of National security Nathan Evans played by Ben Miles (Napoleon, Red Joan, Woman in Gold) in a bizarre sequence in a swanky urban hotel.

Canary Black is a slick, medium budget action thriller with Kate Beckinsale proving that she is indeed the right woman for the job, as a merciless CIA operative who is trying to stop Canary Black and save her husband.

French director Pierre Morel who brought audiences the highly successful Taken films featuring Liam Neeson does a good job of creating an atmospheric action packed spy thriller set in a relatively obscure European city at night.

Kate Beckinsale channels her talents from the Underworld series and does a believable job as the tough as nails spy Avery Graves. Vivienne Westwood supermodel turned actress Saffron Burrows appears at the end of the film as the mysterious Elizabeth Mills pointing to the possibility of a sequel.

Canary Black is a standard action film with a unique gender reversal whereby this time the tough guy is a woman who fends off multiple male assailants to rescue her helpless husband from the grips of an evil megalomaniac.

Canary Black gets a film rating of 7 out of 10 and is worth seeing as an unpretentious action film with no flashy cars, exotic locations or special gadgets. Just good old fashioned spy craft.

Kraven the Hunter

Director: J. C. Chandor

Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Fred Hechinger, Russell Crowe, Alessandro Nivola, Ariana DeBose, Christopher Abbott, Levi Miller, Billy Barratt

Running Time: 2 hours and 7 minutes

Film Rating: 6.5 out of 10

A  Most Violent Year director J. C. Chandor takes on a fringe superhero film in the eagerly anticipated Kraven the Hunter starring Golden Globe winner Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Nocturnal Animals) as Sergei Kravinoff, the eldest son of Russian gangster Nikolai Kravinoff played with a vodka infused accent by Oscar winner Russell Crowe (Gladiator).

The 34 year old British star, Taylor-Johnson got into seriously transformative physical shape to play the Hunter, a highly skilled trained assassin and general tough guy who is protective of his creepy younger brother, the chameleon like Dimitri, wonderfully played by Fred Hechinger last seen in Gladiator 2 as the crazy bloodthirsty Emperor Caracalla.

Kraven the Hunter starts off in Siberia then the action moves swiftly to London and then onto Ghana where a hunting expedition goes bad when Nikolai takes his two young sons to hunt wild animals to toughen them up. The younger characters are played by Levi Miller and Billy Barratt respectively.

As entertaining and exciting as this film is, Kraven the Hunter lacks two essential elements to make a narrative mesmerizing: a truly depraved villain and a sexy leading lady.

Alessandro Nivola (A Most Violent Year, Ginger and Rosa, American Hustle) plays the rival gangster villain Aleksei Sytsevich also known as the Rhino due to his unique ability to turn his skin into that of a rhino and deflect any bullets. Unfortunately, Nivola does not make the villain Rhino that menacing and he comes off as a bizarre pastiche of bad CGI villains in a mediocre film saved only by some great fight scenes.

Then there is Oscar winner Ariana Debose (West Side Story) playing the poorly written character Calypso, the only woman in a film about male bravado, aggression and predatory behaviour. Calypso battles to fit into this male world of hunting and killing.

Unfortunately there is no love interest between Calypso and Kraven and she serves as the voice of reason in a high adrenaline action film about male power, domination and the fight for survival and succession.

As Calypso rescues the crossbow wielding Kraven a second time she tells him flirtatiously that legends don’t die.

Fred Hechinger’s Dimitri has a more fascinating character arc and provides a surprising plot twist at the end. Christopher Abbott (Poor Things) pops up briefly as an equally strange henchman called the Foreigner with inexplicable supernatural powers. The henchman’s relationship to the villain is not clearly explained.

Sexualize your characters and make the villain really nefarious. If the screenwriters had done that then Kraven the Hunter would have been a far more superior film.

Kraven the Hunter is a reasonably good action film with cool stunts and weapons, helped by a believable Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the main role but it is not brilliant. It’s an average superhero film which ties masculine strength with aggression, brutality and the fight for survival.

Kraven the Hunter gets a film rating of 6.5 out of 10 and is recommended viewing as an entertaining action film whose storyline could have done with some sharpening.

See it if you have two hours to kill and need tips on how to decorate your man cave.

Wicked Part One

Director: Jon M. Chu

Cast: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Ethan Slater, Peter Dinklage

Running Time: 2 hours 40 minutes

Film Rating: 8 out of 10

Crazy Rich Asians and In the Heights director Jon M. Chu lands cinematic gold, with his dazzling interpretation of the hit broadway musical Wicked about the origins of the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz.

Wicked Part 1 is a stunningly beautiful and bold interpretation of a fantasy tale about the origins of a witch. In this case it is the absolutely brilliant Oscar worthy performance of Cynthia Erivo (Harriet, Widows) who plays Elphaba alongside British pop star Ariana Grande who is fabulous and very pink as Galinda complete with sparkling shoes, handbags and enough accessories to make any teenage girl envious.

Set within the broader Wizard of Oz universe, Glinda and Elphaba meet at University before they both become witches but unfortunately they are at odds with each other. Glinda is blonde and beautiful, vain and popular whereas Elphaba is green and is in some sense a social pariah, a product of an illicit affair that her mother had in which Elphaba was born bright green like the sparkling Emerald City.

Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh (Everything, Everywhere all at Once) plays Madame Morrible as the mistress of magic at the University where both aspiring witches are studying. All is not well in the land when the talking animals are being ostracized and then Galinda is completely distracted by the arrival of the dashing man on a horse Fiyero, wonderfully played with sufficient panache by Fellow Travellers star Jonathan Bailey.

Elphaba tries to become popular while struggling with her own self-acceptance. Cynthia Erivo, besides her superb singing is really an extraordinary actress and suitably well cast in the role of the singing and flying witch.

Wicked Part One is a dazzling film, complete fantasy liberally peppered with fantastic songs and stunning dance numbers. If you are a musical theatre producer or a choreographer then go and see this musical.

As a psychedelic fantasy musical, Wicked Part One is extraordinary with lavish production design by Nathan Crowley who also deserves an Oscar nomination along with the costume designer Paul Tazewell. The pair really go to town with the amazing sets and incredible costumes especially in the glittering Emerald City.

As Elphaba and Galinda travel on a sleek emerald train to the Emerald City to see the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, they soon discover that the wily wizard is not as noble as one might anticipate. Enter the veteran actor Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park, The Grand Budapest Hotel) who steals the scene as the industrialist like Wizard who soon discovers Elphaba’s real power.

The songs are amazing, the costumes and sets are spectacular but at two and half hours long there were some sections the director could have cut.

What makes Wicked Part One such an enjoyable film is the performance of Cynthia Erivo, she really takes the iconic role of the Wicked Witch of the West and moulds it into something formidable, a fascinating story of how a young awkward girl transforms into a witch hated and ostracized by the Land of Oz. Society will do that to a perceived outcast.

Lavish, loud and beautifully orchestrated Wicked Part One is recommended viewing and gets a film rating of 8 out of 10.

Suitable for fans of fantasy musicals and those that have a spare two and half hours to kill exploring the yellow brick road.