‘Wicked’ Debuts to Stunned Reviews — Where Will It Land at the Oscars?

On last week’s episode of IndieWire’s “Screen Talk” podcast, co-hosts Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio (that’s us) predicted that Jon M. Chu‘s “Wicked” musical at Universal Pictures would get bad reviews. Well, we were wrong, as the movie has dazzled most critics, even despite our earlier criticisms about the shoddy production design and filmmaking. No matter, as Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are basically locked at this point to receive Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress, respectively. It’s the film of our time, and the movie we need now, etc.

In other news on “Screen Talk,” Anne has seen James Mangold’s Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” about the moment in 1965 when the iconic folk musician pivoted to electric production. Chalamet seems poised for a Best Actor Oscar nomination, making this his second Academy Award nomination after “Call Me By Your Name” broke the young star out. Elsewhere in the picture, Edward Norton and Monica Barbaro are also contenders for playing Pete Seeger and Joan Baez, respectively. The Searchlight Pictures movie opens in December and seems to reinforce the narrative that mostly late-breaking movies are top of mind for awards voters. That includes “Wicked,” which is headed toward a smashing box office debut this weekend to the tune of more than $120 million based on projections. Will “Wicked” and “Gladiator 2” opening in tandem rival the likes of Barbenheimer? We discuss that as well here.

We also recap the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, which Ryan attended. A few movies, such as the moving artist portrait “Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other,” will advance to become documentary awards and critics’ contenders into 2025.

Watch the full episode above or listen to it below.

Screen Talk is produced by Azwan Badruzaman and available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and hosted by Megaphone. Browse previous episodes here, subscribe here, and be sure to let us know if you’d like to hear the hosts address specific issues in upcoming editions of Screen Talk.