Filmmaker Adam McKay -- best known for making films like Anchorman with Will Ferrell -- came unglued on Twitter, suggesting the movie musical Wicked is all about radicalization and fascism, so "If America keeps going on the track it is I wouldn’t be surprised to see the movie banned in 3-5 years."
At #3 on the list of top-grossing 2024 movies -- after Inside Out 2 and Deadpool and Wolverine -- Wicked hit theaters in November and grossed over a half-billion dollars, easily surpassing its $145 million budget. It's the first installment of a two-parter.
"On a pure storytelling level Wicked Part 1 is right up there as one of the most radical big studio Hollywood movies ever made," McKay posted on X. He added, "I know Part 2 swings back to the center a bit but Part 1 is nakedly about radicalization in the face of careerism, fascism, propaganda."
One commenter responded: "Really? Wow! I'm sorry I didn't even think of seeing it when it was showing here in Dublin. It just looked like more American fantasy, franchise-wringing and CGI fare to me. I'll have to see it when it gets to streaming. Thanks for the alternative perspective. McKay responded with the Trump-ban prediction.
Why do people in Hollywood make such silly predictions? What movies have been banned in America under Trump?
On Broadway, the misunderstood witch named Elphaba made a star out of Idina Menzel. The movie stars Cynthia Erivo as the witch and Ariana Grande as the good witch Glinda.
Kyle Smith at The Wall Street Journal loved it: The lavish fantasy style of The Wizard of Oz accompanies a concern for the mistreatment of minorities and a suspicion of official narratives that are in perfect sync with our cultural moment. What if one of the most hated villains of all time were actually a misunderstood hero who was unfairly smeared by propagandists with ulterior motives?"
Smith explained how the Fascism spin could come in, with the Hogwarts-style instruction for witches at Shiz University: "Talking animals such as a sagacious goat (voiced by Peter Dinklage) are instructors, but they seem to be losing the power of speech and a change in the political atmosphere takes away their right to teach, in scenes that carry metaphorical weight. (The animals have something like the status of Jews in 1930s Germany.)"
But if Trump was really going to try and ban a movie as a personal affront, wouldn’t he start with The Apprentice movie from this year? Critics did NOT like it – because it wasn’t harsh enough on Trump!
Enjoy the podcast below, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And Happy New Year!
