Paparazzi alert! Get ready for some sightings in Austin of the Hollywood power couple of the moment — Bennifer, aka Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez.
Celebrity gossip website TMZ (of course) reports exclusively that Affleck is renting a luxury condo in Austin while shooting a movie here. JLo won’t be “shacking up,” as TMZ puts it, with Affleck in Austin. But you can be sure she’ll be jetting in to visit her beau.
No word on where the temporary abode is — a downtown high-rise, perhaps? — but TMZ reports that “crews are already rushing to prepare the condo, bringing in furniture and setting up appliances.” Pretty soon, Bennifer may be “Texas two-stepping,” as TMZ portrays it, in their new pad.
JLo and Affleck recently rekindled their relationship after she and former professional baseball player Alex Rodriquez called it quits in April, ahead of their planned wedding. JLo and Affleck were together from 2002 and 2004. They met after being cast as co-stars of Gigli, a 2003 rom-com that bombed at the box office and now ranks among the worst films ever made. JLo officially ended her engagement to Affleck in 2004.
Austin-based filmmaker Robert Rodriguez is directing Affleck in Hypnotic, which is scheduled to kick off filming here September 20. Filming initially was supposed to start in April 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The action thriller will follow a detective who becomes entangled in a mystery involving his missing daughter and a secret government program while investigating a string of high-end crimes,” according to the Deadline entertainment news website.
The musical Wicked is indisputably the biggest Broadway smash of the 21st century, having grossed more $1.6 billion in New York alone and achieving the rare feat of running for over 20 years. All of which is to say that the long-awaited movie adaptation of The Wizard of Oz prequel will most likely be a massive success whether it lives up to what longtime fans envisioned or not.
Part one — yes, this 2 hour and 40 minute film is merely the first act of the musical; part two arrives a year from now — introduces Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), the green-skinned witch who goes on to become Dorothy’s nemesis, and G(a)linda (Ariana Grande-Butera), the pink-garbed “good” witch, as they meet at Shiz University in Oz. Glinda is the ultra-popular one with sycophantic hangers-on, while Elphaba is shunned by almost everyone, sometimes including her disabled sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode), who’s desperate to make her own space away from Elphaba.
Her mistreatment by others leads Elphaba to get angry, which manifests itself in uncontrollable magic. Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) notices this and takes a personal interest in her, giving her one-on-one instruction in hopes of harnessing her power. In the meantime, Elphaba and Glinda attempt to go from forced roommates to actual friends, although Glinda’s entitled personality is more of an obstacle than anything else they encounter.
Directed by Jon M. Chu and written by original book writer Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, the film does a great job of distinguishing itself from the stage version while still remaining true to what made it so beloved. As Chu showed in his last film, In the Heights, he has an innate feel for how to tap into the essence of the source material while expanding it into something befitting the scope of a blockbuster movie.
In this case, he finds a way to give even greater emphasis to the bigotry that Elphaba faces simply because of her green skin; the fact that she is being played by a Black woman drives home the point even more. The story remains light and fluffy for the most part, but the ostracization/otherness that Elphaba feels is delivered in a powerful way, as is her empathy for talking animals like Dr. Dillamond (voiced by Peter Dinklage), who are facing their own persecution.
Of course, the highlight of the film is Stephen Schwartz’s music, and while not all of the songs are equal in impact, they still make for a cohesive whole. The number of songs and order they appear in the first act is identical to the stage musical, with the standouts remaining “The Wizard and I,” “Popular,” and “Defying Gravity.” While there is some superfluous action and cutaways added to certain numbers, it’s not enough to distract from what makes the songs effective.
Oddly, the progression of the friendship between Elphaba and Glinda works better on stage when the timeline is accelerated, but Erivo and Grande-Butera make up for this slight lack with their fantastic performances. The emotion each brings to their characters fits them almost perfectly, and there’s simply no denying the strength of each of their voices. Bode, Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Ethan Slater as Boq, and more make for a solid supporting cast.
The well-known ending of the first act of Wicked is a huge high point that is so good that it almost makes up for the fact that audiences won’t see the second film for a long time. But if part one is any indication, part two should turn out to be another great musical theater adaptation in a decade that has already seen its fair share.
