Joey Magidson
It happens every year or two. A film comes out that features a cast member that a large group on the internet is a big fan of. Listen, that’s cool. I love when people love someone or something. The thing is, what inevitably happens is whenever someone reacts to the movie, one that the fans themselves haven’t seen, with anything less than complete praise, they’re attacked as having an agenda against their beloved. It’s one of my least favorite things about the internet and social media, which should really tell you something. It happened again this week with Wicked and Ariana Grande.
Folks, I saw Wicked on Tuesday evening at one of the early screenings going on currently. As is the case in 2024, there’s not a ton of fellow critics and prognosticators in attendance, but a fair amount of influencers and other non-writers predisposed to love the flick. It’s just how things are done these days. My Barbie screening last year was 90% influencers in pink (go figure, I loved it more than all of them and named it my number one picture of 2023). Hell, even Disney has, for years, invited children to the press screenings of their animated projects, hoping their more pure experience rubs off on us jaded pundits. So, I wasn’t particularly surprised that the DGA Theater had a lot of Broadway lovers there, as opposed to just NYC critics. Of course, they largely loved it. Yours truly? I thought it was just fine, as you can see in this reaction:
https://twitter.com/JoeyMagidson/status/1856519201067831596
Why this would bring out the knives is beyond me, but let it serve as a lesson…be better than this. You can love Grande as much as you want, but to be nasty and petty over a perceived sleight is just bad form. It’s toxic fandom and makes everyone involved seem worse. Years ago, it was Timothée Chalamet making accusations about anyone not actively predicting him to win Best Actor (a nomination wasn’t enough, clearly) for Call Me By Your Name. More recently, it was Andra Day and her not actually being the frontrunner in Best Actress for The United States vs. Billie Holiday. Now, it’s Grande and Wicked.
To be fair, I ended up having a productive conversation at the time with a Day fan who actually grew to understand the precursor season. Likewise, some of the folks yesterday and Tuesday actually apologized as things progressed (or regressed in some cases). Not everyone did, however, and I do wish more fans would realize that being an internet bully or troll on their behalf is not the way to win their affection. Just the opposite, in fact. So, be better and do better. Ariana Grande and anyone else you’re fond of would want nothing less…
Stay tuned for my full Wicked review soon!
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