On Sunday (March 2), the Oscars paid homage to the late, great Quincy Jones by having Queen Latifah sing the iconic “Ease on Down The Road” from 1978's “The Wiz.” Cynthia Erivo performed “Home” from the film earlier in the telecast.
Now, These are both iconic songs from the film. But can we finally be honest and admit that “The Wiz is a boring movie?”
I have no problems with celebrating these songs. They are legitimately great. No argument from me on that. (However, I do think that the Grammys and the Oscars dropped the ball in their tributes to Q. I was deeply underwhelmed by both.) My problem is with the movie.
If you’re like most millennial Black folks, your aunts, uncles and grandparents had this film on constant rotation. And it’s understandable why. It stars Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Lena Horne and Richard Pryor. That is a murders row of actors for the generation that fought for civil rights and had pictures of Jesus, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. on their walls.
But let’s cut to the chase: The movie is a snoozefest, and you know it. Your uncle who smoked Newport Menthols knew it. Even your nana who never took the plastic off her couch knew it. Y’all just didn’t want to say that a movie featuring those greats was, well...not good. The pacing of the film will put you to sleep faster than a Benadryl downed with a glass of red wine followed up with an edible. And the acting is aggressively… not good. Like, Tyrin Turner in “Belly” kind of not good.
Yes, there are amazing musical numbers. Yes, Jackson danced and sang his ass off, and it’s true that Ross killed the singing. But it is time we are honest with ourselves — most of us fast forward through the film and only watch the musical numbers. And if you don’t, you’re losing at life. Don’t subject the next generation to this film. Just let them watch the clips of the singing and dancing…and the scene of the flying monkeys if you want to give them nightmares.