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Peter Bart: Today’s Movie Musicals Are Wicked Successful But A Far Cry From The Sunnier Settings Of Hollywood’s Golden Age Hits

'Wicked,' 'Emilia Pérez' and 'A Complete Unknown' will win lots of awards and make money, but tonally they are not exactly generous with joy.

Award nominations already are stacking up for Timothée Chalamet, Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Karla Sofía Gascón and Angelina Jolie among others, and Universal is joyful about its $500 million-plus grosses for Wicked. By contrast, Astaire plays an airhead dancer in Top Hat, a mistaken identity story co-starring Ginger Rogers, who is a beautiful heiress with no problems in London and Paris. Jolie, as Maria Callas, superbly depicts a reclusive superstar in her declining days, losing her voice and coping with the neuroses of billionaire Aristotle Onassis.

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