CineCrossroads: “Wicked: For Good,” “Gone with the Wind,” and “A Bug’s Life”

Movie of the Week — Wicked: For Good (2025)

The second part of the long-awaited Broadway adaptation does not simply continue the story, it completes it, assembling the emotional puzzle that began a year ago. It is not a traditional sequel, it is the second half of a single, unified project.

The plot unfolds after the events of the first film. Elphaba, now known as the Wicked Witch of the West, hides in the forests and continues fighting for the rights of animals, beings whose voices have been silenced by law. Her reputation is ruined, she is being hunted, and the truth about the falsified magic that sustains the Wizard’s power remains unwanted.

Glinda, meanwhile, becomes the face of official Good. She lives in the palace of the Emerald City, appears before the citizens, reinforces the regime’s image, and increasingly feels the distance between who she is now and who she once was beside Elphaba.

The second part grows into an emotional crescendo, where politics and friendship form the two central themes. The film gently adapts Gregory Maguire’s original satire while preserving its core idea: good and evil are social labels, not innate qualities. It shows how easily a system can masquerade as truth and how quickly a fighter for justice can be turned into a villain.

The friendship between Glinda and Elphaba is the heart of the story, complicated, imperfect, but genuine.

Wicked: For Good weaves together threads laid down by L. Frank Baum, reimagined by Maguire, and immortalized by Schwartz and Holzman in the musical. The result is a vivid film that brings a 125-year-old story to a sweeping conclusion.

Classic Pick — Gone with the Wind (1939)

Victor Fleming’s film remains the highest grossing movie in cinema history. But its real power lies not in record numbers, but in how honestly it depicts the collapse of one world and the birth of another.

Against the backdrop of the Civil War, the old South, built on slave labor and illusions of aristocratic honor, crumbles. The film shows this downfall without embellishment: the polished image of “aristocracy” proves wholly unprepared for a reality where survival matters more than titles.

Scarlett O’Hara is the perfect product of chaos. She is not kind or noble. She is intelligent, predatory, relentless, and quicker than anyone to understand the central law of a new era: those who act survive. Unlike Ashley Wilkes and Melanie Hamilton, who represent a doomed old order, Scarlett adapts. She digs with her bare hands, schemes, marries for advantage, and does whatever it takes.

Rhett Butler is a cynic. He sees the world without illusions, understands that war is economics, and shapes his life accordingly. His bond with Scarlett becomes a clash of two predators, equal in strength but not in emotional maturity.

In this way Gone with the Wind shifts from romantic epic to a harsh and truthful lesson about history. When the old world collapses, the survivors are not the righteous, but the adaptable. That is why the film remains relevant eight decades later.

Family Choice — A Bug’s Life (1998)

One of Pixar’s most underrated works is not a cultural phenomenon like Toy Story, but it deserves attention for its sincerity and warmth.

The story takes us into an ant colony that lives under constant threat from a gang of grasshoppers. The inventive dreamer Flik wants to protect his home, but his ideas often lead to chaos. He sets out to find warriors and accidentally brings back a troupe of eccentric circus bugs, each with their own quirks and comic charm.

What begins as a misunderstanding turns into a tale of friendship, self-belief, and the power of small steps. The humor is light, the visual style bright and childlike, but the message is universal: those who are underestimated can achieve the extraordinary.

A Bug’s Life holds a special nostalgic appeal for younger millennials and older zoomers alike.

The previous Qazinform News Agency selection took viewers into the mystical world of Genie, Make a Wish, a fantasy drama about a genie connected to the heroine by a karmic thread from a past life. The classic pick was the sparkling comedy Some Like It Hot with Marilyn Monroe, and the family choice was the touching animated film The Wild Robot, where a robot learns what it means to be a mother and part of a community.