Freeze Frame: “Wicked” (PG), “Gladiator II” (R), “Bonhoeffer” (PG-13), “The Piano Lesson” (R)

Part one of the smash Broadway musical “Wicked,” the origin story of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West, finally hits the big screen. Here’s the upside: It’s very entertaining and beautifully produced and Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande-Butera are terrific. The downside: It’s padded out to 2 hours and forty minutes, and you’ll need to wait a year to see the rest of the story. In any event, “Wicked: Part 1” is a tuneful and spectacular moviegoing experience.

If you think a year-long wait for “Wicked: Part 2” seems long, director Ridley Scott waited 24 years to bring us “Gladiator II.” Paul Mescal plays Lucius, the illegitimate son of Russell Crowe’s Maximus and Connie Nielson’s Lucilla. It’s two-parts impressive spectacle and one-part implausible hokum. Thankfully, Denzel Washington’s scene-stealing performance as a villainous arms dealer is the “Gladiator II” showstopper.

The historical drama “Bonhoeffer” purports to tell the true story of the heroic German pastor who plotted to assassinate Hitler. However, the International Bonhoeffer Society and many of the cast members have distanced themselves from the film for various reasons. “Bonhoeffer” is competently made, but the mundane approach turns what should have been an involving and inspirational story into a rather bland affair.

August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “The Piano Lesson” becomes an involving Netflix drama brought to you by the Washington family. Denzel produced, son Malcolm directed and son John David Washington stars. In 1930s Pittsburg, a dysfunctional African American family struggles to shake off the ghosts of the past centered around an inherited piano. The cast is fine, but it’s Danielle Deadwyler who truly shines in this thoughtful, emotionally wringing drama.

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