The Wiz

Unspooled

Paul Scheer & Amy Nicholson

Film Reviews, Tv & Film

4.6 • 4.7K Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2025

⏱️ 78 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Paul and Amy ease on down the road with The Wiz, exploring its star-studded performances, ambitious set production, and how this all-Black reimagining of Oz became a cultural touchstone despite a less than stellar initial box-office run. You can join the Unspooled conversation on Paul’s Discord at https://discord.gg/ZwtygZGTa6 Follow Paul and Amy on Letterboxd for more of their movie hot takes! https://letterboxd.com/paulscheer/ https://letterboxd.com/theamynicholson/ Paul’s book Joyful Recollections of Trauma is out now! Find it at https://www.harpercollins.com/products/joyful-recollections-of-trauma-paul-scheer Check out more of Paul's writing on his Substack https://substack.com/@paulscheer Episodic Art by Kim Troxall: https://www.unspooledart.com/ Learn more about the show at Unspooledpod.com, follow us on Twitter @unspooled and on Instagram @unspooledpod, and don’t forget to rate, review & subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or where you listen to podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The year is 1978.
0:03.0	Excuse me.
0:04.0	Sir, Mr. Whiz?
0:07.0	Speaking.
0:08.0	I'm not alone, sir.
0:11.0	I'm here with my three companions and my dog Toto.
0:14.0	Forget it.
0:15.0	No riff-wrath.
0:17.0	The movie, The Whiz.
0:28.0	Hello, everyone, and welcome to Unspilled.
0:36.9	Yes, this is a podcast about good movies, critical hits, fan favorites, mustsies, and in case you missed them.
0:43.0	We have covered the AFI top 100, and now we are checking off movies from three major lists.
0:48.3	The Letterbox top 250 films with the most fans, the IMDB top 250, and the New York Times, 1,000 essential films.
0:56.4	And we'll also be chasing our own curiosity as well as the cultural curiosity, Amy.
1:02.2	Like today, so we talk about the whiz.
1:04.6	Yes, I'm excited to get into the whiz. Hello, I'm Amy Nicholson. I'm the foam critic for the
1:08.6	Los Angeles Times. I am a Wizard of Oz person. I mean, Paul knows this. I went to go see the Wizard of Oz at Sphere, you know, in Vegas. I'm so sorry for you, Amy. I mean, I had a blast to be. Okay. They threw foam apples at me that smelled like apples. Whoa. What did you think of the little David Zazloff munchkin that was running around?
1:30.1	Oh, well, I don't know where the David Zazloff cameo is. I got you because he did sneak himself into the movie. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was like, nobody's going to find it. Nobody's going to find it. Oh, yeah. We found you. But no, it's so strange.
1:42.2	I mean, as a theme park adventure, I was okay with it,
1:47.2	if the tickets remained at a reasonable price. It's not at all like watching The Wizard of Oz,
1:51.8	but the weirdest thing about it is just that they add, I wrote about this for the Los Angeles Times,
1:54.8	if you want to really get into it. But to fill up all of the space of the giant sphere screen,
	...

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