Marissa Bode is feeling sentimental. She's at the tail end of a whirlwind press tour for Wicked: For Good, which has sent her to events across London and New York and signals the end of her time in Oz. "It's just a press tour, but it's still saying goodbye in and of itself," she says as she settles into our table at Midtown's Jams.
I really hope my casting sets precedent, says Bode, adding: It's just navigating a world and a system that we have just not been acknowledged in as we should be.
Kirk Jones's terrifically warm, generous film is about real-life activist John Davidson, who is from Galashiels in the Scottish Borders and has Tourette syndrome, with its tics, compulsive behaviour patterns and random obscene shouts. He was awarded an MBE in 2019 for his work educating the nation about the condition since he first exhibited its symptoms as a teenager in 1989, as captured in the BBC's sensational documentary John's Not Mad.
Paper Bag Plan: Oakland native Anthony Lucero's exceptional follow-up to his indie sweetheart East Side Sushi will likewise melt hearts and sooth aching souls. Lucero's beautiful film is filled with empathy, insight and compassion as functioning alcoholic dad Oscar (Lance Kinsey, giving one of the most graceful performances of the year) seeks ways to make his quick-witted 25-year-old disabled son Billy (Cole Massie, in a phenomenal performance) more self-sufficient due to his own dire health diagnosis.