If there’s one criticism to be lobbed at Jeffrey McHale‘s energetic, engrossing, and sometimes fairly loving documentary “It’s Dorothy!,” it’s that the documentarian has chosen maybe too good of a topic. The mythology and that means of Dorothy Gale, the nice hero of “The Wizard of Oz,” might simply encourage a complete sequence of movies. Whereas McHale by some means manages to the touch on a dozen sizzling matters in his documentary — what the on-screen position means to the ladies who’ve performed her, how and why the LGBTQ+ group so love her, how we grapple with the misdeeds of our favourite artists, and that’s actually only a small pattern — that may make the precise movie on supply really feel a bit unfinished.
Nonetheless, McHale manages to carry all these very massive matters (plus the sense that he might have actually wished to make a Judy Garland doc, and has basically shoved that venture inside the confines of this one) collectively in an in any other case slim 97-minute working time. Full of main speaking heads, zippy animation, and a bouncing (and bouncy) sense of time (and timeline), “It’s Dorothy!” succeeds mightily in relation to its most elemental thesis.
Simply how influential is the character of Dorothy Gale, McHale and his doc ask? Effectively, sufficient that this critic walked away from “It’s Dorothy!” delighted and stimulated, and wanting rather more. Possibly that sense of unfinished-ness is, actually, a function, not a bug.
To assist inform (and promote) his idea, McHale (who beforehand turned the identical sort of consideration to a different, wholly completely different fictional character, that of the long-lasting Nomi Malone from “Showgirls” in his “You Don’t Nomi”) has assembled a very enviable forged of chatterboxes, not simply creators, artisans, performers, and cultural commentators like Amber Ruffin, Gregory Maguire, John Waters, Lena Waithe, Margaret Cho, Roxane Homosexual, Rufus Wainwright, and Walter Murch, however an eye-popping array of girls who’ve really performed Dorothy on the stage and display screen.
The breadth of former Dorothys that McHale has introduced collectively speaks to only how wide-ranging this movie is: audiences can be handled to insights from Ashanti, Fairuza Balk, Danielle Hope, Nichelle Lewis, and Shanice Shantay. And if you’re not the kind of Ozfan that may reel off exactly which venture every of those gifted ladies performed Dorothy in? You’re about to get an exquisite, fairly trustworthy schooling and introduction to every of them. (One further, if repetitive observe: can we get a documentary nearly Shantay, who was chosen via an open casting name to star in “The Wiz Reside!” when she was simply 18? What a charisma machine!)
Understandably lacking from the doc, the unique Dorothy herself, the inimitable and dearly missed Judy Garland, looms massive over each second. McHale’s documentary is curiously stitched collectively, initially specializing in Garland and her landmark casting in Victor Fleming’s enduring 1939 traditional movie (and seemingly setting out a reasonably point-to-point timeline). Garland, her affect, and her tragic life make for a sensible throughline for the movie, and whereas McHale (who additionally edited the movie) opts to bounce round between occasions, locations, and Dorothys, eschewing a typical linear telling to unspool a unique sort of telling, it’s Garland that grounds it.
After all, that additionally implies that Garland emerges because the movie’s true star — naturally, proper? — and even when McHale’s different speaking heads are expounding on their lives and careers via the lens of Dorothy, McHale usually illustrates their factors with clips from different Garland movies. If McHale actually does simply need to make a Judy Garland doc, we’re unsure who we have to foyer for that (hi there, Liza?), nevertheless it’s clear he has a profound understanding and respect for her, one he launders right here via the mythos of Dorothy.
That does imply, nonetheless, that different, extra pointedly Dorothy and Ozcentric observations get a bit much less screentime than some viewers members would possibly anticipate or hope for. Whereas “Oz” mastermind and author L. Frank Baum’s personal great-granddaughter Gita Dorothy (duh!) Morena is within the movie (as is the case with another speaking heads, she solely “seems” through voice), her personal relationship along with her legacy and namesake completely deserve an extended part. Once more, repetitive because it is perhaps, a movie nearly Morena (and, as an illustration, her discovery of Baum’s horrific views on Indigenous folks) would make for a compelling watch by itself.
Such is the case with a large raft of different matters McHale equally dips into (and out of), particularly the LGBTQ+ group’s affection for Dorothy (although McHale does aces work unpacking that complete “buddy of Dorothy” factor in fast time), the monumental legacy of the revisionist traditional “The Wiz,” and a consideration of simply what the heck was occurring with “Return of Oz.” Nonetheless, the survey-style strategy ensures there’s one thing for everybody right here, and anybody actually itching for extra will certainly discover a wealth of data elsewhere.
We’ll steer clear of unhealthy “Oz” puns right here — a Yellow Brick Highway reference? not being in Kansas anymore? a slipper crack? — and inform it clearly, as McHale does right here: this one has obtained loads of coronary heart to spare.
Grade: B
“It’s Dorothy!” premiered on the 2025 Tribeca Movie Competition. It’s at present looking for U.S. distribution.
Wish to keep updated on IndieWire’s movie evaluations and significant ideas? Subscribe right here to our newly launched publication, In Overview by David Ehrlich, during which our Chief Movie Critic and Head Opinions Editor rounds up the perfect new evaluations and streaming picks together with some unique musings — all solely accessible to subscribers.