150 Word Review: 'The Color Purple' (2023)
Sisters before misters
This musical adaptation of The Color Purple amplifies every moment of joy and redemption in Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning coming-of-age novel about family, trauma, and racism in early 20th-century Georgia.
This movie is unashamed of its Broadway roots. Director Blitz Bazawule is proud of The Çolor Purple's Tony-winning origins, which is to say, the movie is big, bold, and hyperrealistic. The cast stomps, sweats, and sings their hearts out, and either you accept their invitation to visit a dimension where emotions spill out into reality or you don't; too bad for you.
Fantasia Barrino is Celie, forced into a marriage to the cruel Mister, a loathsome Colman Domingo. Barrino is a majestic talent, and Domingo is casually terrifying. Their co-stars are exceptional, including Danielle Brooks as defiant Sofia and Taraji P. Henson. The Color Purple is a powerful story about family, the darkness of men, and the light of forgiveness.
New 150 Word Reviews: ‘Force Majeure’ (2014) & ‘Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets’ (2020)
Remember When: ‘The Color Purple’ (1985)
Over the past forty years, Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple has been celebrated, forgotten, and criticized. But it should forever be remembered as the big-screen debut of two titanic superstars: Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. Spielberg's conventional and faithful drama and the new movie musical are very different versions of the same story, and I find both moving for different reasons. The original is grounded and intense, but 2023’s The Color Purple ascends. It levitates and takes the audience with it. Here's a photo of Goldberg and Winfrey as Celie and Sofie and Rae Dawn Chong as Squeak.
The trailers make this looks gorgeous. Thing is, I didn't like the musical very much on stage (I saw the original production in 2006--I skipped the revival) and I REALLY don't relish the idea of putting money in Alice Walker's antisemitic pockets.
Finally watched this movie.
The music, singing and dancing were very enjoyable but left out things in the very long movie, ‘The Color Purple.’ That movie with Woopie Goldberg was much better in terms of a story line. More detailed.
Actually I thought the new ‘Color Purple’ was going to be a sequel when I first read about it.
I don’t know why I thought that.