The Color Purple (2023)

CinemaSerf

6.0

Feb 1, 2024

Sometimes it's better just not to re-imagine/invent/devise a feature that had such a visceral impact not just on the cinema, but on the theatre and, of course - the literary world in the first place. I"m not sure this isn't one of those. It follows the story of the young "Celie" who is essentially sold to a neighbour "Mister" (Colman Domingo) when she's barely into adulthood - for a cow and some eggs. Turns out his hale-fellow-well-met character is a bit deceptive: he's a bit of a misogynist brute who sees this woman as his property. With her now the plaything of another man, her sister "Netti…

r96sk

9.0

Feb 8, 2024

A film of quality, this. <em>'The Color Purple'</em> is a blast, what is a noteworthy thing for me to say given I'm not a lover of musicals; though, to be fair, I'm way more into them in recent years since doing reviews... have learnt to appreciate 'em! This has good music alongside an extremely deep narrative, one that hits the feels directly. I've never seen or read any version of this story previously, but this is a great introduction to it. The performances are stellar. Danielle Brooks is outstanding, a real emotive showing from her throughout - top notch! I also seriously enjoyed (d…

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve routinely made it clear that I’m not a big fan of movie musicals. In addition, less known is the fact that I’ve also never been particularly enamored with the original dramatic version of this story (1985), a picture in which director Steven Spielberg still had his training wheels on when it came to making serious cinematic fare. With those admissions in mind, then, it would appear that this latest iteration of the classic Alice Walker novel would have two prejudicial strikes against it going in, and that assessment would be accurate, as these qualifica…