Hollywood and Broadway have a penchant for rebooting, revisiting, recycling and/or reimagining the same material through the decades in way that often feels like as much a money grab as a fresh approach to older material — but the fourth adaptation of “The Color Purple” proves the exception.
It’s a blazingly vibrant, emotionally resonant and exhilarating movie musical that does justice to Alice Walker’s iconic 1982 novel and the subsequent stage and movie versions while forging new creative paths and standing on its own as a bold and original work. What a powerful, gripping, heartbreaking, moving and ultimately uplifting tour de force by director Blitz Bazawule and one of the most impressive ensembles in any movie this year, led by nomination-worthy work from Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo and Taraji P. Henson and extending all the way to the smallest of roles.
