Movies based on musicals based on movies are offering the cinematic blueprint du jour, somehow – 2024 begins with retellings of both Mean Girls and The Color Purple, with differing results: the latter is not a copy-and-paste of any of its predecessors, rather, a fairly smart retooling of all the best bits of Alice Waters' 1982 novel and the Broadway show based on it, in one new package.
Multi-hyphenate (author, visual artist, rapper, singer-songwriter and record producer as well as filmmaker) Blitz Bazawule infuses the story of abuse, segregation, suffering and eventually emancipation with light at every possible turn with his latest directorial effort: as much in the impressive (and now partially Oscar-nominated) ensemble as in the film’s rhythm, keeping intrigue afloat and hope ashore even in the darkest moments.
