Movie of the Week: ‘The Color Purple’

“The Color Purple” (1985) – Whoopi Goldberg is unforgettable as Celie, a poor and humble Georgian who suffers under unthinkable abuse from her father and husband (Danny Glover) for years and years.  Celie swallows the constant mistreatment, but we hope that she’ll transform these harmful encounters into some morsels of strength to move on.  The problem is she has nowhere to go.  Steven Spielberg adapts Alice Walker’s novel – set at the turn of the 20th century – and he offers a 154-minute runtime to let the story breathe on-screen. …

‘A Wrinkle in Time’ offers many positives, but not enough space for its story

“A Wrinkle in Time” – Madeleine L’Engle wrote the science fiction, young adult novel “A Wrinkle in Time” back in 1962, but this critic was not familiar with the source material at all when walking into a Tempe, Arizona movie theatre to see director Ava DuVernay’s film adaptation in 2018.   The movie poster looks engaging though, as a blonde-haired Oprah Winfrey, a red-headed Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling sport appealing, celestial looks, and with the promise of time wrinkling in the film title, some out-of-world concepts are sure to appear…