Sparkle : Movie Review


Post-blaxploitation and pre-Dreamgirls, the original, funky, low-budget Sparkle from 1976 set its girl-group rise and fall in Harlem in 1958. Salim Akil’s remake, scripted by his wife, Mara Brock Akil (creator of the late, great Girlfriends and The Game), moves the action to Detroit, 1968. With this relo, the production design has been expanded considerably, as has the plot and dialogue; the forebear’s underwritten melodrama has been supplanted by Tyler Perry–like soap operatics and much jawing about the Lord, riots in the Motor City, marriage proposals, and maternal heartbreak and disapproval. Sparkle 2.0 wisely retains most of the ’76 version’s Curtis Mayfield–composed songs, and the new numbers by R. Kelly fit nicely with those outstanding tracks.

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Author : Melissa Anderson