Last week was the busiest week at the movies since Covid. Movies sold out during prime times.

With award shows around the corner, people are betting on “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” to capture the most Academy Awards and Golden Globes.

Keep your eyes on “Maestro” and “Poor Things”, which we reviewed last week.

WARWICK SHOWCASE

THE COLOR PURPLE

* * * ½

(Based on Broadway musical)

We first had the book, then the Broadway musical. Then the Oprah Winfrey film, and now the movie musical.

The story starts in 1909 in Georgia and follows two sisters through their difficult, poor, abusive lives until the mid-1940’s.

The acting is excellent and will probably win a couple of awards. Keep your eye on Fantasia.

While the movie depicts the poverty, abuse, and tough lives of southern black folks, especially women, it shows their resistance, hope, faith, and desire to be free.

Like Broadway musicals, people break out in song and dance at appropriate times, which occasionally pulls the audience away from the tragic lives many of them lead.

The movie begins with the sisters happily playing around a giant tree, which is the sad location for a funeral as the movie draws to a close.

The choreography is impressive in the big production numbers, especially in “Hell, No” when women finally rise up above their abusers.

We watch the sisters grow apart and grow up through important times in their lives and in the history of our nation.

THE BOYS IN THE BOAT

* * * ½ 

(Period Sports Piece)

George Clooney has been getting a lot of publicity for his period piece about the college boys from Seattle who qualify for the 1936 Olympics in Germany.

The story is pretty formulaic as we watch the team being selected, follow them through their rugged training, see them through the problems in raising enough money to get to Germany, qualify, and finally participate in the BIG RACE.

There are some great shots of the eight-man crew on the water as excitement builds, even though we know who wins. (Or do we remember?)

AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM

 * * ½  

(More Superhero stuff)

Too bad we couldn’t put a moratorium on superhero movies. They are getting repetitious and boring.

The “final battle” takes up half the movie in this one.

The 3-D, big screen and Surround Sound add to the special effects, especially in the underwater scenes, but it is still the same old story.