As a vivid and accurate depiction of African-Americans struggling with 1950s Harlem life, it is exactly what one might expect from the man who would later direct “St.
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So the original “Sparkle” is near and dear to many people's hearts, but the screenplay by Joel Schumacher - his first big-screen effort - is full of excruciatingly bad dialogue. It revived Franklin's career and contains some of Mayfield's best songs, including “Something He Can Feel,” which was a hit for the Queen of Soul in 1976 and then revived 20 years ago with a faithful cover by En Vogue. The original “Sparkle” featured fine performances by Irene Cara as the title character and Lonette McKee as the gorgeous “Sister,” the oldest and most troubled of the all-sibling vocal group, and while “Sparkle” was not a box office success, the album of songs from the film that Mayfield recorded with Aretha Franklin is a classic. And as Whitney Houston's final completed work, “Sparkle” provides a poignant coda.
But if the new version of “Sparkle” lacks the grimy atmosphere, exploitative plot and slapdash, 1970s grindhouse quotient of the original, it makes up for those losses with better acting, far more coherent storytelling and a period setting that corresponds with the deep, soulful sound of Curtis Mayfield's music. Practically from the moment that “Dreamgirls” hit Broadway in 1981, fans of 1976's “Sparkle” insisted that the cult film about a 1960s girl group did it first and did it better on a frayed shoestring budget.
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