[REVIEW] Purple Rain
May. 15th, 2016 03:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I mentioned on the 28th of April that I owned the album Purple Rain, but I hadn't mentioned mentioned that I had was just about to see the movie Purple Rain for the first time. The Kingsway Theatre, out in the west end by the Royal York TTC station, was putting on a special showing--first two shows, then six.

Why not?

My Friday night showing was, alas, not very populated. I was one of five people sitting in the theatre at the 11 o'clock showing, and the only single guy. I have no idea whether the wonderfully restored Kingsway Theatre decided to continue with the full slate of showings planned. (I hope it picked up.)
How was the film? The segments of Purple Rain which work the best are the performance scenes. Here, Prince is electrifying. The rest of the film does not work especially well as anything but a framework for these scenes: Few of the major characters are portrayed by competent actors, the script needed some work to become a tighter and more cohesive narrative, and the direction seemed workmanlike. The movie has to rank as a relatively minor pop culture artifact of the 1990s, secondary to the music. Since that's apparently how Prince saw his ventures into film, and how his fans saw it, I can't say that it was a failure on its own terms.
I'm still glad I went--even at its worst, Purple Rain was at least fun. As I mentioned Friday, I'll be going off to the Regal Theatre downtown to see the concert film Sign o the Times. Yes, I will share my impressions with you all.

Why not?

My Friday night showing was, alas, not very populated. I was one of five people sitting in the theatre at the 11 o'clock showing, and the only single guy. I have no idea whether the wonderfully restored Kingsway Theatre decided to continue with the full slate of showings planned. (I hope it picked up.)
How was the film? The segments of Purple Rain which work the best are the performance scenes. Here, Prince is electrifying. The rest of the film does not work especially well as anything but a framework for these scenes: Few of the major characters are portrayed by competent actors, the script needed some work to become a tighter and more cohesive narrative, and the direction seemed workmanlike. The movie has to rank as a relatively minor pop culture artifact of the 1990s, secondary to the music. Since that's apparently how Prince saw his ventures into film, and how his fans saw it, I can't say that it was a failure on its own terms.
I'm still glad I went--even at its worst, Purple Rain was at least fun. As I mentioned Friday, I'll be going off to the Regal Theatre downtown to see the concert film Sign o the Times. Yes, I will share my impressions with you all.