Sparkle

Name: Sparkle
Released: 1976-4-7
Cast: Philip Michael Thomas, Irene Cara, Lonette McKee, Dwan Smith, Mary Alice

Sparkle

PG
1h 39m
1976

10%

age 14+

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Three talented sisters claw their way from the Harlem ghetto to stardom in the rock 'n' world of the 1950s, a world of fame, music and Sparkle. But even though they escape the ghetto, the sisters cannot escape its problems, and their dream of celebrity and success becomes a nightmare of jealousy and drugs in this powerful tale.

Director:

Sam O'Steen

Producer:

Writer:

Cast:

Philip Michael Thomas, Irene Cara, Lonette McKee, Dwan Smith, Mary Alice, Dorian Harewood, Tony King, Beatrice Winde, Paul Lambert, Joyce Easton

Rotten Tomatoes® Score

TOMATOMETER®

10%

Reviews

Los Angeles Free Press

Jacoba Atlas

Has all the shine of a badly cut rhinestone.

[An] uneasy marriage of cliched melodrama and music in an odd March of Time technique.

It's a rags-to-riches story that doesn't miss a stop along the well-trod ghetto-to-musical-charts...

Hackneyed, ho-hum 1976 feature about a black girl group, clearly modeled on the Supremes.

Drab as it is, Sparkle's worth renting for Lorette McKee's performance and the cast renditions of...

January 28, 2019

FULL REVIEW

Common Sense Media

age 14+

Common Sense Says

Predictable rise-to-fame tale with gangs, drugs, violence.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Sparkle is the 1976 movie with Irene Cara, not the remake with Whitney Houston. It doesn't gloss over the many potential obstacles on the road to fame: There are drug dealers, mobsters, and abusive boyfriends, all of whom might derail a talented singer's dreams, and the film shows all of their unsavory behavior. There's some drug use (including cocaine), plenty of smoking, and a good amount of drinking in bars and at dinner parties. There are also some brutal domestic-abuse scenes and occasional swearing (including the "N" word).