‘Litle Women’

Gillian Armstrong’s beguiling 1994 version of Louisa May Alcott’s novel brings alive the past vividly. Alcott’s alter ego-heroine, Jo March (played by a perfectly cast Winona Ryder, pictured), is not a modern-day feminist but points the way to the future in her unladylike ambition and outspoken free thinking. (HBO Wednesday at 9:30 a.m.).