Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody review: belter’s biopic never quite hits the high note
Whitney Houston's songs are as catchy as ever, but Kasi Lemmons' film succumbs to familiar music biopic pitfalls without adding much to the singer's legacy
Film Reviews Whitney
The grim downward spiral of musical megastars is, sadly, a path too well trodden. The small-town artist with staggering talent. The euphoric big break. The pressure from the tabloids. The sinister, money-grubbing manager. The tumble into substance abuse. These are the checkpoints we’ve seen time and again in the lives of famous musicians, and which we now see recreated in musical biopics. Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody, which recently added the “Whitney Houston” to the front of its title to ensure no fans accidentally missed the connection, is yet another of these somber-ish films in which we watch a genius throttle towards destruction in pop-tune-infused slow motion.
Having recently helmed both a biopic (Harriet) and a musical (Black Nativity), actor-director Kasi Lemmons is theoretically a perfect fit for this film, which is based on Anthony McCarten’s screenplay. And since McCarten also wrote 2018’s Oscar juggernaut Bohemian Rhapsody, that seems to be the blueprint the team here is working off most closely.
As with Bohemian Rhapsody, Dance With Somebody opens with its subject (Houston in place of Freddie Mercury) about to perform a career-defining live set (Live Aid for Mercury and the 1994 American Music Awards medley for Houston) before rewinding to their early days. The film rejoins Houston, played beautifully by the effervescent Naomi Ackie, as she hones her craft by singing backup for her mother Cissy (Tamara Tunie). Houston is then discovered by record mogul Clive Davis (Stanley Tucci) while singing “The Greatest Love of All,” and thus begins her rise to fame. A wrinkle, which viewers might not have been aware of, is Houston’s friendship/romantic relationship/business partnership with Robyn Crawford (Nafessa Williams, unrecognizable from her energy in Black Lightning). Houston’s queerness, her family’s disapproval of it, and her business’ impact on it weave their way through the film’s first act in a way that leaves the audience curious.
But the film’s second half covering Houston’s global success, her budding relationship with Bobby Brown (Moonlight’s Ashton Sanders), and her drug addiction means the queer plot line fades away. As in Bohemian Rhapsody, we get music video shoots, concert montages, recording studio sessions, and substance abuse binges as vehicles for the artist’s discography. And we watch Houston’s fallout with her shifty manager (in this case her father, played by Clarke Peters), her various methods of self-destruction, and her career high points, including The Bodyguard, singing before Nelson Mandela, and her Super Bowl National Anthem performance (although not The Prince Of Egypt, which feels like an oversight). This all culminates in an extended final concert sequence (again, as in Bohemian Rhapsody) in which Houston performs “I Loves You, Porgy,” “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” and “I Have Nothing” epically at the American Music Awards, proving (if there was ever any doubt) that Houston was a one-of-a-kind talent and ending the film on a celebratory note.
Unfortunately, after so many musical biopics in the past few years, including Get On Up, Bohemian Rhapsody, Rocketman, and The United States Vs. Billie Holiday, this film feels like a copy-and-paste redux that’s little more than an excuse to listen to Houston’s greatest hits (which, to be fair, sound great). Houston’s sexuality, one of the most interesting aspects of this story, is abandoned on the wayside as the film progresses, and the audience is left wondering what her long-time relationship with Crawford meant. Delving further into this romance (friendship?), which was obviously integral to Houston’s life, could have elevated the film, giving it a message about queerness in media or bisexuality. Similarly, there are several scenes, including a tense radio interview, that touch on Houston’s complex relationship to race and her position within the Black community that never probe deeper.
While the ensemble delivers a string of strong performances, from Ackie’s emotional lip syncs (the producers rightfully decided not to try to replicate Houston’s one-of-a-kind voice), to Tucci’s grandfatherly caring, to Tunie’s sometimes harsh love for her daughter, the script seems to hold the audience at a distance, never fully fleshing these characters out. A slew of producers, including Houston’s relatives and Clive Davis himself, may be a contributing force to the pulled punches, and the PG-13 rating (which also hamstrung Bohemian Rhapsody) keeps the film from wading into the more truthful, unsavory bits of Houston’s life.
The film also makes the odd choice to never quite age Ackie aside from swapping out a series of wigs, which further adds to the feeling that reality received several coats of gloss before making it to the big screen. While spending two hours listening to Whitney Houston’s greatest hits will never be a waste of time, Dance With Somebody is a sanitized, trope-laden retelling of Houston’s life that lacks purpose and a point-of-view. A few YouTube rabbit holes, a Spotify playlist, and a rental of The Bodyguard (or The Prince Of Egypt) would perhaps be a more fitting tribute to one of the greatest artists of the past century.
44 Comments
I’m honestly shocked they even touch on Whitney’s bisexuality at all. But I’m not shocked that the guy who straight-washed Freddy Mercury couldn’t maintain the storyline, nor touch upon race. This is a biopic that should definitely not be written by a white male. It will be interesting to see how the award seasons react to this movie. I thought Bohemian Rhapsody was awful, save for a great performance from the lead. Seems to be the same here.
That movie won more Oscar’s then Citizen Kane which proves most of the time they don’t know jack about what a award worthy movie is like.
I’ll be honest, this is the first I’ve heard of it so it was pretty well quashed in real life. It would have been interesting though to see how that part of her life actually played out.Nothing about this says “must see” to me, regardless.
if this movie doesn’t deal with race, then it’s an even bigger waste of time than i expected.
the netflix doc is probably a better watch.
Truly awful, and totally lolz that despite being such a queer icon, they focused such a huge amount on his hetero relationship.
I mean it may not be the writer as much as the estates having such strong control over the content of these biopics. The genre’s always gonna be hamstrung by this.
Whitney says “STOP! I am about to solo on the electric AND upright basseses!”
I’m shocked. Usually, generic biopics are so good.
WORST. TITLE. EVER.
I stumped for Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With My Body.
What if she finally danced with somebody at the end?
THIS actually would make it a fantastic title. Great point!
As with Bohemian Rhapsody, Dance With Somebody opens with its subject [snip] about to perform a career-defining live set [snip] before rewinding to their early days.So you’re saying Whitney Houston has to think about her entire life before she plays? Please tell me she also felt guilty about a sibling’s death.
I hear she also has a dark fucking period.
Maybe she should see a doctor about that
This is Middle Whitney!
You dont’t want no part of this shit Whitney
Is it your happening and is it freaking you out?
I hope there’s a scene where she busts in on Bobby doing drugs and he says “you don’t want any part of this, Whitney!”
I’m so mad at Tim Meadows for giving her drugs.
Damn, I might’ve tuned in for Whitney Houston: A Lesbian Love Story!
Any filmmaker who is attempting a music biopic should be required to watch Walk Hard. After that movie, there should be NO excuses for falling into those old pitfalls of cliche and trope that make these types of films so rote and uninspired.
I like Walk Hard, and I also like Bohemian Rhapsody. Hell, I also like Walk the Line. Just because Walk Hard is good doesn’t mean no music biopics should ever use that basic structure again.
The problem is Bohemian Rhapsody made $900 million on a $50 million budget. There’s zero incentive for a studio to try harder.
I think if the corporate drones making these movies watched Walk Hard, the lesson would be “here’s a clever parody that made 10% as much as the dull thing it’s parodying.”
Both Walk Hard AND Weird: The Al Yankovic story should be required. I’m sick of seeing these films include a plot where the musician fights Pablo Escobar.
Wait, Whiney Houston fights Pablo Escobar? Maybe I do have to see this.
Music biopics are always, with a set of exceptions you could count on one hand, horrifically bad. They are anti-storytelling in the extreme, just a series of wikipedia data points with the barest attempt to add drama to them. But it was foolish of us to think that Walk Hard would end this genre. People really, really, really like to hear songs they know. Not sure why they couldn’t accomplish this with a brisk drive up the coast listening to their favorite oldies station, but there you have it.
The music biopic that has something to say is very rare indeed. With that said, 24-Hour Party People is one of the best biopics ever made, music or otherwise.
There probably should be more music biopics where the protagonist is the narrator.
You can play the hits and still not be a total cliche-fest. Rocketman was a good recent example of a relatively fresh take on this genre.
Belter? I hardly knew’er!
…is something Bobby Brown never said.
The commercials for this that aired during last weekend’s NFL games were hilarious. They asked the question “what if Whitney Houston, but football?”
Seriously, the ads focused entirely on her Super Bowl bowl performance with some Top Gunnish extreme closeups of the flyover jets to boot.
although not The Prince Of Egypt, which feels like an oversightStraight up wasting our time.
This should’ve been a mini-series. Telling decades in the life of a person in two or two and a half hours is always going to compress the narrative beyond being able to tell what that life was like in all its complexity and nuances.
CRACK IS WACK
Would have been a better title?
Music biopics are basically always lame. Who should we blame? Famous dead musicians, for living such cliched lives! Why can’t they be like Weird Al and war against Pablo Escobar’s cartel?
I’ll never laugh as hard as I did when I saw the trailer for this and I Will Always Love You is peppered throughout, building to the climactic key change, only for it to reveal the title of the movie: I Wanna Dance With Somebody.
“Houston’s queerness, her family’s disapproval of it, and her business’
impact on it weave their way through the film’s first act in a way that
leaves the audience curious.”Written like a freshman film paper pushed out two days before Christmas break.
This is the AVClub, there are lower stakes here.
Who did they get to play Kevin Costner in “The Bodyguard” scenes?
Nobody. They show a single clip of him from the film itself – in fact they cut to it twice – to illustrate her filming The Bodyguard.