WHITNEY HOUSTON: I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY Review
“Naomi Ackie and Director Kasi Lemmons successfully make a true believer out of someone who has actively hated Whitney Houston for most of his life (and hers).”
I really hate to be THAT guy, and sadly, I tend to be THAT guy more than ever as I get older and the world around me seems to get younger, but yeah, I did not like Whitney Houston. I did not care for her music, didn’t like her videos, had no interest in seeing The Bodyguard (and still haven’t), nor did I ever have much interest in knowing that much more about her.
That is, until I watched this masterful film from Kasi Lemmons, who directed Harriet, a movie that I didn’t really care for and… shh… don’t tell a soul, I walked out of. (Listen, if you didn’t learn about Harriet Tubman in school, that’s your problem, but I already knew a lot about her, so the movie wasn’t really offering me anything new.)
That’s not the case with I Wanna Dance WIth Somebody aka Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody, as it’s been renamed, because marketing people clearly think moviegoers are complete and total idiots, am I right? 🙂 There was just so much I learned while watching this movie, and I was so impressed with the way that Lemmons and her team recreated so many classic Whitney Houston moments, that I left the movie feeling like I had seen another great and distinctive musical biopic that has upped the genre slightly.
Granted, it was tougher to reach that conclusion having recently seen the faux biopic, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, just a few months ago, which could very well have forever ruined the genre for me, since it was so spot on in suggesting that these movies do tend to hit many of the same beats.
The fact that I’ve gone on this long without mentioning Naomi Ackie, the amazing actor commissioned with bringing Whitney back to life, is obviously an oversight. Indeed, she not only brings so much to Whitney when she’s not on stage or in a music video, but also brilliantly recreates many moments with which Whitney’s fans will be intimately familiar. Sure, there’s the music videos and such, but the moments when Ackie is performing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl or appearing on Oprah for her comeback performance after falling from grace, it can be quite jaw-dropping.
I honestly have no idea how much actual singing Ackie did herself or if this was like with Bohemian Rhapsody, where Houston’s actual voice and performances were used, but those moments would not have worked if Ackie didn’t put her all into her entire performance. I can’t say I was too familiar with much of her work, other than her character in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but I’d seen more than enough of Whitney during her career that I was having more than a few, “Is that Akie live or is it actually Whitney?” moments.
As I frequently do, I’m getting ahead of myself, because some might wonder how much of Whitney’s life and career is covered. To some, I Wanna Dance with Somebody will feel pretty straight-forward as a musical biopic, maybe because it is. It begins during Whitney’s time in New Jersey as a young progeny and back-up singer for her mother, the great Cissy Houston, who has the wherewithal to push Whitney forward to sing lead just as Arista A&R exec. Clive Davis (played by Stanley Tucci) is in the audience. He is blown away by her voice while performing “The Greatest Love of All,” and soon, he’s signing her to a record deal. Another major part of the story is Whitney’s best friend Robyn Crawford, as played by Nafessa Williams, another actor I wasn’t that familiar with – she was a regular on the Black Lightning series that I never got around to watching.
The two of them become very VERY close, and honestly, I never knew anything about Whitney’s sexuality ever being called into question due to her friendship with Robyn, who would become creative director for Whitney’s Jersey-based company, Nippy Inc. I ended up having to go back and do some Wikipedia reading to learn that Crawford had written a book claiming to have had a sexual relationship with Houston before she met Bobby Brown.
In fact, Bobby Brown, as played by Ashton Sanders, comes across as the biggest horse’s ass, a real buffoon, and maybe part of that is reality, but clearly, it’s also part of the filmmakers’ bias to really focus on the positive aspects of Whitney’s life and career, considering the tragic way she died ten years ago. There’s also Clarke Peters as Whitney’s domineering father, John Houston, who immediately starts spending his way through her money as her manager.
Yeah, it’s tough for some recording artists to deal with fame and family, but I Wanna Dance with Somebody clearly wouldn’t be of much interest if there weren’t some hurdles for her to face on her way to fame and success – maybe it’s a requirement of the genre, which also is why it frequently feels so formulaic (and perfect fodder for a movie like Weird).
But there were other things that impressed me, first of all that this was written by Anthony McCarten, who yes, also wrote Bohemian Rhapsody – something I’m sure will be used against this movie, as well – but he also wrote The Theory of Everything and Darkest Hour, and I liked all three movies. I was mainly impressed, since I’m not sure if he’s ever lived in New Jersey or had any encounters with Houston or her family, so he did a great job putting this script together from various books and other research.
There’s also Stanley Tucci’s performance as Clive Davis, which did a great job showing the important role he played not only in making her famous, but also the singularly relationship they had, which I knew a little about from the Clive Davis doc a few years back. (Oddly, I’m not sure if I ever saw the Whitney doc, even though that was made by Kevin Macdonald, who has done such great work in the documentary and narrative space.)
But most importantly, the one who really should take a victory lap for this biopic working as well as it does is Kasi Lemmons who not only cast these talented actors, but also went the extra mile to make sure that those who see this film – be they fans or not – will come away with a greater appreciation of Ms. Houston.
For me, the real clincher was when the movie presents Houston’s entire American Music Awards performance from 1994, which I had never seen before. It’s a critical moment that’s mentioned and danced around as a framing device for much of the film but when you see Ackie perform it – and then you see pictures of it later – you have to be impressed with Lemmons and her entire below-the-line team, particularly the production designer, Gerald Sullivan.
I Wanna Dance with Somebody was quite a pleasant and pleasurable surprise for someone who dearly loves a well-made musical biopic, but did not think he would find much of interest in such a movie about Whitney Houston. Granted, I thought the same about Elton John before seeing Rocketman and probably the same about Elvis Presley before Elvis, but for me to be even remotely interested in Whitney Houston, her music or career, is a huge credit and testament to both Ms. Ackie and Ms. Lemmons, who clearly put their heart and soul into the project.
Rating: 8/10