I’m raving about Whitney Houston’s biopic “I Wanna Dance With Somebody!”
December 29, 2023
Current time of day: Night Owl status, 10:30 pm
The biopic interpretation “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” based on the life and career of "The Voice," Whitney Houston was everything! I went to see it the day after Christmas with some family and we thoroughly enjoy it.
It gave us gorgeous film aesthetics, beautiful dupe costumes and grand set design all around a mini concert of Whitney's most loved music and performances.
Car self while waiting for my sister & cousins to arrive at the movie theater. I love these tinted Lorvae shades that my sister gifted me!
The leading actress, Naomi Ackie hit all the lip synced notes, lbvs and the supporting cast really helped highlight how Nippy’s (Whitney’s nickname) most personal relationships lifted her up during her rise to stardom and how they contributed to her downfall of addiction, hope for recovery and ultimately accidental drug related death.
Her closest relationship storylines were developed in a light that gave us a more complete depiction of who and how they influenced Whitney's choices, unlike in the Lifetime biopic interpretation "Whitney" which headlined her toxic relationship with singer Bobby Brown. This storyline included her relationship to music noting her musical knowledge, her process for choosing the music she sang and how her gifted voice was also a factor in her drug abuse.
Whitney, like many of us, dealt with feelings of inadequacy that I saw a her having a sort of negative relationship with her voice and its abilities. In a later scene where Clive Davis, her record executive, expresses concern for Whitney’s well being so much as causing him meddle in the personal life of his artist by trying to convince her to go to rehab, she says something along the line of “to sing with the Gods, you need a ladder” as if her natural born gifted voice wasn't already so high up with the gods that she was truly untouchable. She thought the drugs gave her talent a boost, which it was doing the opposite and everyone could see it but her.
I really enjoyed the way the film wove together Whitney's personal life at the making of each hit, how she made the music and how the it made her. The sequences of reenacted music videos, concerts and rehearsals really was the icing on the cake of a biography picture for me! It gave moments of joy in between the hardships of having to change her appearance and the nature of her relationships to gain a following to being taken advantage of by family for solely for money.
"The Voice’s" real cataloged recordings were used, which I thought would make it difficult to lip sync over realistically but Naomi Ackie really got dressed and pulled for this role! She made it look as effortlessly as the greatest to ever do it, Ms. Whitney Houston herself! She brought such an amazing impersonation of Whitney's energy both off and on-stage. I say if you want to see this film, don't listen to the critics and go see and feel it for yourself.
Ranting & Raving Rating: 5 Stars!
