In the closing credits of Sony’s new biopic Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Someone, a series of summaries are used to close out the film, calling her on-screen “the greatest voice of her generation”.
Houston had a voice like no other.
Thus, 22 songs in the 144-minute film were sung by Whitney herself, and the filmmakers obtained the original recordings of her hits, remixed them, and made them sound as breathtaking in the movie theater as they would on a car stereo. It’s appropriate that it sounds like .
Houston died in 2012 at the age of 48.
Her death was ruled to be accidental drowning, and heart disease and cocaine use were thought to be contributing factors.
It was a sad end to the life of a pioneering singer who was one of the best-selling and most awarded recording artists of all time.
And the strength of Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody lies in its music.
Her voice sings classics like Greatest Love of All, Where Do Broken Hearts Go, Saving All My Love, How Will I Know, I Will Always Love You, I’m Every Woman and I’m Your Baby Tonight. I hear you there. Of course, I Wanna Dance with Somebody.
Directed by Kasi Lemmons and written by Academy Award-nominated Anthony McCarten, the film was also produced by legendary music executive Clive Davis.
Davis’ relationship with Houston is given great importance in the film, as is his romantic relationship with best friend Robin Crawford (Nafessa Williams).
Whitney is played by BAFTA Award-winning British actor Naomi Ackie.
Ackie had to step up at a time when Starr’s recordings didn’t exist — it’s her voice that can be heard singing songs like Guide Me, Oh My Great Jehovah It’s a reminder that she had an extraordinary musical talent.
A dialect coach and a trained speech pathologist helped Ackie better express Houston’s speaking voice.
This movie has some weird moments.
Having movie footage superimposed on actual clips of Kevin Costner and Oprah Winfrey feels jarring.
Houston didn’t write her songs, and Dolly Parton is definitely collecting royalty checks for her performance of I Will Always Love You.
But the way she interpreted the classic songs she and Davis chose was second to none.
The film doesn’t shy away from difficult topics, such as the criticism Houston faced from some in the black community who felt they weren’t “black enough.”
But in this edited excerpt of hip-hop and hymns published in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age’s Good Weekend, as a black girl raised in rural Australia, I see how her blackness means to me. I am writing about what makes sense.
The movie also has a scene where people capitalize on Houston’s success.
The millions of dollars she earned were spent by others, so when headlines questioned whether she lost the voice that made her so special due to substance abuse, she toured. continued.
The film also highlights that Whitney was around drugs long before she married singer Bobby Brown in 1992.
The film was released on Boxing Day in Australia to a limited audience on Christmas Day, but then it was Christmas.
It grossed $5.3 million ($7.8 million) at the weekend’s North American box office, lagging far behind Avatar: Water Path and Puss in Boots: Last Wish, but outperformed by Margot Robbie. surpassed Babylon. Brad Pitt.
Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody is in cinemas now