It seems like yesterday that the news hit the world that Whitney Houston had crossed over, because her music is still very much alive.
The world of pop-music biopics usually focuses on artists who have been dead and gone for a long time, long enough for them to step into the mystical, legendary sector. That’s not the case with the tragic life and death of “the” Whitney Houston.
Under director Kasi Lemmons, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” steps into the rise of Houston with British actress Naomi Ackie in the starring role. Houston’s first album was released in 1985 and her rise to stardom was fast because of her extraordinary voice and the media’s hunger to chronicle her every step.
Ackie hits the nail on the head like a medieval villain. Meaning, she nailed it, channeling the inner wow that made Houston a legend. The audience understands that the actress is lip-syncing, but she brings the diva back to life through all of her songs and her movements with precision.
Lemmons brings her best to the screenplay, written by Anthony McCarten (“Bohemian Rhapsody”). This story paints Houston’s rise and failure with a genuine touch, starting from her gospel church roots and following how her drug addiction started — casual use with her brothers in their middle-class community of East Orange, N.J. The love affair with Robyn Crawford (Nafessa Williams), a relationship that Houston started to hide once she became a bona fide star, is also explored in a sincere and matter-of-fact manner.
Then there are the songs — and the correct decision by director Lemmons to use her real voice throughout the movie, which transforms a basic rise and fall story into something of a triumph. Along with music legend Clive Davis (Stanley Tucci), the Arista mogul with the Midas touch, we are front and center at Sweetwater’s, a New York nightclub where he first heard her voice when her controlling mother, Cissy Houston (Tamara Tunie), was the headliner. When the young singer devours the song “The Greatest Love of All,” it will give you chills. Two weeks later, the young singer is wowing the world on “The Merv Griffin Show,” opening the gate to videos and concert appearances. In the now-classic song “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” her gospel sound smashed against the unbridled joy of pop music and helped shape Houston into one of the greatest female popular singers in the world, stepping into orbit with Aretha Franklin.
Everyone knows that the music industry is brutal. There’s a long, long line of discarded musicians who have been chewed up and spit out. Houston, despite her brilliance, is one such victim. She was tossed into the music industry by her greedy father-manager and forced to hide her loving relationship with Crawford. In that era, being a lesbian or bi-sexual was considered a career killer, so she tosses Crawford out like trash and starts sleeping with men, but she keeps Crawford in her business life as her creative director — a recipe for disaster.
Houston tells anyone who would listen that she wants a husband, but one must ask, with distance giving a better perspective, was Crawford the love of her life? The homophobic world could have crushed Houston, who repressed herself and the traumas that came to devour her later.
Then there’s the loss of an audience segment who accuses her of not “being Black enough” when the real Whitney knows exactly who she is. The images of her on the video, oh, so bright and flirtatious, make her feel deeply alienated.
What’s interesting in this film is how Houston carefully chooses from the songs that Davis presents to her. It was clear that her musical taste was broad, with songs that reflected her inner core. It’s hard to believe in 2023 that this brilliant songstress was ever booed, but it happened in 1988 at the Soul Train Music Awards. The film makes the point that it’s no coincidence that that’s the night she meets Bobby Brown (Ashton Sanders), who quickly hitches his wagon to her rising star.
Houston and Brown have a fatal attraction and she gives him her power in exchange for street credibility, or so she imagined. It’s painful to watch a woman sliding down into addiction. Her lack of self-esteem makes her feel comfortable with Bobby and she wants a home so badly that she ignores his party animal ways. He’s utterly untrustworthy, like her own father, who treats her like an ATM. This woman gets stripped and ripped off, causing her more stress.
“I Wanna Dance With Somebody” is open about Houston’s cocaine addiction and as we watch her being pulled in all directions we feel front and center to the chaos. To Lemmons’s credit, her direction has the necessary intimacy needed to tell the story of a brilliant artist being dismantled. The ending of the film is a stroke of genius, leaving us with the music that made Whitney Houston the legend that she is.
“I Wanna Dance With Somebody” directed by Kasi Lemmons. Screenplay by Anthony McCarten. Starring Naomi Ackie, Stanley Tucci, Nafessa Williams, Tamara Tunie, Clarke Peters, Ashton Sanders and Bria Danielle Singleton.
“I Wanna Dance With Somebody” is now playing.