First Take: I Wanna Dance with Somebody - the alternative to that film about avatars

SYNOPSIS: A joyous, emotional, heartbreaking celebration of the life and music of Whitney Houston, one of the greatest female R&B pop vocalists of all time, tracking her journey from obscurity to musical superstardom.

One of the joys of times like this in the industry is seeing what the distributors use to counterprogram major box office successes. So when Sony realised they’d be up against Avatar, they brought out The Voice and a fully authorised biopic about her, penned by the writer of Bohemian Rhapsody. The result is a fine, if a little bit clunky film.

Kasi Lemmons has the directors chair for this 2 hour 26 minute film, she does a great job keeping this story to this length, but elements of it do drag on slightly at times- saying that, judging by the press for the film, it does look like the Houston estate gave her free reign to tell the story in her way, which is a rarity in these biopics. Anthony McCarten’s script is good, dealing with most of the major moments of Houston’s career, but sadly the 12 certificate limits how much and how deep this exploration of her life can go- this is a high end 12, so not one for the kids to come along to. On a technical level, there isn’t much to fault- Barry Ackroyd’s cinematography is fantastic as ever, and Chanda Dancy’s score supplements a soundtrack featuring every Whitney song you could think of.

Speaking of Whitney, on to the cast we go- and Naomi Ackie nails it. Obviously the vocals on 95% of the songs are the real vocal, but Ackie does a brilliant job embodying Whitney Houston through the years this film covers (1983 to 2012), with talk of awards nominations when Oscar season rolls around very soon. Rounding out the cast is Stanley Tucci as her longtime manager Clive Davis, Ashton Sanders as ex-husband Bobby Brown, alongside Tamara Tunie, Nafessa Williams, Clarke Peters and Dave Heard, and they are all great in this film. 2022 has been a good year for biopics about musicians, and whilst this isn’t the best one of the year, it is still pretty damn good.

THE VERDICT

Powerful, emotional, but suffering with a mixed script and a little bit of pacing issues, I Wanna Dance with Somebody tells Whitney’s story very well for an officially authorised biopic - no stone is left unturned, and the soundtrack alone makes it a proper big screen experience.

RATING: 3.5/5