Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" Movie Review

What’s up guys, I hope you’re all ready to go back to the past for a bit cause we’re going over some pieces of media that circulate around the late 80s singer Whitney Houston. Now, I don’t know if you guys know this because there wasn’t much marketing around for this movie, but a biopic that goes over the life of Whitney came out this past month. But being the nerd I am, I decided to take a step further before going into theatres to check out this movie. I decided to watch a documentary that went over her life because I wanted to see how accurate this biopic was to the true story of Whitney Houston. That being said, I know documentaries aren’t the most accurate at times, but hey at least it gave me something. But then I decided to take it one step further than that and watch the notable movie that she was known for acting in… The Bodyguard. Now, this write-up will be something that just goes over my experience with watching the movies and just give my overall thoughts on the singer.

The Bodyguard (1992)

Before I get into the rest, I just wanted to share my thoughts on her movie, The Bodyguard. Now for those that don’t know, this movie was pretty much released at the peak of her career, having Whitney Houston skyrocket to amazing fame after. While the movie was a huge success at the time, it was the soundtrack for this movie that really shot this production home back when it came out in 1992. Her lead song in the soundtrack, “I Will Always Love You” to this day is a classic song that became the centerpiece of a film that broke walls for movie tropes for its time. So I decided to watch this film… and uh, I’ll be honest. It definitely didn’t age well in terms of plot or acting from anyone other than Kevin Costner. However, I will say it was really neat seeing Whitney Houston in the movie to get a vibe of how she looked and acted at the height of her career. Would I recommend this movie to anyone to watch? Not really unless you’re somehow a Whitney Houston fanatic. After watching this movie, I decided to go ahead and begin watching the documentary.

Whitney (2008)

So it turns out there are a lot of documentaries on Miss Houston. I just did a quick google search to see what was perceived to be the best one and I came across “Whitney”, a documentary that came out in 2008. While I did have some critiques on the overall flow of the movie’s narrative of Whitney, I did think it did a great job of highlighting most of the major pieces of her life. The documentary starts off by talking about Whitney’s background growing up, revolving around her relationships of her mother and singer Cissy Houston, her father whom she put immense trust in that ended up hurting her in the future, her brothers who she grew up with, and her close friend Robyn Crawford. I think it’s through understanding her dynamic with her family that you start seeing the picture of who Whitney Houston is before she made her debut appearance on The Merv Griffin Show in 1983. The documentary also does well in explaining the turbulence that came with Whitney’s fame, having it include her critique from members of the black community that called her whitewashed, her volatile relationship with Bobby Brown, and her responsibilities as a mother while she was reaching more and more fame. Finally, the documentary gives a really sober recollection of the later years of Whitney Houston as she faced difficulties with managing her drug addictions and how it left a sour taste in fans seeing performances such as her appearance in Michael Jackson’s 30th Anniversary Special and her later world tours. This did eventually lead to her going through rehab and coming out clean, but it was short-lived as she passed away from a drug-related drowning a couple of years later.

Now, while I did enjoy the documentary, there were a lot of things I took away from this film. It seems to me that Whitney Houston was an individual that constantly struggled with finding her sense of peace among people who constantly took advantage of her. Her parents did raise her well, yes, but the film notes a lot of issues such as her mother Cissy taking out her frustrations for not being able to be successful as a stand-alone singer on Whitney growing up. Her father, John, gained a lot of trust in Whitney but later took advantage of it by stealing money away from her and eventually try to sue her after he was found out. On top of that, there were rumors of molestation, creating deeper scars in her as she was growing up. Later, Whitney ends up befriending Robyn Crawford, but this fuels tabloid gossip that questioned Whitney’s sexuality for just hanging out with someone she trusted.

Whitney eventually keeps getting more famous and she gets nominated at the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards, but hears jeering and booing from members of the black community that believed she was selling out to make white fans. Now we can see rifts between her and her own community she grew up in. It’s at this time she starts meeting Bobby Brown, and it’s clear that this dude did nothing but make things more drastic. Through Bobby’s envy and addictions, while being around Whitney, the tabloids made sure to highlight the constant fighting and issues that came up between these two. This probably affected her ability to be a proper mother to her child, which only worsens Whitney’s image of herself in and out of her own home. Add this with a drug addiction that helped temporarily ease the frustrations and stress of her own life, and you see the Whitney that the public saw in her later years from 2000 on.

However, on top of all of this, she still broke so many boundaries as a black, female artist in the 80s. She was able to still use her voice to not only create amazing performances that she could look back on with love but also share that love with a worldwide audience that reassured her gift and persona as a female artist that enjoyed having fun on stage. She also broke ceilings in the film industry, being able to create a romance movie that starred a white male lead and a black female lead that contrasted with the norms of the time. I think Whitney Houston was a complicated individual that struggled with the cards she was dealt in life. However, this woman did not give up easily, and there were numerous moments throughout her life that showed how strong this woman could be when it seemed like there weren’t many by her side holding her up.

Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022)

Now, after all, that I said, let’s see how this biopic did. I think if we look at this movie as a standalone film, I think this movie did a great job showcasing the great moments of Whitney Houston. The movie’s cast was amazing, and I really enjoyed seeing Naomi Ackie’s performance as Whitney. I think the soundtrack was perfect, and the team did a great job at picking the significant tracks that helped Whitney get to the fame that she acquired in her lifetime. If I had to give the movie a rating, I would give it a good 8/10, only having a little bit of an issue with the pacing of the movie in the last quarter of the movie.

Now, when we look at the biopic alongside the documentary I saw and with the information I gathered on Whitney before watching the movie, I would give the biopic a 7/10. Once again, I think the movie did a great job at capturing the personality and the great highlights of Whitney’s life, I just don’t think it did an honest job at depicting the dark moments of her life as well. I totally get why, I mean a lot of Whitney’s later years were associated with drug use and trying to recuperate from the struggles of addiction. I think it’s sweet that there was a movie that didn’t choose to talk about those moments most fans would linger on and instead remind everyone why Whitney Houston was amazing for her time. But, after everything that I said about Whitney and her journey in life, I wish this movie sort of took a different approach towards depicting her. We all know that Whitney wasn’t perfect, and we also know that she had many ups and downs in her life. As much as we want to highlight her greatest moments, the media also did a number on pointing out a lot of bad moments Whitney had with the general public in the later 2000s.

That being said, I think this movie had a unique ability to showcase who Whitney Houston was on and off the stage. We can tell from her story that she was an extremely confused individual that struggled a lot with balancing her personal life with fame. The movie should’ve shown that side of her rather than trying to downplay the ugly moments we saw occurring in her life. By portraying an honest picture of who Whitney really was, I think we could’ve had such a great opportunity to see how hard it was for Whitney to be the amazing singer that she was while dealing with what she had offstage. This way, I think fans and general attendees would get a better understanding of why Whitney did what she did in her life, and maybe even give her more props for being such a strong woman in an environment that thrived off of making her feel weak. I’m not upset that the movie didn’t take this direction, but I can’t help but feel like this was a wasted opportunity. I still recommend this movie to anyone that is interested in who Whitney Houston was, and from hearing her music throughout my period of research on her, she’s definitely worth diving into. I’ll list the songs that I personally love from her discography, and with all of that being said, I will catch you guys next time. Thanks for reading.

Favorite Songs:

Saving All My Love for You

How Will I Know

All at Once

Take Good Care of My Heart (with Jermaine Jackson)

Greatest Love of All

Hold Me (with Teddy Pendergrass)

So Emotional

You’re Still My Man

I Wanna Dance with Somebody

So Emotional

You’re Still My Man

I Will Always Love You

One Moment in Time

All the Man That I Need

Million Dollar Bill

I Didn’t Know My Own Strength