I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY

"Sing what I want to sing. Be how I want to be. Reach as big an audience as I can. Isn't that what art's meant to do?" - Whitney Houston

Robin Williams once stated, “I do know that I've made a few people happier than they would have been without me.” It is no secret that some of the most talented and treasured personalities in history were dealt a tragic hand. The ‘biopic’ recently emerged as a prevalent award bait film genre in the last two decades and what all of these exposes share is the equation with which they build their narrative: talent + childhood trauma + societal pressure + drugs/alcohol = death. Throw in a couple different transitions, mask the dullness behind a strong lead, and they all produce the exact same movie with one tear-inducing scene, and an entire discography. I Wanna Dance With Somebody proves no different, painting the troubled life of the one and only Whitney Houston. You’d assume difficulty portraying someone so colorful and vibrant as aimless and boring, but somehow director Kassi Lemmons replaced all the flavor Whitney had with a bland Hallmark original that left us hollering for all the wrong reasons.

I Wanna Dance With Somebody highlights the life of Whitney Houston from a humble, church choir upbringing to a drug-riddled end. Whitney’s religious New Jersey beginning forever changes after record producer Clive Davis sees her open her mother’s show. Battling personal relationships with her best friend and lover, Robyn Crawford, her pious mother and her overbearing father mold the voice of a generation. As Whitney skyrockets to stardom after numerous #1 hits, a film career, and accolades galore, she slips into the drug-fueled coping world like many before her. Marital problems and addiction troubles marred her career, but no one can deny the cultural impact and vocal dominance she established. I Wanna Dance highlights all of Whitney’s accomplishments and downfalls, all while vacant of any emotional connection or creative flourish. Laugh, fall asleep, answer the phone when your mom calls halfway through; do whatever it takes to get through this tiresome and flat collection of scenes they call Whitney Houston’s life.

One of Lemmons’ most confusing infractions in the film was the inability to properly convey time. There is a fine line between assuming the audience did their homework and spoon feeding a timeline to them… and boy did the film struggle finding a balance between the two. Epitomizing lazy storytelling when the only indication of passing time is literal date cards throughout. No one aged, no noticeable makeup or editing differences, the only person this happened to was Bobbi Christina and only because they changed actresses. Whether her father’s eventual death, her marriage to Bobby Brown, or her descent into drug addiction, all of these events seemed to happen on the same plane. Everything presented itself without the presence of elapsing time. The film depicted a story that just appears to exist and unfold in a manner that resembled a list of bullet points, and if we wanted an anthology of her life we would just go to Wikipedia.

The biggest travesty this film committed was the overall lifeless soul it put forth. The mundane narrative progression and questionable acting direction could have been looked past as long as Whitney’s presence and connection to the story was felt. Not only was it egregiously missing, but not a single fiber of her effervescent spirit showed through. I Wanna Dance With Somebody exemplifies an unmarinated caricature of the life Whitney lived without any of her charisma. The production design looked like a wanna-be big studio budget but instead gave a hand-me-down with an intern behind the green screen budget. Instead of embodying Whitney, the filmmakers sloppily researched and constructed a basic regurgitation of characters and life events. While each of these aspects had their own accuracies, nothing original or inspiring occurred for the duration of the film.

Recent saturation of the biopic results in heavy lack of individuality- ironic considering the distinctiveness they embodied in order to even have a movie named after them. This rings true premier after premier when an inside look into each of these struggling (predominantly singers) lives screams “I’ve seen this story before.” I Wanna Dance unequivocally falls victim to this, possibly providing the most recycled and generic troubled-artist-ruined-by-drugs-and-fame trope ever witnessed. For a film about the woman called “The Voice,” this one sure couldn’t find it. Bohemian Rhapsody, Rocketman, and last year’s Elvis, all provided a unique perspective and creative angle; at least trying to step out of the box in the story-telling department. Is it a coincidence all of these films are about men? Does Hollywood struggle to artistically portray unique films about women? That’s a can of worms for another time, but the take away from such a stain on Whitney’s name is that she absolutely deserved more than this Lifetime channel movie.

The only redeeming quality that came out of this nightmare was the performance of Naomie Ackie. Was it necessarily a great Whitney Houston impression? No. Was it a great force of acting? Yes. Her prowess could also be attributed to the odd performances of her counterparts. Whether directed to act as such or just squabble that boils down to bad writing, most of her co-stars did not have the stage presence needed to elevate a film such as this. But nonetheless, Ackie demonstrated immense talent to at least salvage a sinking ship.

Respectfully creating a film around the down-fall and trauma of beloved household names in music history emerges as a lucrative sub-genre. I Wanna Dance With Somebody, beholden to the blueprint of biopic premiers before it, corroborates the time in cinema where the biopic has officially become formulaic and predictable. Whitney Houston personified the voice of a generation, and the film named after her had less personality than a wet towel in a cardboard box. Stakes are high, fanbases are vast, many biopics are doomed to scrutiny for the sake of dramatization and creative artistry. I Wanna Dance took no leaps of faith and underutilized any narrative risks. A swing and a miss can be respected–no swings at all is an outright travesty.