‘Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ Review: Naomi Ackie Shines in Kasi Lemmons’ Lovingly Made Biopic

 

Among the many winning qualities of Kasi Lemmons’ Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody is that unlike most musical biopics, which tend to hurtle through frustrating fragments of the hits that leave you wanting more, this one serves up many generous performance interludes. It’s fitting that in a portrait of the woman considered the greatest voice of her generation, we hear that voice in all its full-throated glory. The power, self-possession, the joy and even spiritual wealth in every vocal probably has a lot to do with this feeling less like a tragic rise-and-fall saga than a celebration of an enduring icon to whom fame wasn’t always kind.

 

Read the full Hollywood Reporter review HERE.