I Wanna Dance with Somebody

I Wanna Dance with Somebody 2022

• Director: Kasi Lemmons
• Seen by this director: The Caveman’s Valentine
• Based on book: no
• Cast: Naomi Ackie, Stanley Tucci, Ashton Sanders, Tamara Tunie, Nafessa Williams, Clarke Peters
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Naomi Ackie – Lady M, Doctor Who
• Stanley Tucci – many, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• Ashton Sanders – Judas and the Black Messiah, Moonlight
• Tamara Tunie – The Caveman’s Valentine
• Nafessa Williams – Black and Blue
• Clarke Peters – Three Billboards outside Ebbing Missouri, London Spy, John Wick, The Wire, Notting Hill, Mona Lisa
• Why? Music
• Seen: 31 December 2023

             Whitney Houston has never been a great favourite of mine nor have most power ballads but she certainly had a voice. Naomi Ackie does it justice.

       It’s a decent biopic. I knew about some of it, of course. She was a superstar and much of her life was big in the media. I didn’t know that many blacks held her in contempt because she was ‘too white’, or that she lived many years in a gay relationship with Robyn Crawford (Williams) which didn’t always sit well with husband Bobby Brown (Sanders), that her father (Peters) tyrannised her and mismanaged her fortune.

       It’s a bit by-the-number about the rise and fall of but it’s worth watching.

 3* of 5