Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Claire Dunne One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

rollingguinea A documentary film about the life of renowned singer and actress Whitney Houston, the only one to have been filmed with the consent of her family and estate administrator. It's not long ago that one of the greatest history singers who sold nearly 200 million albums died unexpectedly in the hotel room in 2012, the day before the Grammy Awards. Despite the publicly known drug problems, many people then questioned how it was possible that her life was so tragically ending. A new film by award-winning director Kevin Macdonald seeks answers to these questions. Thanks to an exclusive approach to the family archive, the family and the closest collaborators of the singer uncover connections that end up giving the viewer a much more complex picture of the life of the singer in the context of her time. In personal interviews, we learn about previously unknown facts that blend in partially unpublished pictorial material from Whitney's life. It turns out, for example, that Whitney did not bring her husband to the drugs, but came into contact with them much earlier in puberty than her brothers. Her former husband, Bobby Brown, even refuses in the interview that drugs could be related to his wife's death. Her own father, as the accountant of a family 'money machine', robbed her of her earnings, and after he had terminated her co-operation, he was judging her about the $ 100 million she claimed as a reward. The most serious suspicion we learn about two-thirds of the film from a personal assistant singer that Whitney was to be sexually abused by her 18-year-old cousin Dee Dee Warwick (she died in 2008). Whitney's inherent brother personally claims that DD Warwick was a child, apparently at a time when their mother was traveling on a tour (she was accompanying singer Areta Franklin and Elvis Presley), and the five foster families cared for the children. Mother was to learn about the abuse when shooting the film, and the director himself was told two weeks before the filming ended, which completely changed the final form of the film. The film contains many other details and emotional content. Despite of recalling tragical events, the film pays careful tribute to the artist who still holds the record of seven first titles in the American chart.

Jackson Booth-Millard I saw the trailer for this documentary film, I knew I was definitely going to go to the cinema to see it when I was able to, I am a very big fan of the singer, and I was fascinated to see the story of her life, directed by Kevin Macdonald (Touching the Void, The Last King of Scotland, Life in a Day). Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born 9 August 1963, this film depicts the life and career of the American singer and actress, charting her stratospheric rise to fame. The film is made up of archive footage, from Whitney's television appearances, and never-before-seen home video footage from her family and friends, stills from newspaper and magazine articles, and interviews from her family, friends and colleagues. Whitney's family had a history of singing, including her mother Cissy Houston, and she is first cousin of singers Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick. Whitney herself started singing in a gospel choir, then she performed as a soloist in nightclubs, she had a short stint in fashion modelling, before returning to singing and being offered numerous record deals. Whitney turned down many of them, eventually agreeing to sign a contract with Arista Records, headed by Clive Davis, she made her debut television appearance on The Merv Griffin Show in 1985. Her breakout song was "Saving All My Love for You", which went straight to number one in the US and the UK, she followed with other big hits like "How Will I Know" and "The Greatest Love of All". Whitney was fast becoming a superstar, and followed with her second album, which included hits "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)", "Didn't We Almost Have It All", "So Emotional", and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go", she also performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXV at Tampa Stadium. During this time, she met R&B singer Bobby Brown, they married a couple of years later, then she got her opportunity to become an actress, starring alongside Kevin Costner in The Bodyguard, which included the song, her most successful in history, "I Will Always Love You". Of course during this time she was also introduced to drugs, she tried and eventually became addicted alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and pills, and there were many tabloid scandals about the marriage to Bobby Brown, including his various arrests, and reports of him beating Whitney, they divorced in 2007. Whitney did have success with her next albums, including further hits like "It's Not Right But It's Okay" and "My Love Is Your Love", but her behaviour, addictions, many cancelled appearances and tours were causing her career to go downwards. She attempted a comeback, with varied success, but her live performances did not go down well with fans, with her singing being often off-key, she eventually went to rehab, and after returning patched things up with her family, including daughter Bobbi Kristina, and also returned to acting in a remake of Sparkle. Throughout the film, in various archive clips and performances, you can tell that Whitney struggled with her personal demons and addictions, displaying "dishevelled" and "erratic" behaviour, and struggling as a wife and mother. On 11 February 2012, Whitney was found dead in a suite at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, submerged in the bathtub, her death was caused by drowning and the "effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use", she was aged 48. Three years later, her daughter Bobbi Kristina was also found unconscious in a bathtub, she was put into an induced coma, she died in hospice care on 26 July 2015, at the age of 22. With contributions from Bobby Brown, Cissy Houston, Clive Davis, Gary Houston, L.A. Reid, Mary Jones and Kevin Costner. There are things I found out about Whitney I never would have known about, including her bisexuality, and a lesbian relationship with her best friend Robyn Crawford. It is difficult to watch when the footage shows Whitney acting strangely under the influence of drugs, but you cannot deny she was an incredible talent, her singing voice is amazing, and she still holds the records as one of the best-selling music artists of all time, it may be a bit up and down with its editing and approach to particular subjects, but it is a most interesting biographical music documentary. Good!

view_and_review Whitney is a documentary about the beautiful and immensely talented Whitney Houston. I don't think I've seen a documentary yet that I thought was bad. The goal of a documentary is to bring forth information about a person, place, time, or otherwise that you may not have known. That was definitely achieved in this documentary however speculative some of the things may have been.I knew the inevitable ending of this documentary yet I still wasn't prepared. In fact, her death was made even more gut-wrenching after watching an hour of her tremendous ascendancy and another 50 minutes of her downward spiral. And this documentary was especially impactful to me because Whitney Houston was a staple in my house as a kid; it was her, Prince and Michael Jackson, then a little later it was George Michael... now all four are gone.Watching this documentary you will be swelled with emotions as you listen to her amazing pipes as she was tearing up the charts in the 80's. Her voice brings chills and goosebumps it's so incomparable. And from that emotional high you really get dragged down to a supreme low as she is reduced to attempting a comeback tour in the 2000's and her voice is not even a fragment of what it once was; and there would be no comeback, only a passing away. We couldn't even witness a one last hurrah from this singing legend and that was probably the saddest thing of all. I don't even know if I could recommend this documentary because it weighs so heavily upon the heart. You absolutely have to emotionally prepare yourself for this. If you think you can brave this documentary then by all means watch it. I only wish that her life ended differently.

Paul Allaer "Whitney" (2018 release; 120 min.) is a bio-documentary about the life and times of singer Whitney Houston. As the movie opens, we see news clips as her 1985 debut album is storming the charts and making her a mega-star. We then go back to Whitney's humble upbringing in Newark, NJ, and get to know her parents (remember that her mom Cissy Houston was a singer in her own right), and her 2 brothers. Music played a major role in Whitney's life from early on, particularly attending the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark. Her mom did not go easy on Whitney, simply wanting to prepare her for "legacy music", and when Whitney turns 18, she moves out. At this point we're 10 min. into the movie, and you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from Scottish writer-director Kevin Macdonald, who's made several other music documentaries including "Marley" (on Bob Marley) and "Being Mick" (that would be Jagger). Here he brings, with full cooperation of the Houston estate, the life and times of amazing singer Whitney Houston. Because he has full access to footage, we get to see a number of home clips previously unseen (and at times very revealing). Macdonald interviews many people who knew Whitney well or were close to her (as, say, bodyguard). Comments someone: "A lot of people around her saw her like an ATM", wow. Yes, even no-good Bobby Brown gets screen time. When asked to comment on Whitney's drug use in the last years of her life, Brown, without the least of irony or regret, responds "I'm not answering that. Drugs have nothing to do with this documentary". Nice one! In fact the last hour of the documentary detail the sad (and drug-fueled) decline of Whitney. Some of those scenes are heartbreaking, frankly. The parallels between this documentary and the "Amy" documentary a few years ago on Amy Winehouse are pretty obvious: the use of the singer's first name for the documentary's title, the questionable role of the respective dads, the respective "bad" boyfriend/husband, the cringe-inducing last tour (for Whitney in 2009), etc. etc. "Whitney" is strong documentary, no question, but in my view "Amy" was a tad better (perhaps because I like Amy's music better). The talent that Whitney had was undeniable (that voice!), even though some of those 80s songs have not aged well. But the waste of that talent makes the passing of Whitney only sadder."Whitney" premiered at this year's Cannes film festival to great buzz, and opened this weekend in 4 or 5 screens in Greater Cincinnati. The Sunday early evening screening where I saw this at was attended nicely (and primarily by African-Americans I might add). If you are a fan of Whitney Houston, or music history in general, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it in the theater, on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.