Whitney

Compelling documentary; sad and revealing. It presents a fairly balanced view of her life (and untimely death) and doesn't sensationalise her various misfortunes. Worth a look for fans and non-fans alike.

More emotional than I expected

I wasn't a huge fan of Nick Broomfield and Rudi Dolezal's Whitney: Can I Be Me (2017). The film was built on the foundation of never-before-seen backstage footage from Houston's World Tour 1999, but I felt the narrative was poorly constructed, jumping from her divorce from Bobby Brown in 2007 to her death in 2012 with very little detail on what happened in those five years. This had the effect of making the last part of the documentary feel rushed and incomplete. I went into it not knowing a huge amount about Whitney Houston (apart from the obvious bits and pieces that everyone knows), and I came out still not knowing a huge amount about her.

Written and directed by Kevin Macdonald (One Day in September; Touching the Void; Marley), Whitney covers almost identical terrain as Broomfield and Dolezal, with many of the same interviewees appearing in both films, and much of the same factual information presenting itself (Houston tried drugs long before becoming a celebrity; she was criticised as "acting white" and selling out her culture by many black people, and was booed at the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards (where her single "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" was nominated for Best R&B/Urban Contemporary Single - Female"); she was hounded with questions regarding her sexuality for much of her life, etc). One hugely important absence from both films, of course, is Robyn Crawford, Whitney's one time best friend, road manager, and probable lover, who was pretty much the only person in Houston's life who seemed to tell her what was what and have her best interests at heart. Apart from a beautiful obituary for Esquire (on whose editorial staff Crawford's wife works), Crawford has maintained a dignified silence since Houston died, and neither Broomfield and Dolezal nor Macdonald were able to persuade her to speak on camera. This leaves a sizeable lacuna in the narratives of both films, as it is fairly unlikely anyone will really get to the core of who Houston was until (or indeed if) Crawford decides to tell her own story. As a side note, one interesting figure who didn't appear in Can I Be Me, but who does unexpectedly pop up in Whitney is Clive Davis, president of Arista Records, and the man who signed Houston to her first record deal.

For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/tWQ0p

As a child of the 80s, I'm a fan of music from the 70's and the 90s. I mention that to say I was never a fan of Ms Houston's, but have always been fascinated with her as a person and a star, and to that ends the film served me well.

The film focused on her life using family videos and news footage and, like my friends and me, shied away from her performances. (Two notable exceptions were her singing of America's National Anthem at the 1991 Super Bowl and a stirring rendition of 'I Will Always Love You' as the first performer in a post-apartheid South Africa.)

The film is occasionally too long, trying to connect dots between her past and her drug problems -- a link I sometimes found tenuous -- but overall the movie did what it was meant to: offer us a behind the scenes look at a beautiful and talented young woman and the long, beguiling train wreck she engineered.

On the whole a very interesting documentary about the life and death of Whitney Houston. It focuses on her life more than it does career, but I'm sure there will be many alternative documentaries that focus on her career too. I would have liked to have had a bit more interviews with Whitney herself. I feel we know what her family thinks, but not much about what Whitney thinks of her own life.

The interviewer showed himself up by stating: "If we can't talk about drugs that makes it hard to talk about the last years of her life."
I'm not saying that he should have avoided talking about drugs, but if you can only talk about one aspect of somebody's life, even in their declining years, then in my opinion, you're not a good documentary maker.

A decent documentary maker would've talked about drugs to all those who were willing to discuss it, and talk about another subject to the one who wasn't. Therefore it would've been more balanced, and shown a more human side. For we all have many aspects to our lives rather than just one.

On the whole though, it was fairly balanced, and kept my interest throughout and so I've got mixed views about this documentary. I felt it could've been so much better.