I Wanna Dance With Somebody Review

In recent years there have been many biopics about major musicians. Whitney Houston is the latest musician to get this treatment with I Wanna Dance with Somebody.

I Wanna Dance With Somebody chronicles the life and career of Whitney Houston (Naomi Ackie). During her career Houston became one of the most popular musicians of her time, being called a sellout by certain members of the African American community, having a relationship with Bobby Brown (Ashton Sanders), and battling drug addiction.

I went to see I Wanna Dance with Somebody with someone who was a Whitney Houston fan and she said she enjoyed it. There was a clear appeal because the film played like the greatest hits. The film showed important moments in her career, like recording her music video for “How Will I Know,” singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl, and performing some of her most famous songs. At times I Wanna Dance with Somebody was a crowd pleaser. It was hard not to feel the power of Houston singing at the Super Bowl, especially when the jets fly over the stadium and the performance at the 1994 American Music Awards. Ackie showed she’s an actress on the rise because she gave a terrific performance as the troubled talent.

However, a lot of biopics about musicians tend to have the same narrative. They usually have a naturally talented musician find fame, develop an addiction, have relationship troubles, and sometimes get screwed over by their management. It happened in Bohemian Rhapsody, Rocketman, Respect, and Elvis. I Wanna Dance With Somebody was a more formulaic film like Bohemian Rhapsody and Respect.

I Wanna Dance With Somebody was a film that played it safe. It was safe with its subject matter and direction. I Wanna Dance With Somebody had a conventional approach as it looked at various aspects of Houston’s life and career. The film shows Houston’s origins in gospel, her early hits, her big performances, her relationship troubles, and showed how her management screwed her over. I Wanna Dance With Somebody had a broad approach because it wanted to cover as much story as possible. This resulted in the events in the film feels rushed despite the long run time.

This broad approach led to I Wanna Dance with Somebody having no hook. It tries to cover too much. Other recent musical biopics had a centre of gravity for everything to revolve around. Bohemian Rhapsody focused on Freddie Mercury’s sexuality and his relationship with Mary Austin, whilst Elvis was told from the perspective of Colonel Tom Parker and how he exploited Elvis Presley.

I Wanna Dance With Somebody was told in a conventional way which made it hard to stand out. Rocketman was a full-blown musical, whilst Elvis had Baz Luhrmann’s bombast which helped those films stand out. There were some nice little moments in I Wanna Dance with Somebody like the relationship between Whitney and her mother, Cissy (Tamara Tunie). At times their relationship was testy, Cissy looked out for Whitney and helped her daughter get her big break.

I Wanna Dance With Somebody was made with the authorisation of Houston’s family. Her sister-in-law was a producer on the film. I Wanna Dance With Somebody earned a 12A in the UK. Because of this I Wanna Dance With Somebody was a sanitised version of Whitney’s story, a sanitised story about a woman who struggled with substance abuse. Bohemian Rhapsody and Respect also had this issue where there was a watchful eye of the estate preventing the film from being too dark or critical of the person in question.

I Wanna Dance With Somebody was an overly familiar musical biopic that has the same plot points as other films. There were some nice character moments, strong, performance and excellent musical numbers to help elevate I Wanna Dance with Somebody as a film to appeal to audiences.