Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody

WHITNEY HOUSTON: I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY is like the SparkNotes of [Houston's] life, a smattering of collected moments that feel hollow.

It is a celebration of her too-short, spectacular career but it does not ignore her drug use, her sexual relationship with Crawford, her tempestuous marriage, and her concert disasters.

I Wanna Dance with Somebody plays by the rules of the TV movie to efficient, if scarcely groundbreaking, effect. It will change no minds about Whitney Houston.

Instead of utilizing the biopic genre to reveal Houston’s deeper emotionality, experiences, and relationships, the movie often feels as though one is merely watching characters walk through a summary of her major live events

This doggedly formulaic picture struggles to capture even a fraction of the electrifying sparkle of Houston at the peak of her powers.

Naomi Ackie acts and lip-synchs her heart out as the longbird legend, but Whitney deserved a much better movie than this patchwork, cobbled-together biopic that barely skims the professional highs and personal lows that made up her tragically short life.

It's miraculous that a movie penned by the screenwriter of Bohemian Rhapsody would be worth watching, but Kasi Lemmons continues to prove she is a highly versatile filmmaker/actor whose imprint on cinema will be felt for decades to come.

It wasn’t gay enough, but that it was gay at all gives me hope we’ll get this part of her story done right some day.

I Wanna Dance with Somebody is a disservice to the memory of Whitney Houston. Make a playlist, watch videos, dance to her music. That’s a better way to remember her.

“Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody” has broad, nostalgic appeal – because who doesn’t want to take a break and listen to Whitney’s greatest hits for two-plus hours with period-perfect re-creations of music videos and performances?