Film Review: ‘Whitney’

With ‘Whitney,’ one of the most adored and complex singers in history is given a documentary worthy of her talent.

One of the many nicknames that Whitney Houston earned during her tragically short career was “The Voice,” and the film Whitney seems to take that name to heart. It is a simple trick, but many times throughout the movie you will hear one song being sung by Houston, but a completely different song will be performed on screen. It seems inconsequential, but in one moment you can see just how much Whitney Houston would do. Her physicality on stage, her incomparable voice, the sly smile that she shoots… all of it building to create one of the best singers in decades.

In much the same way, Whitney performs tricks of its own that make it more than a simple hagiography of the subject. The film is pretty warts-and-all about Houston’s story, from the drug addiction to highs and lows of her career and more. A late-in-the-film revelation about Houston’s childhood is the only bit of her life that you couldn’t read now on her Wikipedia page, but in the end, this is less about learning who one of the biggest tabloid stars in history was. Instead, it is about examining her impact on the rest of the world, as well as on the people that were in her life at the time.

Interviews with family members and close friends from childhood and coworkers in her later career all provide unique looks at who Whitney was to those who knew her. Whitney performs a number of the same tricks as last year’s documentary Casting JonBenet, including addressing the historical significance of each era of Houston’s life (music videos are recut with images of historical violence and protests to powerful effect) as well as making you see Houston through the opinions of others instead of just the identity she put on stage. Documentaries about musicians have been a staple for the last number of years, with films like Amy, 20 Feet from Stardom, and Searching for Sugar Man each winning Oscars in the past ten years. But Whitney still manages to separate itself from the mix, becoming as much about those being interviewed as about the subject herself.

Beyond all of this, the music rules all. Houston’s performances manage to provide a deeper and deeper look into her character, and when songs by her are returned to every so often, it just adds to the impact. Houston’s first performance on TV is used a few times throughout the film, each time making for a deeper and deeper resonance. It is a trick of editing that works remarkably well.

Whitney doesn’t really do anything new with the documentary concept, and it at times seems more concerned with making the audience feel bad about laughing at Houston years ago. But in the end, Whitney is a feat of how to tell a story that you have heard dozens of times. Adding nuance to a story that demands it, it works to make you want to listen to hours and hours of Houston music for hours after.

‘Whitney’ premieres in theaters everywhere July 6th