THB #285: Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody

One of the craziest mainstream movie experiences of the year for me.

As it turns out, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody is not really like any of the musical biopics we have seen in recent years. In fact, it’s something I have never seen in a major motion picture. It’s a jukebox musical movie.

If you know or care, this is the Pat Houston take on the Whitney Houston story. Pat is her sister-in-law, who is very controversial in some Whitney circles. But her influence means that we get the full lesbian take on Whitney’s history and less blame on Bobby.

In any case, the movie has this weird energy of brilliantly recreating mostly familiar moments of Houston’s life and career… but also not being quite what the real thing was. Naomi Ackie doesn’t quite have the remarkable face of Houston, from those great but not over-pronounced cheekbones to the deep eyes to that giant mouth and those white teeth that makes Julia Roberts seem average. This is not to say that Naomi Ackie isn’t b…