Whitney

2018

Action / Biography / Documentary / Drama / Music

30
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh88%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright75%
IMDb Rating7.3107413

biographysingercelebrityfame

Plot summary


Uploaded by: FREEMAN

Top cast

Kevin Costner Photo
Kevin Costner as Himself
Eddie Murphy Photo
Eddie Murphy as Self
Carmen Ejogo Photo
Carmen Ejogo as Self
Jane Fonda Photo
Jane Fonda as Herself
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
1000.4 MB
1280*682
English 2.0
R
23.976 fps
2 hr 0 min
P/S 2 / 2
1.9 GB
1920*1024
English 2.0
R
23.976 fps
2 hr 0 min
P/S 2 / 4

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by kosmasp9 / 10

Houston, you've got a problem

Or to be more exact "had" a problem. And to be even more truthful, she had more than one. She had quite a few demons. And quite a lot of them get uncovered. This really goes in depth. You should be able to understand what she was like, how she felt and what it was like to be her. She had a lot to endure and she was quite insecure, which makes her really human.

And I guess everyone and their kids get interviewed for this too. Not all answer every question (Bobby Brown looking at you),but even those non answers are telling. Especially because they get undercut with family footage or something to underline a point. Still you as a viewer while getting the whole picture, you are left to assemble everything you get fed and make something of it.

Very neatly cut together and pieced together, with no stone unturned. You need everything not just the good things she did. While I never was a big fan of the "I will always love you" sond (and I think I'm not alone with that sentiment),I know get it more than way back when it came out. And while I also made fun of it (as many others),I hate how some people treated her personally and which is not just coined at her but different other celebrities too. She had feelings and she cared more than she should have about overall opinions and criticism (not objective critic that is).

Great documentary - even if you weren't a fan, there is so much to discover here

Reviewed by jboothmillard6 / 10

Whitney

I saw the trailer for this documentary film, I knew I was definitely going to go to the cinema to see it when I was able to, I am a very big fan of the singer, and I was fascinated to see the story of her life, directed by Kevin Macdonald (Touching the Void, The Last King of Scotland, Life in a Day). Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born 9 August 1963, this film depicts the life and career of the American singer and actress, charting her stratospheric rise to fame. The film is made up of archive footage, from Whitney's television appearances, and never-before-seen home video footage from her family and friends, stills from newspaper and magazine articles, and interviews from her family, friends and colleagues. Whitney's family had a history of singing, including her mother Cissy Houston, and she is first cousin of singers Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick. Whitney herself started singing in a gospel choir, then she performed as a soloist in nightclubs, she had a short stint in fashion modelling, before returning to singing and being offered numerous record deals. Whitney turned down many of them, eventually agreeing to sign a contract with Arista Records, headed by Clive Davis, she made her debut television appearance on The Merv Griffin Show in 1985. Her breakout song was "Saving All My Love for You", which went straight to number one in the US and the UK, she followed with other big hits like "How Will I Know" and "The Greatest Love of All". Whitney was fast becoming a superstar, and followed with her second album, which included hits "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)", "Didn't We Almost Have It All", "So Emotional", and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go", she also performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXV at Tampa Stadium. During this time, she met R&B singer Bobby Brown, they married a couple of years later, then she got her opportunity to become an actress, starring alongside Kevin Costner in The Bodyguard, which included the song, her most successful in history, "I Will Always Love You". Of course during this time she was also introduced to drugs, she tried and eventually became addicted alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and pills, and there were many tabloid scandals about the marriage to Bobby Brown, including his various arrests, and reports of him beating Whitney, they divorced in 2007. Whitney did have success with her next albums, including further hits like "It's Not Right But It's Okay" and "My Love Is Your Love", but her behaviour, addictions, many cancelled appearances and tours were causing her career to go downwards. She attempted a comeback, with varied success, but her live performances did not go down well with fans, with her singing being often off-key, she eventually went to rehab, and after returning patched things up with her family, including daughter Bobbi Kristina, and also returned to acting in a remake of Sparkle. Throughout the film, in various archive clips and performances, you can tell that Whitney struggled with her personal demons and addictions, displaying "dishevelled" and "erratic" behaviour, and struggling as a wife and mother. On 11 February 2012, Whitney was found dead in a suite at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, submerged in the bathtub, her death was caused by drowning and the "effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use", she was aged 48. Three years later, her daughter Bobbi Kristina was also found unconscious in a bathtub, she was put into an induced coma, she died in hospice care on 26 July 2015, at the age of 22. With contributions from Bobby Brown, Cissy Houston, Clive Davis, Gary Houston, L.A. Reid, Mary Jones and Kevin Costner. There are things I found out about Whitney I never would have known about, including her bisexuality, and a lesbian relationship with her best friend Robyn Crawford. It is difficult to watch when the footage shows Whitney acting strangely under the influence of drugs, but you cannot deny she was an incredible talent, her singing voice is amazing, and she still holds the records as one of the best-selling music artists of all time, it may be a bit up and down with its editing and approach to particular subjects, but it is a most interesting biographical music documentary. Good!

Reviewed by Quinoa19847 / 10

one of Patrick Bateman's heroes!

Just kidding!

This is quite good, better than your average Behind the Music episode due to the access to the interviewees and how much they opened up - McDonald is also solid as an interviewer and makes sure to ask follow up questions much as possible - and there are many candid home video clips of Houston that add to the subject matter (the best being a bit where she decries Paula Abdul but not before her mother Cissy shittalks Janet Jackson).

McDonald and his editors take pop culture and politics and make damn sure through montage to compare and contrast in literally smashing pieces together that Houston's music couldn't be disentangled from the times they were in. How she became so monumentally successful? What was the world she was in? Somehow only she could pull off the Star Spangled Banner as a black woman to such a way everyone else since aspires to that.

Downsides: it has the predictable arc due to knowing a pop stars history, but the tragedy here is that there were so many who were there for Whitney and she succumbed to her addictions.

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