Whitney Movie Review

Whitney

After six years, a well thought out documentary on Whitney Houston has been made.  Whitney is an in-depth look at the life and music of Whitney Houston. Through two hours Kevin Macdonald, writer/director, gave an insight of what Whitney was going through throughout her life and career.

The movie opens up with a variety of what was happening during the year 1960s during Whitney’s childhood. Many snapshots and videos showing what her parents had to deal with while raising her and her brothers in Newwark, New Jersey with all the violence and race riots. The film then speeds fast forward to the 1980s where her career really takes off. We see her getting booed at the Soul Awards because the African American community felt she was turning white. Fame was slowing catching up to her. Whitney enjoyed sex and did play around with her sexuality trying to keep it secret to the press until she met R&B artist Bobby Brown. He changed her life for the better and for the worse. 

If you want to see Whitney in hopes of hearing Bobby Brown stating he caused her death then you will be walking out of the movie theatre in disappointment.  The movie shows Bobby Brown not being the one who started her on drugs. Instead, you learn of the family member who did. Now, the movie isn't saying Bobby Brown didn’t help her situation with drugs because he sure did, but there were other factors in her starting drugs.  Throughout the last half of the movie, Bobby Brown got very defensive with the interviewer asking lots of questions about Whitney and the drugs. Also, don't plan on learning much about Bobbi Kristina Brown. The documentary showed how her childhood was not great at all.  It showed how Whitney wasn't a mother to her instead she was more  I was shocked to find out Whitney got Bobbi started on drugs. It talks about how much Bobbi Kristina wanted to shoot her mother because she was so unhappy. 

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There were so many things I learned about Whitney through this documentary. This movie did not feel like two hours. It is very interesting with all the home videos, photos of her life and videos of what was happening throughout that time period.  Whitney shows Whitney’s raw side through behind the scenes home videos and interviews she had throughout her career.

The biggest take away from this movie is what she said during the ABC Interview with Diane Sawyer when Sawyer asked Whitney: “If you have to name the devil for you who what would it be?”

 Whitney replies, “That would be me. It’s my deciding. My heart. Its what I want and what I don’t want. Nobody makes me do anything I don’t want to do. It’s my decision so the biggest devil is me. I am either my best friend or the worst enemy and that is how I have to deal with it.” 

I would really recommend seeing this movie.