Whitney
Synopsis
An in-depth look at the life and music of Whitney Houston.
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Awards & Festivals
Cannes Film Festival
2018 | Midnight Screening
Edinburgh International Film Festival
2018 | Winner: Best Documentary Feature Film
London Critics Circle Film Awards
2019 | Nominee: Documentary of the Year
Sydney Film Festival
2018
Slant
Macdonald dwells overwhelmingly on the maelstrom of Houston’s painful, fraught relationships: to her abusive husband, Bobby Brown; to her suggested gay partner, Robyn Crawford; and to her disciplinarian mother, Cissy Houston. All these troubles seem like falling dominoes to be traced back to a singular source of her demons. Perhaps they can be, but what then of the light?
Josh Wise
July 05, 2018
The A.V. Club
Macdonald suggests that the subject of Whitney was neither the public, show-stopping Whitney nor the private, childish Nippy—just a human being trapped in the sort of roles we believe will ensure the happiness of the people around us and induce our own. That might make her unknowable, but it rings with an almost literary truth.
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
July 05, 2018
MUBI
It has compassion for Houston, but it feels theoretical. The story is presented as sadder and more extraordinary than its subject. ‘Beloved Female Pop Star Struggles with Addiction Under Extreme Public Scrutiny’ is an assembly-line narrative, but Houston’s voice was one of a kind.
Simran Hans
July 11, 2018
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