Great watch, the end credits actually made my eyes a little watery. (ok, I cryed) hope your happy.
Started out slow but ended up being a superb movie. Rest In Peace Ms. Franklin aka The Queen :princess_tone3: of Soul. Thank you :pray_tone4:
A surprisingly nice movie. Loved the multiple recording studio bits!
Conventional biopic that tells the story of Aretha Franklin leaning on the men around her. This male representation, even if it's to build them as villains, overshadows the protagonist so much that she cannot define herself (as Tina Turner always unfairly has the shadow of Ike Turner). The character is so despised that her depressions and addictions are whitewashed, despite leaving great anthems of feminine power. The script leaves few possibilities for Jennifer Hudson to build her character, in the first part because of this overexposure of the male figures, and in the second part because it seems that they only need her to imitate the voice of Aretha Franklin in the songs. Which is a shame, because when she plays the young lead there are flashes of acting talent.
This story would've been told much better if it was rated r
A respectful film to be sure but I would have appreciated something deeper and a little more incisive.
It feels like a Lifetime movie at moments. the scenes where she's at the studio working on the songs are the best. And the ending is touching.
These reenactments from Aretha Franklin's Wiki page focus on all the standard biopic staples (men abuse her, she abuses substances), though Jennifer Hudson's singing was so good it made me want to watch the original videos.
Respect is a greatest hits album by a great cover band, but I enjoyed the credits (where they showed actual photos of Aretha and her performance of "Natural Woman" when the Kennedy Center honored Carole King) more than any other part of the film.
A defining voice of a generation portrayed by a superlative voice from this generation. I can't even imagine how difficult it was for Jennifer Hudson to so precisely capture the stylings of Aretha Franklin. Beautiful artistry. The music of this film is transporting. Stellar casting, all round. I can never say enough about Forest Whitaker's talent. Aretha walked among the giants of her time, musically, politically and socially, and this film captures that sweep. (I had no idea she had been so tied to the social movements of her time.) I admire the writers’ desire to respect Aretha's scope of talent from childhood to her latter years and all the complexities of her life, but the film is 2 hours and 25 minutes long, and I find it was dragging and labouring by it's end (although the fusion to Aretha live performance at the Kennedy Honours' celebration of Carole King as the credits roll is still floating through my head). It is a story worth telling and a worthy tribute, and my friend who saw the movie with me gave it a 9 out of 10, but one of my criteria for rating of 8 or above is whether I would see it again. So, I give this film a 7.9 (very good) out of 10. [BioPic]
Review by mauricio/mauriceBlockedParent2021-12-18T17:31:01Z
classic biopic that didn't work out so well
- in terms of acting, Jennifer is sensational as Aretha and, in fact, no one could do better than her! the songs were impeccable in her voice
- the real problem is the construction of the film that doesn't have the slightest creativity to explore or even develop certain parts of the singer's life and then falls into the same kind of classic biopic we've seen (Judy (2019), Bohemian ( 2018) etc....)
- we have the classic proposal of: CHILDHOOD + RISE + SOME TURBULENT TRAUMA (here represented by alcoholism) + BEGINNING OF THE FALL + REDEMPTION (which here is with ‘’Amazing Grace'')
- in this, several parts of the story are just played to the viewer without the slightest development or explanation, which only proves the interest in making a biopic that brings together only the ''best moments'' of Aretha's life and focus the whole story on central protagonist, leaving the secondary characters with no story or contextualization
- here's my big problem: a story with SUPER potential, but which is weakened by being the same structure of biographical films that already exist, THAT MAKES ME LAZY
- apart from the MULTIPLE time cuts that come and go VERY FAST just to show you the best parts of her life, again! this in itself is not a problem, however, as there are many time cuts, everything is without any context.
- and again, what manages to hold the attention is just Jennifer as Aretha (and all the songs), because the movie is 2:20 am or so, and it always keeps making cuts between the years of life and it stops there!
- good movie, but very damaged