The movie stars Yaya DaCosta as Houston, Arlen Escarpeta as Brown and Yolonda Ross as Houston's longtime friend and road manager Robyn Crawford. Whitney received mixed reviews from critics, with praise going to DaCosta's performance as Houston and Bassett's direction of the film but criticism of Escarpeta's casting and the film's accuracy. Whitney is a 2015 American biographical film directed by Angela Bassett based on American recording artist Whitney Houston and her turbulent marriage to R&B artist Bobby Brown that premiered on Lifetime in North America on January 17, 2015. The Lifetime Movie 'Whitney' Carlos Battey, sings 'Every Little Step' as Arlen Escarpeta portrays Bobby Brown in the Biopic of Whitney.
If this movie was really about informing viewers about the late singer: Uh, if there’s a heaven, Whitney is likely cursing up and down it.Whitney Houston Lifetime Movie - Family: She Deserves More Than a TV Movie! Whitney Houston's Family She Deserves More Than a TV Movie! 1:00 AM PT. If the goal was to give Bobby’s side of events: flawless victory. Still, the movie isn’t terrible, but it’s not especially good either. Likewise, Deborah Cox is not Whitney Houston, but she did a superb job singing Whitney Houston’s songs. You’re either going there or you’re not.įor what it’s worth, Yaya DaCosta did a fine job of playing Whitney with the conditions she was given (short notice and a shoddy script). The movie did also teasingly tackle Whitney’s relationship with Robyn Crawford, but it’s the cinematic equivalent of just putting the tip in. But even then, he goes to rehab, tells her business-which gets exploited in the tabloids-and then they make up and we’re left with Whitney on stage, singing “I Will Always Love You.” Toward the end, Bobby downs the vodka, does a line, and cheats on Whitney. In most of those minutes nothing really happened besides those two getting married and Whitney doing cocaine.
A two-hour basic cable movie is about 88 net minutes to tell a story. Which leads me to another problem with the movie: We don’t see much at all really. This, despite the reality that Bobby Brown had been famous since he was a very young teenager as a part of New Edition and netted his own colossal fame as a solo act in the 1980s.Įither way, what we see in Whitney feels unfair to its namesake. In this movie, Bobby was some wide-eyed second tier singer who behaved as if he hadn’t ever been anywhere when he met Whitney. We knew Whitney would cover the first five years of Whitney Houston’s tumultuous relationship with the “Kang of R&B,” Bobby Brown, but none of us were clued into how skewed the narrative would play in Bobby’s favor. Similarly, if you’re going to call the movie Whitney, it should not come across as a project that would’ve been served better had it been called The Miseducation of Bobby Brown. However, a movie about an artist as captivating on and off stage as Whitney Houston deserves more than just passable competence (and that’s being generous). In that respect, Whitney won it is not terrible, and if nothing else, watchable. After the airing of the comically abysmal Aaliyah: Princess of R&B, Lifetime and first-time director Angela Bassett had it pretty easy when it came to their Whitney Houston biopic: just don’t be as awful as that movie and reap the benefits of low expectations.