Review: Aretha biopic "Respect"
Saturday, August 14, 2021 at 2:12PM by Patrick Ball
The scene is a packed movie theater in Oakland, California on Christmas Day, 2006. The film is Dreamgirls. We’re finishing up the iconic musical number “Listen”, a solid 75-80% into the movie. Beyoncé’s Deena Jones hits the last passionate note and the audience loses it, clapping and hollering, and a woman stands up and screams “You GO, EFFIE!” That was how powerful Jennifer Hudson’s Academy Award winning performance was, that this woman was ascribing every fabulous moment in the movie to her and her character, even when another character/actress was onscreen.
Hudson has had a bumpy road as a film actress since then, but is back in a big way in Respect, the long awaited Aretha Franklin biopic...
The film is directed by acclaimed theater director Liesl Tommy (Tony nominated for 2016’s Eclipsed) in her feature debut, who has rounded out her cast with a stellar collection of stage and music industry stars.
Respect charts the life of music legend Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, who was directly involved in early pre-production before her death at 76 in 2018. It follows Aretha, affectionately called “Re” by her family, from childhood to her record successes, world fame, and eventual return to gospel music. Along the way, it hits the standard biopic road markers of early trauma, marriage woes, and addiction. The screenplay by Tracey Scott Wilson plants a lot of thematic seeds early: Aretha’s lifetime struggle with domineering men, the power of faith, and her struggle to find her identity, but none are developed enough that they feel like balanced pillars to hold up the emotional core of the story. Too much time is devoted to a conventional telling of the plot points that made up the musician's life.
But, in the end this is a movie about the music, right?
And what a catalogue of music it is. Luckily, the one thematic thread that really works is how music is an integral part of Aretha's DNA. How it’s a language for her as much as expression, and how through it, she experiences life. There is a lovely scene early on with young Aretha seated at the piano with her mother Barbara (the always wonderful Audra McDonald) just catching up, talking about how they’re feeling. But to get her daughter to open up, Barbara suggests doing it through song, and as they play and sing and talk you understand that for Aretha, music IS connection. The scenes throughout of Aretha playing, singing, experimenting with, and creating the songs that would come to define a generation are nothing short of thrilling. Particularly, her first big hit “I Never Loved a Man” and of course the title track.
Hudson's performance is an interesting one. Deeply blessed with charisma and an often magnetic screen presence, she has never been particularly gifted with a compelling way with dialogue. But this performance is a patient one, largely eschewing the “big” choices she might have made previously to counter her acting weaknesses. Instead, she goes within, creating a portrait of a “Ree” that is introspective, considerate, and a surprising contrast to the larger than life stage persona we all know and love. Only in the third act, as the film dives into Aretha’s substance abuse issues at the height of her fame, does Tommy allow her to go “big” and it doesn’t work as well. Overall, it’s an impressive return to form though, easily Hudson's best performance in some time, and when she has the mic in her hand she’s transcendent.
Though the standard biopic material is nothing to write home about, the cast does well to fill out the scenes with spark and soul. As younger sister Carolyn, Hailey Kilgore is a joy. The always reliable Marc Maron is fantastic as record producer Jerry Wexler. Only Marlon Wayans, in the thankless role of abusive husband Ted White, struggles. Though he's appealingly cast against type, he isn't able to conjure up the magnetism and chemistry to make us understand why he’d be a tempting choice for her in the first place. Good work is done by Forest Whitaker as Aretha’s father C.L and Mary J. Blige in a cameo as Dinah Washington. The uber-talented Heather Headley is wasted in a semi-anonymous supporting role, though.
Kramer Morgenthau’s cinematography is the other element that lends the film a distinctive air, it’s really lovely and kinetic, the film feels alive, especially during the performance scenes. And the costume, hair, and makeup design should be easy contenders come awards season. Overall, the film could benefit from being a little looser with the narrative, a little messier. On the rare occasions it leans into something surreal or theatrical, it verges on being something truly special, but those moments are far too few. But when the movie leans into the music, into the soul stirring potential of rhythm and blues to lift us up and move us forward, the film (and Hudson) command our r-e-s-p-e-c-t. B
Reader Comments (40)
I'm still not sold on this seems another standard biopic though can't be any worse than Rocketman.
LOL, Mark, considering that Rocketman was exceptional and anything but standard, I'd say your assessment is off.
But to each his own...
I don't know if I want to see this as I heard it only covers a certain period in Franklin's career and then stops as it also follows the bio-pic formula. That's not good enough for the Queen of Soul.
I don't know if I want to see this as I heard it only covers a certain period in Franklin's career and then stops as it also follows the bio-pic formula. That's not good enough for the Queen of Soul.
If Jennifer Hudson doesn't get her Oscar nomination in a still cloudy year - and it's already mid-August - the costumes will. They're stunning.
Based upon some reviews it's better than The United States vs. Billie Holiday, film that gave nomination for Andra Day in the title role this year.
I have to say, "Deeply blessed with charisma and an often magnetic screen presence, she has never been particularly gifted with a compelling way with dialogue" is as tactful a way of saying "She's got personality, but she can't act a lick" as I've ever seen.
My biggest fear about the film is that it takes credit away from the songwriters' contribution to the genius of Aretha. And Marc Maron's interpretation of Jerry Wexler.
Tom Q-- lol. I agree. although I'm not sure that's what Patrick meant.
Patrick -- I am glad you got more out of it than I did. I thought it was so generic and overlong. And I don't think Jennifer was any good outside of the singing.
For those who saw this -- did you buy the film's sudden shift to her "demons"... I just didn't see any investment in that in the performance itself or even in any dialogue apart from other characters saying she had "demons". and then suddenly raging addiction . Very disappointing but the music is good!
Is there a cliche original song tacked on at the end for Oscar chances?
We don’t need another Bohemian Rhapsody. No please.
Nathaniel- No, I totally agree that when it shifted to the “demon drink” period, it was a sharp left turn with basically no build up and that was definitely the weakest section.
Volvagia- No original song at the end! It ended with the real footage from the Carole King Kennedy Center Honors when Aretha drops her fur coat on a high note and I was ready to flip a table if that wasn’t included, so I’m glad they got the end right at least.
I am of the camp that Bohemian Rhapsody was basically an abomination, so this I thought was at least solid. And great to see so many theater faces.
I thought the second song in the closing credits is original song? It's strange because usually the original song is presented when credit rolls but not this time. Anybody knows if it's eligible for original song if it's the second song in the credit?
Anyway, I think this is so mediocre and way too long. I enjoy her singing but otherwise Jennifer Hudson is not good at all which means she will probably be nominated by the Academy... Lol. They really love musical biopics and this is Aretha we are talking about.
Please don't make this 2 Oscars for strong singing for Hudson. Maybe the Oscars should add a category for Best Vocal Acrobatics Performance.
of course, that woman at the dreamgirls screen could have just been an idiot
Well at least she's doing her own singing. No cheating lipsync.
I just can't take musical biopics seriously anymore since Walk Hard.
Jennifer Hudson's Oscar winning performance is underrated. 10/10 for the musical scenes, and at worse 7/10 for dialogue. It's enough for a decent winner. My test is I imagine I don't know any of the competition and heard it was an Oscar winning performance. Am I surprised, shocked, think oh I can see it, or say duh?! She's an oh I can see it.
I sometimes get the impression that she approaches a song as a sequence of sounds.
If I don’t know the song she is singing, I can’t understand the words and don’t know what the song is about.
I personally prefer singers who can wrangle several things at once. Beautiful sound, clear articulation, conveying the story of the song, and making a song specific.
I am not a fan of Hudson win for Dreamgirls and since then she hasn’t done much to change my mind, she’s not an incredible actress that can sing, she’s an incredible singer that is a bland actress, when it’s just dialogue she’s pretty forgettable. Haven’t seen Respect yet so not judging yet but I couldn’t care less wether or not she’s gonna get that Oscar nod.
Rinko Kikuchi (Babel) was robbed.
I don't see Hudson getting the nomination. A Globe for Actress in a Musical would have helped her, but it's not happening this year.
I haven't seen the movie yet but if Audra McDonald and Forest Whitaker are in it, I'm in.
I am not buying this rampant negative chatter about Respect. The numbers show that the audience this weekend was 66% women who awarded a CinemaScore of A to the film. I think the preponderance of male film critics often harm the reception of female driven cinema.
“The word isn’t ‘disheartening,’ it’s ‘infuriating,’” three time Oscar winner Meryl Streep says talking about the way male critics vastly out number female critics. “I submit to you that men and women are not the same. They like different things. Sometimes they like the same things, but their tastes diverge. If the (opinion) is slided so completely to one set of tastes, that drives box office in the U.S., absolutely.”
I do not care for her vocals, too screechy, but I read Mary J. Blige plays Dinah Washington in it, whom I love. Dinah story could be fascinating, married 7 times!, beautiful voice and singing, died at only 39; Whitney Houston (Goddaughter of Aretha), voice of an Angel, biography with great potential, also passed tragically at 48.
Even though she received an Oscar for Dreamgirls, it happens that JHudson couldn't hold a candle to the performance given by Jennifer Holiday. (Before my time, but judging by the Youtube clips, there can tell what that performance was orignally like). Just the same, I don't think that JHudson could win a battle of the bands if the real Aretha walked onstage....
"B" seems just right and you point out the highlights quite thoroughly.
I've never seen an biopic that didn't follow this formula so i will discount the complaining about it. Second people complaining about the length of the film then say its doesn't delve enough into Aretha Franklin's backstory. You can't have both ways. Trust and believe if Aretha wanted Jennifer to play her there was a good reason. I will grade this film a solid B+.
Let's just focus our energies on Berry and Matlin this season to spite Goop.
There's most certainly an original song! It's called "Here I Am (Finding My Way Home)," co-written by Jennifer Hudson and Carole King. The song is a hot mess, but that iconic pairing alone will likely give the song a bunch of traction moving forward, for obvious reasons. I've already read a huge Variery feature article on it! The question is if it's eligible as the second end credits song instead of the required first. It could be an easy nod lost for a film that will need the padded tech nods to support Hudson, like costumes and makeup/hairstyling. End credits songs shouldn't be eligible at this point anyway over songs actually used in films, but that's for another discussion.
I win.
James -- this seems really disrespectful to women to suggest that they will like it just because it's about a famous woman. The filmmaking is some of the most generic i've ever seen. I wanted to like the movie (and though i am a male critic i prefer movies about women) but it is *not* well made and the acting is only so-so.
This is so disappointing. I was really hoping this would be good. I was rooting for Hudson to come through. It's a part that seems tailor-made for her, and she's such a terrific singer. I guess the Oscar nod ain't happening. At least it sounds like the musical segments are well-done.
While the movie also gets a B from me, J-Hud's Aretha is miles ahead of Erivo's soulless interpretation. If Zellweger can snag the Oscar for her plodding, uninspired performance in Judy, surely J-Hud can at least secure a nomination.
The audience at my Christmas showing of "Dreamgirls" actually stood up and applauded. I've never seen anything like it. in a movie theater. She earned her Oscar for that alone. When she connects, she connects.
I'm still not over the fact that JHud wore flats during her performance of "And I'm telling you I'm not going."
A new piece in VF makes a valiant plea for the film despite the slew of lukewarm reviews.
M--they're not as glamorous or dramatic, but flats are definitely more thematically correct if she is really not going. LOL
Hee Hee!!
Effie was also nauseous and pregnant in that scene, so maybe she wasn't quite up for wearing six-inch stilettos that night.