Review: "Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody" Is a Lovable Mess

By: Christopher James

No one loves their cliches more than the biopic genre. However, no music biopic has blown through every cliche with such quick and reckless abandon as Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody. That’s not necessarily an insult.

Few pop culture icons loom as large as Whitney Houston, “The Voice,” who holds the record for seven consecutive number one singles atop the Billboard Top 100. By virtue of also being a modern celebrity, most people have some concept of Houston. Thus, the biopic spends less time educating people on who Whitney Houston is. In fact, it’s a crash course through her Wikipedia. Unfortunately, it misses out on her soul and motivation - what drove Whitney Houston from the biggest star in the world to death at 48?

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The Joys and Struggles of Making "The Woman King"

by Patrick Ball

Gina Prince-Bythewood in conversation with Kasi Lemmons. Photo: Patrick Ball

This week Sony Pictures held a Downtown Manhattan screening for their awards contender The Woman King, at the Roxy Cinema. With its handsome below-the-line offerings and the true actor/producer star wattage of Viola Davis behind it, The Woman King looks to be one of Sony’s top contenders as we head into the intense first phase of Award Season. With the critics groups beginning to announce, and many major awards bodies entering their voting periods ahead of nominations, now is the time to grab the metaphorical crown, as it were...

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1997: Debbi Morgan in "Eve's Bayou"

We're revisiting the 1997 film year in the lead up to the next Supporting Actress Smackdown. As always Nick Taylor will suggest a few alternatives to Oscar's ballot.

You’d be forgiven for not immediately lingering on Mozelle Batiste Delacroix. When we first meet her she’s one of several dozen luminous, handsomely dressed and manicured faces floating around a party at the home of the Batiste family in 1960’s Louisiana. Mozelle’s very first scene, giggling with her sister about some poor woman’s teeth before they’re interrupted, is largely dominated by other actors, and she doesn't mind sitting back and enjoying her niece and nephew’s shenanigans.

There’s also a lot of stuff happening around her. Not just the laying-out of key figures and relationships but the very nature of Eve’s Bayou as a memory play...

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The Honoraries: Samuel L. Jackson in "Eve's Bayou"

We're celebrating each of the upcoming Honorary Oscar winners with a few pieces on their careers.

by Cláudio Alves 

Previously in the "Honoraries" miniseries, Ben Miller and Lynn Lee looked at Samuel L. Jackson's work in two provocative indies, exploring the actor's innate intensity. Craig Brewer's Black Snake Moan reveals Jackson as a bluesman inflamed by spiritual purpose, while Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction saw him play a hitman and resulted in the actor's only Oscar nomination. It should have also resulted in a victory, but that's a matter for another day, another article. This time, I shall investigate the complexities of his turn in Kasi Lemmons's Eve's Bayou. The director's debut feature was a passion project for many people involved, including Jackson, who also produced.

Such investment, such devotion, may be at the heart of his achievement. Not only is Eve's Bayou a masterpiece of 1990s American cinema, it also features one of Jackson's best performances…

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Horror Actressing: Kasi Lemmons in "Candyman"

by Jason Adams

We don't talk enough about Kasi Lemmons, the actress. Maybe it's because she proved herself an absolutely terrific director in 1997 with the wildly underrated Eve's Bayou -- and she's got the Harriet bio-pic with Cynthia Erivo coming out in November -- and maybe it's because Hollywood, per their usual routine when it comes to too many black actresses, never gave her a truly great role to play with. But she's got a two-fer in the early 90s as "the best friend" in seminal horror films that she really managed to inject a lot of life into.

The most prominent one is obviously The Silence of the Lambs, where Kasi played Jodie Foster's fellow FBI recruit and friend Cordelia -- the film doesn't have much time for her but she proves a capable ally to Clarice, and as with any actress Jodie ever co-starred with the two of them had way more chemistry than with any man on the premises...

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