Netflix: Beauty is a failed tribute to Whitney Houston

beauty (US / 2022). Tabuk: Andrew Dosunmo. script: Lena Waithe. Photography: Benoit Dalum. Version: Oriana Sudou. Music: Philip Miller. spit: Nessie Nash, Alice Shannon, Giancarlo Esposito, Gracie Marie Bradley, Sharon Stone, Kyle Barry, James Urbaniac. Available in: Netflix. We saw: Normal.

Few stories are lost like a story beauty, Andrew Dosunmo, with screenplay by Lena White (master of nothingThe Chi, Queen & Slim), It starts from a promising base and derails with amazing speed. Grace Marie Bradley She plays Beauty, a young singer who maintains a hidden relationship with another woman, Jasmine (Elise Shannon), Because of the conservative nature of his family. In addition to her pent-up desire to be able to live her relationship freely with the woman she loves, the heroine has another desire that develops in parallel and is also linked to the imposition of a family: to succeed in the world of music with what others have described as “a voice that came from another world.”

The first problem beauty, Already available in Netflix After passing through the Tribeca Film Festival, he’s the one who hurts the whole shot: Bradley doesn’t sing in any part of the movie. When he does, his voice is covered in the soundtrack of Philip Miller or those of great music legends. This way, l The biographical structure that the film takes (Beauty’s beginnings in 1980s New Jersey, her struggle to carve out a place among the divas of the moment, and her eventual rise to fame) The most important missing piece: nothing short of seeing the young woman translate a song so that there is a “hook” as suggested.

Instead, Waithe’s failed scenario leaves beauty to be defined by others, as if building an expectation to hear that voice once in every generation, and then not present it. Through this trick Waithe not only underestimates the viewer, but also takes Dosunmu’s film to a stage from which he never leaves. The fourth time we were told that Beauty’s talent was indisputable, he had already lost interest, And it doesn’t help that the hero’s full cycle is full of public spaces.

In this sense we have a tyrannical father who wants to take advantage of his daughter’s money (Giancarlo Esposito, who does his best with the weak text given to him); For the mother who forces her daughter to stay away from the woman she loves so that her career will not be damaged (Niecy Nash, the only translator who walks out of the movie with flying colors); And the rep who asks Beauty how she should build her career (Sharon Stone, lose).

With all those doors open, The film struggles to find space to develop the relationship between the singer and her partner, one thing that could have been attractive, especially considering that the script was openly done by Whitty, the writer and director. Like me, It begins by outlining the romantic bond between beauty and jasmine. At this point, the movie plays a role Kind of an informal CV Whitney HoustonAnd the With too many similarities to the deceased singer to ignore that tribute was sought for her.

The relationship between Beauty and Jasmine seeks to be a mirror of that the singer had with her assistant Robyn Crawford, and the mother figure is reminiscent of that of Houston’s mother herself, who was also a singer and inspired her daughter to follow her own path among other similarities. Along the same lines, Since we don’t hear Beauty sing, the director has included stock footage of mega performers like Donna Summer, Judy Garland, and Aretha Franklin, among others. Thus, we understand that beauty He had no clear direction. It’s not an LGBTQ+ love story, not a worthy tribute to Houston, and not a feature film that moves despite all the ordeals the protagonist faces. All that magic we initially promised evaporates like the voice of Gracie Mary Bradley.

when do you see it beauty Now available on Netflix.