By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
“Whitney” Houston broke more music industry records than any other female singer in history. With more than 200 million album sales worldwide, she was the only artist to chart seven consecutive U.S. No. 1 singles.
But who was Whitney Houston, the woman? Where did she come from? And what torpedoed her career and, eventually, her life at age 48 in 2012?
Utilizing never-before-seen home movies, archival footage, and revelatory interviews with those who knew her best, filmmaker Kevin Macdonald strives to unravel the mystery behind “The Voice.”
From the time she sang at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, Whitney was a shy tomboy whom her friends and family called Nippy.
Arista Records’ mogul/mentor Clive Davis recalls hearing Whitney perform for the first time: “You got that spine tingle when you know you’re in the presence of genius.”
Undoubtedly, the most shocking disclosure is that Whitney was a victim of childhood sexual abuse by her cousin, vocalist Dee Dee Warwick, sister of Dionne Warwick. Dee Dee often cared for Whitney and her brothers, Michael and Gary, in East Orange, while their mother, Cissy, worked as a backup singer.
Whitney’s assistant Mary Jones, recalls Whitney saying, “Mommy don’t know the things we went through,” although Michael and Gary speak candidly about procuring drugs for themselves their frustrated, fragile sister as they toured the world together.
Almost dutifully, Kevin Macdonald includes clips with Kevin Costner from “The Bodyguard” and Whitney’s famous rendition of the national anthem at Super Bowl XXV in Tampa.
More compelling is an unflinching segment about Whitney’s only daughter, neglected Bobbi Kristina “Krissy” Brown, who died at age 22, six months after being found unconscious in a bathtub.
Missing from this bio-documentary is Whitney’s long-rumored bisexuality, personified by her alleged lover Robyn Crawford (only glimpsed in archival footage). And Whitney’s ex-husband. R&B star Bobby Brown, and former label boss, L.A., Reid are obviously uncomfortable discussing her cocaine addiction/drug abuse.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Whitney” is a sorrowful 6. Her music endures.
Tony Award-winning theater director Michael Mayer’s (“Spring Awakening”) film adaptation of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov’s classic 1896 “The Seagull” focuses on the summer residents of an idyllic, lakeside estate, located about 50 miles from Moscow.
Annette Bening dazzles as Irina Arkadina, a narcissistic diva who arrives at the country ‘dasha’ of her elderly, ailing brother Sorin (Brian Dennehy), toting the celebrated writer Boris Trigorin (Corey Stoll).
Meanwhile, the hapless schoolteacher Medvedenko (Michael Zegren) pursues the estate manager’s daughter Masha (Elisabeth Moss), an aspiring actress who is in love with the penniless, young playwright Konstantin Treplev (Billy Howle), who desires manipulative Nina Zarechnaya (Saoirse Ronan), a teenage neighbor who fancies Tregorin, who is ostensibly sleeping with Treplev’s elitist mother. Got that?
Plus, there’s Masha’s mother, Paulina Andreyvna (Mare Winningham), and Dr. Dorn (Jon Tenney), who has known these people for many years and serves as a compassionate observer.
A melancholy mood pervades and there’s a suicide attempt, while much vodka is consumed.
The script by Tony Award-winning playwright Stephen Karam rearranges pivotal Chekhov dialogue, diluting and distracting from some of the narrative’s comedic impact, while upping the pace and increasing the tension, which is complemented by the musical score by Nico Muhly and Anton Sanko.
Utilizing natural light, Matthew J. Lloyd’s cinematography is stunning, highlighting Jane Musky’s detailed production design and Ann Roth’s authentic period costumes.
FYI: Esteemed director Sidney Lumet didn’t fare as well with his 1968 screen version, starring Simone Signoret, James Mason and Vanessa Redgrave.
On the Granger Gauge, “The Seagull” is a sultry, sensual 6 — memorable for superb performances.
This exploitative prequel “The First Purge” introduces a NRA-backed third political party, New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA), whose conservative spokesman is President in the dystopian near-future.
Looking for a way to curb out-of-control crime and burn off sociopathic anger, the government adopts a ritual theorized by Dr. May Updale (Marisa Tomei), giving people a ‘free pass’ to do whatever they want for a specified period of time — one night — to inspire lawful behavior during the rest of the year.
Choosing a densely populated, yet easily isolated place — New York’s self-contained Staten Island — this implausible, aggression-releasing ‘experiment’ soon becomes a 12-hour bloodbath.
The protagonists are African-American or Latina, like Dmitri (Y’lan Noel), a skeptical drug kingpin who plans to take cover and stay there, and his onetime girlfriend Nya (Lex Scott Davis), a community activist who is aware that civility is at stake and joins her ‘resistance’ neighbors in church.
Sharing a different view is Nya’s younger brother Isaiah (Jovian Wade), who views the pilot program as an opportunity to settle scores with Skeletor (Rotimi Paul), a psychopathic bully.
To encourage murder and mayhem, the NFFA chief-of-staff Arlo Sabian (Patch Darragh), offers $5,000 to enthusiastic mercenaries, along with contact-lens video-cameras to record their depravity.
Sloppily scripted as an origin story by James DeMonaco and haphazardly directed by Gerard McMurray, it’s the fourth film in the action/horror/thriller franchise that started with “The Purge” (2013), followed by “The Purge: Anarchy” (2014) and “The Purge: Election Year” (2016).
Fanning the publicity fire, Blumhouse Productions’ Jason Blum (“Get Out”) told Variety: “If every time there’s a shooting in the United States, the government’s answer is to put more guns in people’s hands, then what ‘The Purge’ is showing doesn’t seem all that crazy.”
On the Granger Gauge, “The First Purge” is a cynical, satirical 4. And there’s nothing subtle about the poster: a red “Make America Great Again” baseball cap.
(Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
