Variety Picks New Whitney Houston Biopic as One of the Best Films of 2022

Manila, Philippines--Variety, a premier source of entertainment news, has picked "I Wanna Dance with Somebody," a biographical musical film based on the life of the late Whitney Houston, one of this year's Top 10 Best Films.

Variety's Owen Gleiberman writes, the film is "the kind of lavish impassioned all-stops-out-pop-music biopic you either give in or don't--and if you do, you may find yourself getting so emotional, baby."

Of note, the writer singles out the lead actress Naomi Ackie's portrayal of the pop music icon: "As Whitney Houston, Naomi Ackie is far from the singer's physical double, yet she nails the hard part: channeling her incandescence."

The film's director, Kasi Lemmons, is also cited for creating "a portrait of Houston's dilemmas and demons that's bracingly authentic, from the drugs to the family backstabbing to the love relationship with Robin Crawford, played by Nafessa Williams, that a homophobic society made her feel to repress, from the attacks that she weathered for her music being 'not black enough' to the self-destructive refuge she sought her relationship with the sexy scurrilous lightweight Bobby Brown, played by Ashton Sanders."

The film was written by Anthony McCarten and produced by legendary music executive Clive Davis, along with Anthony McCarten, Pat Houston, Larry Mestel, Denis O'Sullivan, Jeff Kalligheri, Matt Jackson, Molly Smith, Trent Luckinbill, Thad Luckinbill, Matt Salloway, and Christina Papagjika.

"I Wanna Dance with Somebody" is distributed in the Philippines by Columbia Pictures, the local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.

Photo/Video: Columbia Pictures

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