Respect
The rise of Aretha Franklin’s career from a child singing in her father’s church’s choir to her international superstardom.
- Released: 2021-08-12
- Runtime: 145 minutes
- Genre: Drama, History, Music
- Stars: Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Audra McDonald, Mary J. Blige, Marc Maron, Tituss Burgess, Saycon Sengbloh, Hailey Kilgore, Tate Donovan, Skye Dakota Turner, Heather Headley, Leroy McClain, Lodric D. Collins, Brenda Nicole Moorer, Brandon Gilpin, Tangela Large, Albert Jones, Myk Watford, Gilbert Glenn Brown
- Director: Liesl Tommy
Comments
- Leofwine_draca - 18 January 2024
Singing biopic
RESPECT is the big screen biopic of the Aretha Franklin story, charting her beginnings as a singer in her father's gospel church to her rise to international stardom and beyond. Like many modern biopics, it follows a familiar chronological template and mixes success and public stardom with personal conflict and grief. I found Jennifer Hudson quite bland as the adult Franklin, failing to invest her protagonist with much in the way of character or warmth, although the supporting players like Whitaker are better. Perhaps best of all is Marlon Wayans, displaying a hitherto unseen talent for drama. - dklecan - 7 June 2023
lackluster
I adore Aretha franklin and i looked forward to this movie, but for some reason i didn't watch until now. There was something in the trailers that stopped me from watching it until now. I've read other reviews and none of them have written the reason i found this movie so boring. Coincidentally Tina Turner died and I remember her movie quite well and the fantastic performance of Basset. I guess the biggest difference is that Tina's movie had "drama.". Her break with her husband and her flight to the hotel across the street was so dramatic and memorable. Here, I never felt the drama of the Queen of Soul. It almost felt like a documentary with Hudson singing all the hit songs with a sad bit of story in-between. Hudson is a wonderful singer, but i never felt her portray the power that is Aretha. She hit the "drama" in Dreamgirls but not here. In fact, the entire trailer (check it out) of Dreamgirls is her singing the main song, through an abstract video. There is more drama and excitement in that trailer than in this movie.
A lot of great characters actors,, but they too seem to bring in a perfunctory performance. The Only characters that stood out for me are Wexler, and a few of Muscle Shoal's musicians. It seems sad that in just a few scenes, they seem to be more alive, supportive and truly appreciative of aretha and her talent, than all her myriad family.
