Movie Review # 576: I Wanna Dance With Somebody (2022)

And now, for the final film of 2022, we are going to review the latest biopic that was based on a musical artist from sometime ago. This time, however, it is a musical artist that made history a little later than artists like Queen, and Elton John did. Presenting to you my review of a biopic by the name of I Wanna Dance With Somebody!

Plot: The film centers around musical artist Whitney Houston, and how she made history with her musical career.

Let me just start things off by saying that unlike other recent biopics that were released in more recent years, like Rocketman, or Bohemian Rhapsody, Elvis, or films like those, this film seems to feel more uplifting, and optimistic than those. Yes, the film does admit to Whitney Houston going through similar situations as the artists from those other films that I just mentioned. However, what makes this film stand out from those is that it seems as if Whitney’s life, though depressing at times, as shown throughout the film, seemed to be more hopeful, and uplifting. Okay, let me clarify. I get that each of these biopics has to try to remain as faithful to each person that represents their respective source materials. However, when you have films like Rocketman, or Elvis, or some of those that had a musical artist’s life go from good, or really good, to making choices that cause them to have these really sad, dark, and depressing lives, it gets rather annoying after a while, wouldn’t you say. Yes, you may have some of those CYCLES occur in this film. Still, the difference this time is that Whitney seemed to have shown how one can get back up, even if going through hard, and depressing cycles at times. Not to mention that the more lighter moments outweigh the dark, and abusive moments this time around. The characters are also really good, especially Whitney, her best friend, Robyn Crawford, her manager, Clive Davis, and all the others. One other thing to mention is the music. How could one not love the music, from “I Will Always Love You,” “How Will I Know,” the title song, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” and more. If there was anything to criticize, it’s nothing major, but just minor. That being that it probably would have been nice to see footage of say Whitney singing the song, “When You Believe” from The Prince Of Egypt, with Mariah Carey. But again, that’s more of a personal preference than a critique. I honestly felt that way with Rocketman, like why that film didn’t include some of his songs from say The Lion King, or even The Road To El Dorado, you know? Oh well!

And that’s my review for I Wanna Dance With Somebody. Though it has some rather depressing, and dark moments, it seems to feel more uplifting this time around, and has some heart to it. Did it need to be 2.5 hours? Probably not! Still, it was only fitting to have this film be released around Christmas time of this past year? If you want to see this biopic, and hope for something better than other biopics of this type, then all the more reason to see I Wanna Dance With Somebody. You’ll most likely have a really fun time with it, I’m sure.

Final Grade: A+