Bohemian Rhapsody, Ray, What’s Love Got to Do With It, or Walk The Line, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody is not. Kasi Lemmons’s (Harriet, Talk to Me) is not even on the same level as this year’s disappointing Elvis. Naomi Ackie (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Lady Macbeth) did not encompass the legendary Whitney Houston nearly as well as Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody), Jamie Foxx (Ray), Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line), Angela Bassett (Angela Bassett) or Angela Bassett (Elvis). Under the right direction and with the right lead, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody should have at least been a lock for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. But, alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
Continue reading Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022)
Ray, it is not. Walk the Line, it is not. 
As I write this post today, it has been just hours since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences named its nominees for The 93rd Academy Awards, recognizing the best of what may have been its most unique year. 2020 was a pretty dreadful year all around. It was my most challenging, trying, and somber year. I’ve mentioned quite a few times in other reviews that most of the big blockbusters that were initially scheduled to be released were delayed to 2021 in hopes that the end of the COVID-19 pandemic would signal a return of moviegoers to the theaters. The jury is still out on each of these. Indeed, some theaters that closed their doors back in March of 2020 will never open their doors again. Others will see far less patronage because many movies have Video on Demand releases on the same day or shortly after their theatrical release.
Dexter Fletcher’s (Sunshine on Leith, Eddie the Eagle) Rocketman will be compared to 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody. So, I will get that comparison out of the way early. And it’s pretty easy. There is no real comparison.