Movie Review: Beauty Is The Whitney Movie We Crave
Even in trailers, Beauty appeared like a Whitney Houston biopic: cinematic mirror to the years before she became an icon. Quiet, mythic, and overall pensive, Beauty feels like a simple vision that charms in its emotional weight. Using gospel music from the 80s and a series of close-ups, writer/director Lena Waithe capture the fear and wonder of knowing you are destined for “greatness” in only a matter of time.
I never forget an interview with Jennifer Lawrence, where she said she always knew she was destined to be famous. It was so curious to see someone know that, eventually, we would all watch her. Gracie Marie Bradley stars as Beauty, and echoes Whitney’s sweetness and meekness. She is determined to be a star, and knows she will become it, which is why the film approaches her rise to “rising” like, a good-bye letter to life and the world she wanted to know. Waithe’s choice of making fame feeling like an impending death was fascinating because it made public recognition a monster clawing at Beauty’s door and, eventually, finding the window.
Fame is both beloved and burdensome. The unadulterated praise and knowing that others feel changed by you is great, but the over-criticism and the incessant theories that you are someone bad, undeserving, or should be judged sucks. Throughout Whitney’s trajectory, she got both and we know that. Yet, this is the story of her before the drugs, the watchful eyes, her public image, and when she was in love with a woman.
Long has it been said that Whitney had a lesbian relationship that lasted decades, and Beauty is an unsaid look into that bond: the one of true love ripped away for real success. Aleyse Shannon plays Jasmine, Beauty’s girlfriend, of which her father (Giancarlo Esposito) and mother (Niecy Nash) “know” about but are too disgusted to confirm. Esposito and Nash shine as a pair of parents that see their child as a ticket to their unfulfilled dreams, Sure, it is Beauty that will get the fame and fortune, but they will make sure to taste it. This dynamic of feeling unguided and used by the very ones meant to protect you is what makes Beauty and Jasmine’s love story feel like a doomed refuge.
By all means, Beauty is a rich, but subtle love story. For all its fanciful editing and music cuts, it is a rather quiet look at someone about to live the life they were always told they were supposed to live. In essence, Beauty does not know her dreams, but she does know her talent. Instead, she makes the dreams of her parents’ come true, and we are left wondering what her talent, so lustrous, even sounds like. The most curious but exciting choice of Beauty is that we never hear her sing; she grabs the mic, but background music her appears. Her talent remaining a legend and mystery, while surrounding intention of the people she calls family become clear. Beauty comes out June 29 on Netflix.
