Rent Respect (2021)
3.3 of 5 from 192 ratings
2h 25min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Following the rise of Aretha Franklin's (Jennifer Hudson)'s career from a young child singing in her father's church's choir to her international superstardom, 'Respect' is the remarkable true story of the music icon's journey to find her voice and become the Queen of Soul.
- Actors:
- Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Tituss Burgess, Audra McDonald, Marc Maron, Heather Headley, Kimberly Scott, Hailey Kilgore, Saycon Sengbloh, Leroy McClain, Albert Jones, Tate Donovan, Myk Watford, Skye Dakota Turner, Gilbert Glenn Brown, Mary J. Blige, Nevaeh Moore, Kennedy Chanel, Peyton Jackson
- Directors:
- Liesl Tommy
- Producers:
- Scott Bernstein, Jonathan Glickman, Harvey Mason Jr., Stacey Sher
- Writers:
- Tracey Scott Wilson, Callie Khouri
- Aka:
- Untitled Aretha Franklin Biopic
- Studio:
- Universal Pictures
- Genres:
- Drama, Music & Musicals
- Collections:
- A Brief History of Singer Biopics
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- Not released
- Run Time:
- 146 minutes
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Reviews (2) of Respect
Glad I didn’t pay to watch it at the cinema - Respect review by Brummie
This should have been a good film, instead it is marred by being too long! The actress - are we still allowed to call women that? - who played Aretha was brilliant, but her performance was spoilt with a long and quite frankly boring exploration of her life that could and in my humble opinion, should have been wrapped up in a film of at a more enjoyable length. Skip this one if I was you!
2 out of 2 members found this review helpful.
Average & Typical Music Biopic - Respect review by GI
This biopic about the soul legend Aretha Franklin suffers from the multitude of clichés that dog the genre. Here these are played out in a reverential but seriously too long film that tries all too hard to be kind and amplify the singing, not a bad thing, but skimps over the traumas and demons that Franklin's life was loaded with. What was needed here was a concentration on the issue of relationships because they are the central issue that the script leans towards but the film flies through them without grounding them in any meaningful way. Firstly there's Franklin's (Jennifer Hudson) father (Forest Whitaker), a bible thumping preacher who flits between smothering affection and exploitation of his daughter's talent and indeed when she is clearly raped and made pregnant aged 12 by a family friend the trauma and crisis this must have caused is barely mentioned and we get no reaction from the father to consider. There's a slightly deeper narrative focus on Franklin's marriage and abuse by her first husband played brilliantly by Marlon Wayans in a cleverly smarmy and aggressive performance. But like music biopics must do there's the performances and Hudson does a first rate job as Franklin and the film keeps these as central even including her drunken attempt at a concert during the inevitable struggle with drink phase. Another cliché! Apparently this film was first conceived as a theatrical musical and you can see why and perhaps it would have fared better because as a film it does it's job but it's typical and underwhelming as a film. If you're a fan of this singer then there's something of interest to be found but ultimately it follows the standard narrative arc of such films.
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.