Vivamax: Review of BELA LUNA: A Writer's Will

January 27, 2023

Bela Castro (Angeli Khang) wrote scripts for movies. She was romantically involved with film director Arnold Santos (Kiko Estrada). Desperate for funding for his next film, Arnold was pressuring Bela to concede to the wishes of producer he was trying to convince. Mr. Dizon (Francis Mata) wanted a lot of sex scenes included in the film to make more money, but Bela did not feel that her story needed those scenes at all. 

Luna (Angeli Khang in a dual role) was a lonely bespectacled school teacher who was trapped in a loveless marriage to contractor Abe (Julio Diaz). She was forced into the arrangement because of a major debt their family owed the older man. One fateful day, Luna just stepped out of the campus when she was taken hostage by a robber Diego (Mark Anthony Fernandez) who was running away from chasing cops. 

This Vivamax movie is most remarkable because it had a complex story concept that intertwined two stories from different but connected worlds, one based in reality and another one only imaginary. It was no surprise that the writer of the screenplay was no less than Mr. Ricky Lee, National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts. Director Mac Alejandre was able to connect the two stories in a way that was subtle and not immediately predictable. 

Angeli Khang had long been showing promise as an actress in all her past Vivamax starrers. She more than proved her thespic worth in this film, nailing both her characters -- the confident and feisty Bela and the mousy and timid Luna. Her portrayal of Bela was so natural and realistic, especially in that carefree scene with Nicco Manalo as her gay friend Ganny.  It was a very refreshing change from all the victim roles she played before.

The combination of Lee, Alejandre and Khang made a big splash last year with "Silip Sa Apoy," which had generally good reviews (not from me unfortunately). This new film, especially the Bela part with its meta approach seemingly criticizing the very core principle of Vivamax itself, was more interesting for me. Lee's line questioning why every scene had to have sex was so on point, and having Khang herself deliver it was gold. 6/10.  

Review of HELLO UNIVERSE: Choosing Chances

January 26, 2023

Ariel Dasalan (Janno Gibbs) was an inspector in the Destino fertilizer company, while his wife Jennifer (Maui Taylor) worked as a receptionist at the Ohanawave beach resort. They live with his mother Osna (Ube Lola) and daughter Faith (Madelaine Red) in poor living conditions, but their family was happy nevertheless. With his best friend Rocky (Anjo Yllana), Ariel coached a local basketball team, which was not winning their games despite their best efforts.  

Ariel blamed all his misfortune to back when he was a teenager when he missed a crucial basket that could have won the championship game for his team. Up to this day, he believed that his whole life would have been a lot better had he made that basket and won the game. On his birthday, Ariel was very depressed because he thought his family had forgotten the occasion. Suddenly, a mysterious guy named Jessie (Benjie Paras) showed up. 

There had been several movies in the past about wish fulfillment and second chances, like "Big" (1988) and "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946). This new one written and directed by A-list actor Xian Lim is another one in that fantasy genre, with a slapstick comedy approach. Lim's second feature film that he had written and directed looked very different from his debut crime-drama film "Tabon" (2019) which was darker and more serious in theme. 

Lim's plot about Ariel being given a chance to live an alternate reality and deciding which one he wanted was a solid one. He was still in his original mindset in the second reality so it did get a bit tricky when it came to relationships. There, Ariel was already married to Lauren (Sunshine Guimary), however he still loved Jennifer who married to someone else. But Lim did not shy away from Jennifer confronting Ariel about it which was a bold choice.

The very roughshod technical aspects were not really up par to the glossy quality Viva is known for. The opening credits were very crude and garish. The lighting of several scenes was very erratic, especially in the final basketball game. Lim attempts some trick shots in the name of comedy, like the walking scene at the pier, but the editing was not smoothly done. 

Janno Gibb's style of slapstick was very much reminiscent of Dolphy's style, especially with his facial grimacing and line deliveries. Not sure if this style was intentionally copied, but Dolphy's name was mentioned in one scene when Anjo Yllana was copying fighting styles of action stars. Benjie Paras' character was not well-explained. It would have been better if his Jessie had a little back story for us to know what supernatural character he was.

Lim tried all types of comic gimmicks here, hit or miss. Lola Ube's comic timing may be off but she was delightful in that scene with Joe Vargas's Bobby. Mark "Big Mak" Andaya and Darwin "Hap Rice" Tolentino make a good comic tag-team. PBA superstars like Allan Caidic, Jerry Codinera and EJ Feihl made cameo appearances in one game. Lim himself even had an unexpected cameo scene falling in the water which was actually funny. 

If there was any doubt that his viewers did not get the moral lesson of the whole film, Lim appended a short expository epilogue scene before the closing credits. In this scene, Kat "One-Armed Mamba" Tan regaled us with her skills in shooting a basketball and her clean delivery of her inspirational message about being happy with what you have, and not moping about something that cannot be there. 5/10.  

Review of A MAN CALLED OTTO: Calming the Curmudgeon

January 24, 2023

Otto Anderson (Tom Hanks) was an aloof and cantankerous 63-year-old widower who lived in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Since he lost his wife and was retired from his job at the steel company, he had become very irritable to all his neighbors. He constantly mourned his dear wife Sonya (Rachel Keller), bittersweet memories of whom he relived in his mind during the times that he would attempt to end his life but never succeeding. 

An over-friendly Mexican family moved in next door, who did not hesitate to knock on Otto's door. The husband Tommy (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) kept on borrowing tools and other stuff from Otto. The wife Marisol (Mariana Treviño) was pregnant with their third child and frequently requested Otto to help babysit her daughters or teach her how to drive a car. Despite Otto's notorious grumpiness, he would reluctantly agree to help out. 

After poor reviews of his recent performances as Gepetto in the live-action version of Disney's "Pinocchio" and as Col. Tom Parker in "Elvis," Tom Hanks ends 2022 with a winner. His portrayal of the ornery Otto was right up his alley of drama and comedy. The role felt familiar, something Hanks had done before. Perhaps it was because Otto's reminiscences of Sonya called back scenes of another Hank's classic "Forrest Gump" and his beloved Jenny. 

The role of young Otto in the flashback scenes was played by Tom Hanks' 27 year-old son, Truman Hanks. The younger Hanks had been working behind the camera before, but this is his first time on camera, his feature film acting debut. He gave a sensitive, heartfelt performance as young Otto, with believable romantic chemistry with his screen partner Rachel Keller. His young Otto made us understand why old Otto turned out the way he did.

This is an American remake of a 2015 Swedish film nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in the Oscars 2016, Hannes Holm's "A Man Called Ove," adapted from a 2012 Swedish novel of the same title by Fredrik Backman. The original Iranian neighbor Parvane was turned into a Mexican, Marisol. A winsome Mariana Trevino almost single-handedly lifted the spirits this film with her delightful and heartwarming portrayal of this wonderful character. 7/10. 

Review of GIRLFRIEND NA PWEDE NA: Comical and Crucial Choices

January 24, 2023

Jason Inigo "Jiggs" Gatchalian (Gab Lagman) just won the Best Director award at the Cinemasigla indie film festival held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Pam delos Reyes (Kim Molina) had been Jiggs' loyal girlfriend since the start of his career. However, on this night of his victory, Jiggs decided to break up with her because he felt that they were not on the same level anymore as they hardly spoke the same language already.

Furious and hurt, Pam cried her heart out to her best friends Gene (Prince Stefan), Belle (Andrea Babierra) and younger sister Tin (Heart Ryan). They decided that the best strategy to get Jiggs jealous was to hire a guy to pretend to be a rich film producer head over heels in love with Pam. After going through a number of candidates, they finally decided to go with street-side coconut vendor Francisco "Isko" Mangahas (Jerald Napoles). 

The conflict of this love story was hardly new. We seen various romcoms before tackle the story of a dumped party desperately trying everything to get their lost love back, only to learn to love themselves more in the process. However, this particular plot asked us to suspend quite a bit of disbelief. Pam choosing someone like Isko in order to get Jiggs jealous totally defied logic. Director Benedict Mique knew it and wisely just glossed over the issue.

Promising leading man Gab Lagman cross over from online jungle of Vivamax into the mainstream big screen. However, despite his movie star good looks, he tended to still be very conscious and tentative in his acting, resulting in a wooden portrayal of Jiggs. Beside the natural comic flair of Kim Molina and Jerald Napoles, poor Lagman did not stand a chance at all to shine. He should definitely be given another film to prove his worth as an actor.

The best reason to watch this film was the easygoing and naughty chemistry between Molina and Napoles, forged from their "Rak of Aegis" days on the PETA stage, to the previous romcoms they've done together, as well as their real-life romance. It was good to see Pam run a successful online business, call her own shots and accept consequences. However, there was really no suspense nor surprise with who Pam will end up with here. 5/10. 

Vivamax: Review of TAG-INIT: Shameless Summer Shenanigans

January 21, 2023

Bosom buddies Paolo (Aerol Carmelo) and Chino (Ali Asistio) rented a beach house in Sto. Tomas town. Paolo's girlfriend Nadine (Yen Durano) was supposed to bring other girls along with her, but her two girl friends both backed out. Feeling sorry that his friend would have no partner, Paolo was willing to "share" Nadine with Chino. The game and liberated Nadine was more than willing to oblige the boys' threesome fantasy.

Reluctantly tagging along with the group was Martin (Clifford Pusing), Chino's 17-year old younger brother. Since he cannot stand his brother and his lusty shenanigans, he would mostly go out on the beach by himself. He caught sight of the mysterious woman who lived next door, Adele (Franki Russell) as she rose out of the sea. From then on, the awe-struck teen became obsessed about his lovely but lonely neighbor. 

Like his first Vivamax sex drama "Secrets" (2022), director Joey Javier also set his second Vivamax sex drama at a seaside beach house. There were several similarities in the treatment of the two films, with beautiful shots of the sea as the picturesque backdrop for the stories he was telling. This seemed to be two separate shorter movies, barely connected only because Chino and Martin happened to be brothers. 

With his disheveled curls and naughty grin, Ali Asistio is getting typecast as a lusty bad boy, pretty much like he was in his first two films "Kara Krus" and "Alapaap" last year. Newcomers Aerol Carmelo and Yen Durano fared better. They were quite natural as actors, giving lively and energetic performances. Durano had no qualms about baring her body playing an uninhibited free soul with no hang-ups, but her Nadine still had empathy and sensibility. 

Franki Russell is no doubt beautiful of face, but her performance had no passion at all. Even her intimate scenes with her young sugar daddy Robbie (Marc Acueza) came across so lifeless. This is already Russell's third Vivamax film after "Pabuya" and "Laruan," and Adele is perhaps her most challenging role. However, it was too bad that even Reyes was not able to motivate a more fully-realized portrayal from her. 

The story of teenage boy who came of age one summer when he fell in love with a beautiful older woman was reminiscent of "Summer of '42" (1971). However, Reyes' version here was dark and joyless. In his Vivamax debut, Clifford Pusing was trapped in a character with limited emotional range and unintentionally funny facial contortions. His very casual delivery of voice-over narration did not sound very good, wasting the dramatic impact of his final words. 3/10. 

Review of THE FABELMANS: Spielberg's Skill with Sentimentality

January 18, 2023

Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle) is the only son of Jewish couple computer engineer Burt (Paul Dano) and pianist Mitzi (Michelle Williams). His first movie as a child was Cecil B. DeMille's "The Greatest Show on Earth." Fascinated, Sammy tried to recreate a crash scene from the film with his toy train set and his father's video camera. From then on, Sammy would go on to create various film projects all the way through his teens.

When Burt got a new job, the Fabelmans moved from New Jersey to Arizona together with Burt's best friend and business partner Bennie Loewy (Seth Rogen), whom the kids considered their uncle. Burt's belief that movie-making was nothing more than a hobby annoyed Sammy. Later, Sammy's discovery of sensitive secrets in their household soon caused Sammy to lose interest and drive in film-making. Will he get the passion back?

Director Steven Spielberg long had a talent for making engaging and heartwarming coming-of-age films, most of which have become family favorites. These include "E.T." (1982), "Empire of the Sun" (1987), "Super 9" (2011), "The Adventures of Tintin" (2011), "War Horse" (2011), and "Ready Player One" (2018). "The Fabelmans" was right along that alley, with a script Spielberg wrote himself (with Tony Kushner) based on his own journey as a film-maker. 

Even if this role of Sammy is technically not his first film role, it is certainly 20-year old Gabriel LaBelle's big breakthrough. He just won the Critics Choice Award for Best Young Performer for his sensitive portrayal of a teenager whose artistic passion revealed unseen tension in his family. His veteran supporting actors Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogan, Judd Hirsch (as Uncle Boris) all turn in nuanced performances that all deserve awards attention. 

The best scenes were those of young Sammy creating and screening his masterpieces -- the train robbery, the camping trip, the "Ditch Day" film. We see his passionate directorial process, painstaking camera and film editing work, motivating the acting of his sisters and friends, innovating his own special effects. While the family turmoil and anti-Semitism scenes added uncomfortable melodrama, Spielberg's skill in handling sentimentality remains assured. 7/10. 

Review of PLANE: Crashed and Captured

January 14, 2023

On New Year's Day, commercial flight Trailblazer 119 was flying its 14 passengers on a routine flight from Singapore to Tokyo. The main pilot was Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) from Scotland, while his young co-pilot was Samuel Dele (Yoson An) from Hong Kong. The plane ran into unexpected lightning storm which caused critical engine damage. Torrance made the crucial call to execute an emergency landing, which was a success. 

Along with ex-military, now murder convict Gaspare (Mike Colter), Torrance decided to hike out to find a radio for help. He had figured that he had landed the plane in the Jolo group of islands, overrun by armed rebel troops that controlled the area. Not long, these rebels, led by their leader Datu Junmar (Evan Dane Taylor), held all the passengers hostage. Meanwhile, Torrance and Gaspare had to figure out a way to get out of their dangerous predicament. 

Audiences are not expecting an award-winning film here, just an entertaining popcorn flick starring their reliable action star Gerard Butler. After "300" (2007) and the "Fallen" trilogy ("Olympus," "London" and "Angel"), the rest of Butler's later filmography had been peppered by grade B-action flicks from "Machine Gun Preacher" (2011) to "Last Seen Alive" (2022), all of which had the burly Butler as the tough-as-nails hero saving the day. 

A major point of interest of this film for Filipino viewers was the familiar name of the island where the plane crash-landed -- Jolo (albeit pronounced with a Western twang). The Filipino bad guys were all shouting phrases in Tagalog (not Tausug). Even if he was a negative character, I felt it was a missed opportunity to cast a real Filipino actor as Datu Junmar. Evan Dane Taylor may be Fil-Am, but his crooked Tagalog was terribly unintelligible.

Aside from showing a turbulent peace and order situation in the southern Philippines to the international audience, the film practically accused the Philippine government of not only poor emergency responsiveness, but outright cowardice for allegedly refusing to engage with the rebels at all because they kept losing. To further prove the mistrust, the airline actually had to hire American mercenaries to conduct the rescue operation! 4/10. 

Vivamax: Review of NIGHTBIRD: Revisiting Rape Revenge

January 13, 2023

Rachel (Christine Bermas) lived and grew up in Baguio City. She was an anthropologist, very proud of her cultural heritage. She has a black belt in martial arts and used it to protect the rights of indigenous people. She was about to fly to Melbourne to take up her masteral studies for two years. She also wanted to get together with her mother (Yayo Aguila) who had emigrated there years ago, after her father (Lander Vera Perez) met a violent death. 

One night, Rachel joined her girlfriends Sidney (Chloe Jenna) and Hannah (Alexa Ocampo) to meet up with three men from Manila -- Julius (Felix Roco), Dennis (Arron Villaflor), and Vince (Sid Lucero). After dancing in the club, they all went over to the house of an artist pal of theirs Elijah (Mark Anthony Fernandez). When they got there, aside from more booze, drugs also got served. What happened next was not what anybody in that house had planned.  

The build up of Rachel's character was very good. She's an authority in her field, and passionate with her advocacy. She had even tattoos of indigenous design adorning her upper torso. A big deal was made about the return of a stolen headhunters axe back to the Philippines, and Rachel was there to receive it. Vivamax viewers will already suspect at this point that this axe was going to figure prominently in the violence later on.

The entire Act 2 was just so difficult to watch, even for die-hard Vivamax fans. All that beast-like brutality did not really deserve this much screen time. These scenes just went on too long, too painful, too triggering, too maddening. Viewers do not need that much detail of beastial behavior to hate those damned rapists. Villaflor's Dennis and Fernandez's Elijah were just the worst of the lot there, pure evil was just burning in their eyes. 

From "Siklo" to "Relyebo," Christine Bermas had already proved that she was the best actress among the Vivamax bevy of sirens.  Bermas was so convincing as smart and independent Rachel in Act 1, such that it was hard to believe why she allowed herself to get trapped in that dangerous situation at all. There were red flags aplenty since the club. When Hannah was already vomiting like crazy, and Rachel still accepts more booze right after -- really? 

The final scene of axe-wielding Rachel in black walking to her car and the uncertain fate of all but one of the bad guys seems to promise a Part 2. We are game for this sequel to see more of Bermas's fighting skills, however director Law Fajardo should innovate things in order to distinguish his film from being yet another "Angela Markado." We already see one more kill in a mid-credit scene. The sequel should not just be more variations of the same scene. 3/10. 

 

Review of THAT BOY IN THE DARK: Physical and Psychological Plight

January 10, 2023

Young man Knight Daguiles (Joaquin Domagoso) slowly became blind while he was recovering from a bad vehicular accident that required brain surgery. At around the same time, his mother decided to abandon her family and never came back. Knight never forgave his father Anton (Ramon Cristopher) for not exerting enough effort to locate his mother, something that made them drift further apart emotionally.

When Anton had to leave for New York, he left Knight to live with his strict grandfather Carlos (Nanding Josef) and his loyal housekeeper Mamang Ched (Lotlot de Leon). The young man began hearing ghostly crying and screaming at night, which no one believed. One day, he went out of the house against his grandfather's wishes, he was able to speak with his childhood friend Ellie (Aneeza Gutierrez) which made him happy for a change. 

At a mere 1 hour and 4 minutes running time, "That Boy in the Dark" may not seem something worth the ticket price. However, this unassuming indie film was preceded by news of its numerous citations and awards received in film festivals all over the world. Director Adolfo Alix won Best Director at the International Manhattan Film Awards. More impressively, lead star Joaquin Domagoso won Best Actor awards in Toronto, Sweden and Venezuela. 

This was a major acting showcase for up-and-coming actor Joaquin Domagoso, portraying both physical disability (blindness) and psychological baggage (parental abandonment). Despite all the awards he won, Domagoso still has long road ahead to further hone his craft. Kiko Ipapo and Aneeza Gutierrez seem promising, but saddled with poorly-written characters. The veteran actors had cliched stock roles to do, so it felt like they were just dialing it in. 

Director Alix called his twisty film "modest" and that it was. The visual effects of the ghost scenes were quite rudimentary. It had to rely more on the lighting, editing, music and sound effects to create the creepy atmosphere, which were also hit and miss. Continuity of scenes tended to be careless, like when Anton tightly hugged Knight right where his son had major knife wounds, or when Anton's voice in one phone call was obviously not Ramon Cristopher's.

Knight's transition from nightmare to reality was so sudden, as a new character Danos (Kiko Ipapo) was suddenly introduced from out of the blue in the final act.  The alleged sins of Knight's family against Danos's mother was a major plot point, but was so quickly dismissed. The back story about Knight's mother could have been told in better detail as her sudden departure was an important contributor to Knight's disturbed state of mind. 4/10. 

Netflix: Mini-Reviews of THE PALE BLUE EYE, WHITE NOISE and MATILDA (2022)

January 9, 2023

THE PALE BLUE EYE

Director: Scott Cooper

Adapted from the 2003 novel by Louis Bayard

Retired detective Augustus Landor (Christian Bale) was asked by officers of the United States Military Academy at West Point to investigate the death of cadet Leroy Fry. Fry had been found hanged on a tree branch, but his body was further desecrated by the removal of his heart out of his chest cavity while he was already in the morgue. Landor requested another cadet, poet Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling), to help with his investigations. 

With Christian Bale leading the cast of this 19th century whodunit, this was an absorbing watch, albeit with several red herrings. Providing support were reliable British character actors like Simon McBurney, Timothy Spall, Toby Jones, and the always brilliant Gillian Anderson as the eccentric Mrs. Julia Marquis. A main point of interest was the inclusion of real life writer Edgar Allan Poe into this fictional tale, and his poetic lines were sublimely delivered by Harry Melling (who started his career as Dudley Dursley in the "Harry Potter" films). 7/10. 

WHITE NOISE

Director: Noah Baumbach

Adapted from the 1985 novel by Don DeLillo

College professor in "Hitler Studies" Jack Gladney (Adam Driver) is married to Babette (Greta Gerwig), his fourth wife, and are raising a blended family with four kids. One day, Babette's daughter Denise saw Babette throw a container of an unknown pill called Dylar and was worried for her. One day, a major train accident with a delivery truck nearby caused chemical waste to be released into the air, resulting in mass panic and evacuations.

This was not a very cohesive movie, with the three acts in three different genres. I liked the satiric first part the best, with Adam Driver's Jack Gladney interacting with his pretentious co-faculty, particularly Don Cheadle's Prof. Murray Suskind, who wanted to create his own course about Elvis. The entire Act 2 felt like slapstick treatment of an environmental disaster. The third act was heavy but weird drama that felt out of sync with everything else. 6/10. 

MATILDA THE MUSICAL (2022)

Director: Matthew Warchus

Adapted from the 2011 theater musical by Matthew Warchus, Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin, which was adapted from the 1988 novel by Roald Dahl

Genius smart bookworm Matilda (Alisha Weir) was an unwanted child of Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood (Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough). One day, the family received a visit from kind teacher Miss Jennifer Honey (Lashanna Lynch) inviting Matilda to come study at Crunchem Hall where she taught. Unfortunately, the headmistress Mrs. Trunchbull believed that kids are all maggots deserving to be thrown into the "chokey".

I have seen this musical performed live on stage locally by Atlantis, but I do not remember it being as dark as this film version. The songs even sounded different, maybe because of the much darker treatment by Warchus than he did for his original stage version.The highlight was definitely Emma Thompson and her amazing transformation into former hammer-throw champion-turned-school administrator Ms. Agatha Trunchbull, one scary, brutish ogre of a woman. 8/10. 

Review of I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY: Witnessing Whitney

January 9, 2023

Whitney Houston was one of the biggest singing pop stars from the 1980s. Her first two albums "Whitney Houston" (1985) and "Whitney" (1987) both reached Number One on the Billboard album chart. Since her second single from her debut album, "Saving All My Love for You" went to Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1985, her next six consecutive singles all followed suit, all the way to the fourth single from her second album, "Where Do Broken Hearts Go," peaking at the top in April 1988. 

As with many superstar artists, Whitney's private life was also fair game for the tabloids. Contrary to her wholesome media image, Whitney decided to marry former New Edition member Bobby Brown, who was then also always in the news for cases of battery, drunk driving and drug possession. Their marriage gave them a daughter, Bobbi Kristina, who was born in 1993. However, by 1999, Whitney's good girl reputation took a turn for the worse as she became unprofessional career-wise because of her addiction to illegal drugs.  

This by-the-numbers biopic checked all the boxes about what we already know about Whitney's life. We first meet Whitney (Naomi Ackie) training in singing gospel songs under the strict mentorship of her own mother Cissy (Tamara Tunie). Her singing prowess eventually caught the attention of music producer Clive Davis (Stanley Tucci), who then immediately signed her to Arista Records. She met Bobby Brown (Ashton Sanders) at an awards show and they began dating against public opposition. 

However, there were some details which I did not know about and was surprised to learn from this movie. Whitney apparently had a female best friend Robyn Crawford (Nafessa Williams) even before she became famous, and the two actually had a romantic relationship. Whitney also had a close relationship with her father John Houston (Clarke Peters), who insisted on controlling Whitney's career and finances. He mishandled Whitney's fortune at one point and wanted her to do a world tour to get their company out of the rut.

Naomi Ackie's facial differences from Whitney Houston can sometimes be distracting, but in some scenes, there can be similarities between them which can be so uncanny. Ackie seemed to have been able to capture a lot of Whitney's manner of speaking and mannerisms, as we've seen in videos of her live shows.  The singing voice we hear though is almost all Whitney's herself (95%), so Ackie's lipsynching and impersonating skills were amazingly on point, as they all looked like very realistic singing performances by Whitney herself. 

What I liked about this biopic was how it was practically a jukebox musical about her life, so we can hear almost every hit song she had in her stellar career. There were recreations of her music videos for "How Will I Know", "I Will Always Love You," It's Not Right, But It's Okay," and her historic rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the 1992 World Cup. Call me idealistic, but I felt I really did not need to know all those negative details about her life. Her musical legacy alone should be enough to remember her by. 6/10.