Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody

"A smoothly watchable and well performed piece of work. It is almost a 144-minute narrative montage, and very avoidant on key issues..."

"A jukebox retelling of Whitney Houston’s parabola from sweatshirts to sequins."

"Every component of what makes a movie—aside from the impeccable costuming—undermines the performances here."

"(Ackie) does well, catching the contradictions in Houston’s character... But physically, Ackie bears only a superficial resemblance to the singer."

"A consistently entertaining biopic that rarely digs beneath the surface despite the 2 hour and 26 minute running time."

"McCarten’s algorithmic script skips down the various sections of Houston’s Wikipedia page with all the flow of a scratched greatest hits CD."

"You’ll probably enjoy it. And even if you don’t like everything, you’ll probably enjoy arguing with it."

"The movie works determinedly, almost single-mindedly to bring the focus back to (Houston's) talent."

"(An) execrable misfire."

"Dance With Somebody is a sanitised, trope-laden retelling of Houston’s life that lacks purpose and a point-of-view."

"This is an honourable attempt to give Houston’s story a respectable cinematic telling."

"Surface-level execution means (Houston's) story is not quite done justice. But Naomi Ackie's performance shines above everything else."