classic biopic that didn't work out so well
- in terms of acting, Jennifer is sensational as Aretha and, in fact, no one could do better than her! the songs were impeccable in her voice
- the real problem is the construction of the film that doesn't have the slightest creativity to explore or even develop certain parts of the singer's life and then falls into the same kind of classic biopic we've seen (Judy (2019), Bohemian ( 2018) etc....)
- we have the classic proposal of: CHILDHOOD + RISE + SOME TURBULENT TRAUMA (here represented by alcoholism) + BEGINNING OF THE FALL + REDEMPTION (which here is with ‘’Amazing Grace'')
- in this, several parts of the story are just played to the viewer without the slightest development or explanation, which only proves the interest in making a biopic that brings together only the ''best moments'' of Aretha's life and focus the whole story on central protagonist, leaving the secondary characters with no story or contextualization
- here's my big problem: a story with SUPER potential, but which is weakened by being the same structure of biographical films that already exist, THAT MAKES ME LAZY
- apart from the MULTIPLE time cuts that come and go VERY FAST just to show you the best parts of her life, again! this in itself is not a problem, however, as there are many time cuts, everything is without any context.
- and again, what manages to hold the attention is just Jennifer as Aretha (and all the songs), because the movie is 2:20 am or so, and it always keeps making cuts between the years of life and it stops there!
- good movie, but very damaged