https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxwc_gohRvg
Okay, Luciano, here’s my capsule review from IG:
Confession time: J.Hud, for all her obvious talents, usually leaves me cold. Flash forward to today, when we saw RESPECT [Tommy, 2021]. I do not play when it comes to Ree. I walked into the theater with my arms figuratively folded, expecting to be disappointed. Jennifer. Shut. It. DOWN. The whole cast rocked. Of course, I have a few accuracy quibbles, being the Arethastan that I am, but they’re negligible. Lady Soul is smiling down on all of us. Hudson might just walk off with another Oscar. RUN.
I saw the film Respect yesterday and concur with Sansradio; the film is superb on all counts. On first viewing of last year's trailer I was seriously unmoved by Jennifer Hudson's performance. That turned out to be short-sightedness on my point. I loved everything about the film: acting, costumes, music ... Though all the acting is fantastic I was particularly moved by the performances of Hudson, Audra McDonald as Barbara Siggers, Skye Dakota Turner as young Aretha and Albert Jones as Ken Cunningham. C.L. Franklin is made out to be quite a demon. I had 'issues' with some of the factual liberties [[the Dinah Washington incident was particularly distasteful - as a casual DW fan I like to think she at least had the class, or emotional stability, to refrain from public table-throwing in a fit of pathological insecurity). My issue with filmmakers taking these liberties is that fictionalized scenes become undying 'alternative facts' with certain fans [[as we have seen in this forum over the years). Anyhoo - if you have even the slightest interest, do go see Respect in a theater while you can. It's a keeper!
I haven't seen the film as of yet. I probably won't see it until it hits dvd.
That said, Aretha never mentioned any issues with Dinah. In her book, she did mention that Dinah commented on the untidiness of her dressing room.
However, in her own book, Etta James wrote that Dinah did indeed cause a big ruckus at a show in Rhode Island. Etta came onstage and opened with Dinah's UNFORGETTABLE. Dinah shoved dishes off the table and screamed at Etta: "Bitch, don't you ever sing the Queen's songs!" It scared Etta so much that she ran off stage crying. Later Dinah came backstage and apologized but said "You had to learn a lesson. Never sing another artist's songs if they are in the house." The next day, Dinah invited Etta to hang with her and attend her show.
Aretha had more than enough drama in her life. Why the writer [s] needed to steal an incident from Etta's is baffling.
It is baffling, Reese, and a rare [[and major!) misstep in the film. The recording session of Ain't No Way has one of the sisters improvising the legendary Cissy Houston melisma and that has lots of viewers in a snit; I don't 'like' it but acknowledge that it would have dug too deep a rabbit hole to explain why Cissy was at the session in the first place, etc. So that sort of liberty is ... ok[[ish) with me. But entire repurposing of scenes from another person's life isn't! I'll be interested to see if the DVD has some extras [[other than the usual, piously whispered 'Making this film was sooo special; unlike any cast or director I've every worked with before' behind-the-scenes stuff that seems to occur with almost every movie made!)
I gather they were trying to emulate the AIN'T NO WAY session shown in the ARETHA FRANKLIN: SOUL SINGER documentary that showed Carolyn teaching Aretha the song.
Cissy and the Sweet Inspirations weren't mentioned in the recent GENIUS: ARETHA mini-series either, except when they recreated a scene from the recent dvd of Aretha's Amsterdam concert where the Inspirations were mistakenly billed on a poster but weren't actually on the tour.
Most session scenes in GENIUS:ARETHA showed Aretha's sisters handling the background vocals. Maybe they couldn't get Cissy's permission to use her likeness.
You are correct about the recreation of the recording session, but the film's director, Liesl Tommy, has gone on record stating that the inclusion of Cissy would have just been one more character to introduce. I understand her decision, and think that the 'revision' to showing the Franklin sisters on the session has brought more discussion around to Cissy that if she had been mentioned in the film!
Aretha is having a good year. Rolling Stone just put out an update to their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and Respect by Aretha is number one
https://www.usatoday.com/story/enter...-1/8361150002/